... Prynne's neighborhood greatly influenced her identity. Although she had already grown up, her personality changed greatly after the labeling of her sin, adultery. Hester's town was very strict with the punishment of sins and the citizens frowned upon many things. Public displays of a person's crime were common. Some may ... but also they acquired stitched goods from Hester that had been sewn by the Devil Woman's own hands. From a person that could hardly walk around town without being judged to a woman making an honest living, Hester made a big transition. However, her physical appearan...

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• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

... her iniquity should not at least, stand on the scaffold by her side." After this conversation, the magistrates, along with the reverends of the town, call Hester to look at them. They proclaim her sin and pressure her to reveal the identity of her illegal child's father. Hester ... on revenge on Hester's lover, settles in Boston, while Hester, supporting her family by working as a seamstress, moves to a small cottage on the outskirts of town. Hester's daughter Pearl grows up into a capricious, precocious, and very observant child. Pearl delights in the scarlet letter and enjoys emphasizi...

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• Grade Level: High School

... comments that, "the child's whole appearance...was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life!" When the children in the town try to throw mud at her, Pearl chases them away and appears to resemble "the scarlet fever" in her wrath. Hester arrives at the ... his chest which all the world can see. While in this state of mind, Dimmesdale screams out loud, and is immediately terrified that the whole town has heard him. Instead, only Governor Bellingham briefly appears on his balcony before retiring to bed. The Reverend Mr. Wilson approaches the scaffold holding ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... hands when she became involved with a preacher, is the victim of society's harsh feelings and treatments and is perhaps the only decent Puritan in the town because she gives everyone a chance and looks down on no one. Despite his long absorption in Puritan writings, it is pretty clear that Hawthorne had ... Letter and created in Hester a somewhat Transcendental heroine (Waggoner 14). So, by portraying Hester Prynne as the victim in the novel, and not a town enemy, Hawthorne conveys his views on how Puritans should follow their teachings and act toward one another. He shows that they are v...

• Word Count: 3188
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Early adulthood is a time when we begin to form an identity that is unique. We become more independent, separate from our families of origin, and begin to define our own individuality. The story suggests Hester was a strong-willed, impetuous girl. Nathaniel Hawthorne does not tell us many details of ... from society and the townspeople who were once her friends, Hester is constrained to living a life alone with her daughter Pearl on the outskirts of town. Once an impetuous, passionate young woman, Hester begins to metamorphose into a responsible, contemplative mother. Hester becomes acti...

• Word Count: 1295
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• Grade Level: High School

... which ironically becomes an oasis of freedom for Hester and Dimmesdale, though everyone else views it as the devil's territory. The scaffold in the town center symbolizes the harsh judgments in Puritan society. Puritan culture exhibits an unforgiving policy for those who do not do what Puritanism says is right ... indeed, and cold, was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for, from such bystanders at the scaffold. On the other hand, a penalty which, in our days, would infer a degree of mocking infamy and ridicule, might then be invested with almost as stern a dignity as the punis...

• Word Count: 1003
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , a dark tale of sin and redemption, centers on the small Puritan community of Boston during the seventeenth century. A young woman (Hester Prynne) comes to this town to find a place to live for her and her husband, but falls victim to the desires of the human nature. Hester falls in love with Reverend Dimmesdale, and ... conceives Pearl. The town people unjustly judge her for her "crime"; "he with out sin cast the first stone". She is forced to were a scarlet "A" on her breast for ... Dimmesdale also love her. Hester tells Pearl that, "in days to come he will walk hand in hand with us....

• Word Count: 759
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• Grade Level: High School

... in Prynne's sinful act, and requests everyone to open their mind's horizons in an effort to relate to him and Prynne. Being the highly regarded and admired man of the town, people begin to accept his words and Prynne's act. Ironically, near the end of the novel, those women who had denigrated Prynne turn to her for advice for similar feelings ... the novel, Hawthorne points out the rigidity of the Puritan society, and the enormous influence which the ministers and the church played on the thoughts, beliefs, and standards of the town. This idea may directly be applied to the modern world...

• Word Count: 748
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... It seemed his entire life became consumed with the idea of getting revenge on Dimmesdale. The first affect that was brought upon him was how the town viewed him. "As his studies, at a previous period of his life, had made him extensively acquainted with the medical science of the day, it ... and as such was cordially received."" (122). It goes on to say how he was celebrated by the town and looked highly upon. However, his obsession for revenge has changed the way the town perceived him. A large number, and many of these were persons of such sober sense and practical observation, that ....

• Word Count: 1529
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• Grade Level: High School

... publicly displayed across her chest is a punishment for her sin of fornication and her secrecy. On this day, Hester was being led to town and lectured by the town's priests, but she still refuses to reveal the identity. The elderly onlooker is then identified as Roger Chillingworth, who actually is Hester's missing ... relief from the hate of the community. One day both Hester and Pearl were returning from a visit to a deathbed and observe Father Dimmesdale atop the town's scaffold punishing himself for his sins. The two join him and they link hands as a family. Pearl asks of her father...

• Word Count: 1497
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• Grade Level: High School

... , when we think of the word "door", we think of the actual meaning. We see the door from our house growing up, or the door that we slammed during our teenage years, but as we look at the word door with the steps used to identify a symbol, we find that word ... about that symbol (Fromm 125). Hawthorne constantly has commentary about Pearl and her elf-like tendencies and how she never seemed to fit in with the town of Salem or even with Hester: "The child's own nature had something wrong in it, which continually betokened that she had been born amiss& ... in the novel is to be a symbol of w...

• Word Count: 1244
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... a person from their community and from God. He shows us this by symbols in nature around the town, natural symbols in the heavens, and nature in the forest. First we see two symbols in the town that show how sin isolates people. In the first chapter we see a plant which stands out, ... of the wrongdoer has now been separated from other graves as the sins are manifested by natural powers. The next area is symbols in the skies. Our first instance occurs during the second famous scaffold scene. Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl are atop the scaffold when, "a light gleamed far and wide over ......

• Word Count: 1118
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• Grade Level: High School

... Prynne has sinned against God by committing adultery. She has admitted to it and is not afraid of the consequences. One may think that she should leave the town so she does not have to carry the shame with her, but she cannot because her heart still holds a special place for the father of her child, ... broke! - the sin here so awfully revealed! - let these alone be in thy thoughts! I fear! I fear! It may be that, when we forgot our God, - when we violated our reverence each for the other's soul, - it was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter in an everlasting and pure r...

• Word Count: 1820
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• Grade Level: High School

... Hester choose to stay in a place were she will constantly be reminded my by her past action and "sin?- Most of us today, let society determine our identity. We are constantly behaving or even acting in a way that we want society to perceive us. I believe the world we live in today is guided ... reality. Very few of us have the strength and courage to step out of this cave, step out of the role assigned to us and let our experiences decide who we really are. One of Hawthorne's underlying message is in the Scarlet letter is that, as human beings we are capable of ... similar to the Aristot...

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... . Hester came to the colonies without her husband. Living in a very self-righteous, rigid Puritan community, she made the mistake of having an affair with the esteemed town priest, Arthur Dimmesdale. When the town elders found out that she was pregnant, they demanded to know her partner in sin, though she declined to name him. She was sentenced to wear a scarlet letter ... with her own code of ethics and her own identity versus what society and law designate for her, thus explaining why she doesn't take off the scarlet letter when the town elders say that she may do so. Hester is reminde...

• Word Count: 1229
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... , with a woman's strength."" We also learn in this chapter, that only seven years have passed since the faithful day when Hester Prynne stood on the scaffold, in the center of town, only to be verbally trashed with comments about being a "hussy- and why she will not confess to her partner's name. One can only see the irony in the fact that ... the same people, with the rude comments from the scaffold seven years ago, would be the ones telling the town that the letter adorned on Hester Prynne's dress does not have the same significance it once had. This also leads we, the reader, to belie...

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... 's favorite glass vase while she was out, admitting that the baseball was ours would certainly grant us a month in our room. We would often breakdown under the heavy burden of guilt, however, and we would realize the relative ease of time in our room. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne similarly develops the concepts of guilt and the freedom gained by confession ... had returned upon him - (137). Though she is but a young little girl, Pearl illuminates the limited nature of Dimmesdale's confession, and she solidifies his inability to reveal himself to the town. Examining Hester P...

• Word Count: 1627
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... for him because he is a puritan minister. Dimmesdale inflicts punishment upon himself because of his adulterated sin. Dimmesdale transforms throughout the novel always in the same place "The Scaffold." The town is all out to witness the punishment of Hester Prynne some of the women are suggesting other punishments and the women are telling us about Hester and Dimmesdale. People say ... . Dimmesdale goes and stands on the scaffold, which is a place of punishment, he goes to admit his sin but he goes when it is pitch black outside and everybody in town is at home. "A good evening to you, v...

• Word Count: 1308
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... , Arthur Dimmesdale has committed the sin of infidelity as well, but it is unknown to the people. According to Puritan beliefs, a minister is credited of having a high rank in their town, and they are dedicated members of their priest hood; this is because Puritans believed that ministers were the agents from God. Dimmesdale, on the other hand should have stood strong ... : "Nay from the moment when we came down the old church steps together, a married pair, I might have beheld the bale-fire of that scarlet letter blazing at the end of our path" (69). During the novel, it is apparent that...

• Word Count: 970
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• Grade Level: High School

... of society, discouraging them from following in a convict's footprints. Either way, the end result is to set a criminal apart from the rest of society. Today we publicize the effects of our judicial system to a great extent, whether it is an open courtroom, or a televised execution, people tend to feel some type of relif watching the hand of the law in action ... . In the begining of the book The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, when Hester is upon the scaffold in the marketplace in front of the whole town, women in the crowd are heard gossiping. They remark about the fact that He...

• Word Count: 245
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... are used by Hawthorne, just as a weaver uses bright threads to draw more attention to the finer points of the work. The past always comes back to haunt us in our lives. A Puritan society is highly based upon a person's reputation. Without an honorable reputation a person is not worthy of respect from others in that society. Characters in this novel go through ... embarrassed by his actions. Him being a reverend only adds to the difficulties of his life. Having gone against his own beliefs, and against the things that he preached to the town, Dimmesdale had become a hypocrite. The confes...

• Word Count: 1828
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... decades, we've expanded this type of rejection to the fine, negative science of avoidance; one that can be upsetting and hurtful to the recipient. For most, we get our first taste of shunning in grade school. You know the scenario, a group of friends decides that some kid in the group just doesn't fit in, and the shunning begins ... is a positive or a negative action. Because of these actions that are reported to the world around them, many people may shun a celebrity for what they have done in our society today. An example of such shunning could be focused on Ray Rice, a famous footbal...

• Word Count: 1654
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... her fall -- and that, moreover, as is most likely, her husband may be at the bottom of the sea;--have not been bold to put in force the extremity of our righteous law against her. The penalty is thereof death" (Hawthorne 56). Different cultural upbringings and different thoughts influence truths to be understood differently. The Puritan belief encompasses that an ... she would be able to protect Pearl more and raise her up properly, but she doesn't want to leave Dimmesdale so she lives near the forest and the edge of town. "Throwing his eyes anxiously in the direction of the voice, he i...

• Word Count: 1931
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• Grade Level: High School

... that man can afflict upon her. Hester is to stand as a warning to others tempted as she was (Hawthorne 13). Hester becomes a social outcast and lives on the outskirts of town. Pearly, her lively and uncontrollable daughter is the daily living proof of her sin. Man had marked this woman's sin by a scarlet letter, which had such potent and disastrous efficacy ... his shame. It shows us that the poison of sin is not so much in the sin itself as in the concealment. To acknowledge our sins before god, is a phrase, and no more than that, but to acknowledge our sins before men, is in truth con...

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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... of society. They were degraded by everybody, starting at a young age children were taught to prevent contact with those sinners, "As the two wayfares came within the precincts of the town, the children of the puritans looked up from their play, - or what passed for play with those sombre little urchins, - and spake gravely one to another: -"Behold, verily, there is ... let us fling mud at them!"(112). If we can a parallel between the townspeople and the Puritan society as a whole, we can also draw a parallel between that Puritan society and our society today. Adultery is a problem that ...

• Word Count: 1627
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School