... novel follows the struggles of two sinners in the morally strict Massachusetts Bay Colony in the seventeenth century. A young woman named Hester Prynne and the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commit adultery. Hester's sin becomes publicly acknowledged when she has a child; she is forced face humiliation by standing on a scaffold in the center ... is in the open, which works to her benefit. Guilt kept on the inside is the most dangerous. This hidden guilt is seen in Arthur Dimmesdale, whose own visit to the scaffold is covert and in darkness, as though he wants to hide it from God's eyes as we...

• Word Count: 891
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Arthur Dimmesdale: a modern man caught within the realm of the puritans. Dimmesdale's humanity is on trial throughout this novel, and on his journey to reconciliation we see how the world can break a man. Dimmesdale is hiding in fear as he travels his path to reconciliation. Throughout the novel Dimmesdale becomes increasingly ... in which he, Hester and Pearl are together upon the scaffold as a family. The reverend says "Come up hither once again, and we will stand all three together!" (pg140). After Dimmesdale gives his powerful speech, the author says "By yielding up his breath in the arm...

• Word Count: 1115
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... . The people are taking him for someone he is not and only Hester really knows the truth behind his shadow. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale have gone against Puritan law and committed the sin of adultery. But unlike Hester, Arthur hid his secret and was not honest with the people of his society or himself. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel ... , truth is the safest lie. By expressing truth Hester is set free, leaving Dimmesdale and Chillingworth to deteriorate from their falseness. Having committed a moral sin with Hester, Dimmesdale holds the truth inside. Being the rever...

• Word Count: 827
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... works of literature that display both aspects of this society very accurately are The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. The Scarlet Letter displays a society that treats two people very differently who commit the sin of adultery together. The woman, Hester ... Prynne, admits her sin, is forced to always wear a scarlet letter "A" on her bosom, and is ostracized from society. The man, Reverend Dimmesdale, who hides his sin from the world, is almost worshipped by the townspeople, but is filled with the dishonor of his action. Hawthorne illustrates ...

• Word Count: 578
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Arthur Miller's The Crucible are both distinctly different works about the Puritan society. The Scarlet Letter is a novel and The Crucible is a play. While The ... no one dared argue with the court. In The Scarlet Letter, the townspeople are so loyal to the "Good Reverend Dimmesdale," that they are completely blind to the fact that he is the biggest sinner. Everything that Dimmesdale says gets turned into something else. "They deemed the young clergyman a miracle of holiness. They fancied him the ... which he trod was sanctified," (212). The memb...

• Word Count: 648
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... debated countless times throughout our history and two books seem to depict this standard of living in two different ways. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, conflicts the effects of the conjunction of church and state while The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, conflicts the inability to ... counted against it, there be no road between."(Act 3) Here Danforth demonstrates the emotion that puritans felt toward insubordination and defiance of Puritan lifestyle. Reverend Parris, one of characters who seek power within all the hysteria that has swept the town, is a prime e...

• Word Count: 710
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate