... prevalent throughout the entire story and helps to convey the mood of this society. The greatest amount of distortion goes to Hester Prynne's Scarlet Letter, which is her burden for her sin. The effect that this distortion of the letter produces is that the audience is left to try to draw the conclusion from the story by following the themes and seeing how ... hand over his heart I the same place that Hester's "A- appears. This adds to the distortion in that it also affects Dimmesdale. The Scarlet letter also seems to have a varying effect on the people that have to be around it. The le...

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• Grade Level: High School

... to the main theme in the book. Sometimes referred to as "the first symbolic novel to be written in the United States", "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne contains many symbols that are apparent throughout the novel, and reoccur at many different places. While symbols are created, those ... young woman who has cheated on her husband, Roger Prynne, with Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester bore a baby from this relationship, and was forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" for adultery. Hester uses the forest to bring out many hidden emotions, but mostly to use it as an outlet where she can conve...

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... time she never would have considered. Hester's emerging sense of identity begins with the imposition placed upon her to fashion her own punishment, the scarlet letter "A". She does not sew a piece of cloth that is dreary, colorless, plain or somber. This would have been fitting for a Puritan ... lasting and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore- Hester emerges from her confinement in the prison proud and defiant. Her fabrication of the Scarlet Letter evokes indignation and resentment from the townspeople. "She hath good skill at her needle, that's certain," remarked one of the...

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... know, the secret of theirs eats away at Dimmesdale's weakening and slowly killing him As the Puritans would call Dimmesdale a sinner, the Romantics level him as a human. The Scarlet Letter is wrapped in a deluge of allegorical theories and philosophies. Ranging from Puritanical to Romantic, Nathaniel Hawthorne embodies his ideas to stress his Romantic philosophies through Pearl, Hester, and Dimmesdale ... throughout the whole of the novel. Nathaniel Hawthorne has a sufficient reason for repeatedly making reference to mirrors throughout his refined novel, The Scarlet Letter. The use of mi...

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... her as an A herself Hester make her a beautiful red dress that is vaguely shaped like an A, and the townspeople see her as a little scarlet letter walking along side of Hester. Guilt leads to leads to Hester's isolation mentally, and through the law and banishment to the peninsula she becomes isolated ... and the description of her image as she looks into a breastplate of a suit of armor, "the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she see...

• Word Count: 915
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• Grade Level: High School

... her as an A herself Hester make her a beautiful red dress that is vaguely shaped like an A, and the townspeople see her as a little scarlet letter walking along side of Hester. Guilt leads to leads to Hester's isolation mentally, and through the law and banishment to the peninsula she becomes isolated ... and the description of her image as she looks into a breastplate of a suit of armor,the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she see...

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... , and sinners are the least moral and basically useless to the Puritan community. From my perspective, Hester is the most moral character in the Scarlet Letter. For that she follows her own morals, she cares for others more than herself. She rather suffers than reveal Dimmesdale, saving him from disgrace ... in his name. She was even able to hold on to the scarlet letter so well; the original purpose had reversed itself. "Such helpfulness was found in her - so much power to do and power to sympathize ... strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength." Pg. 158. Roger Chillingworth, t...

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... . His punishment is guilt and self-condemnation, increased by the torture by Roger Chillingsworth; Hester's undisclosed husband and the town's physician. "Happy are you, Hester," says Dimmesdale, "that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!" (188). As his shame and inner guilt increases, he suffers total decline, both mentally and physically. By this he underwent self-torture ... Chillingsworth's hold over him, which allows him to die peacefully. Dimmesdale can finally die peacefully because he has redeemed his penance by freeing himself of his inner guilt....

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... her mother, Hester Prynne, and Arthur Dimmesdale to accept and admit to their sin. Pearl is the beautiful daughter of Hester and Dimmesdale. She is the living symbol of the scarlet letter and has unique traits that make her sometimes appear as a demon. Her love for nature and freedom, her spirit, her wildness, her loneliness and separation from the world, her curiosity ... of their being"(Hawthorne 141). Pearl is a beautiful, misbehaved child. The first thing that Pearl ever notices is her mother's "A' across her chest. As a child, Pearl throws rocks at the scarlet letter, making a game...

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• Grade Level: High School

... defined according to the Catholic Catechism and modern definition as any unloving act and deliberate disobedience of the known will of God. Sin in The Scarlet Letter is not only committed by Chillingworth but by Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and also the Puritan society as a whole. Both Dimmesdale and ... because he felt guilty for his ancestors persecution of innocent people in the Salem Witch Trials. Decay and ugliness permeate the physical setting in The Scarlet Letter symbolizing the evil and sin in Puritan society that Hawthorn intends for us to see so that we regard the Puritan...

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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and ideals. Women of this time were not thought of as able to overcome hardships and trials because they were considered weak, but Hawthorne showed to the world with The Scarlet Letter what women, in actuality, were like. The embodiment of Hawthorne's feminist ideals, Hester, was an unusual character for that time period. Women weren't considered very important. Yet, "so strong was ... be powerless, was held in high esteem by the public. It isn't a coincidence that Hester was given a task as great as overcoming the burden of the scarlet letter and that she emerged triumphant. Overcoming...

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... - and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss" (136). Hester Prynne, who is the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, is the subject of this quote. She is sent ahead by her husband in England to settle in the colonies. He fails to arrive and following ... will always be susceptible to such a judgmental analysis. There were many people present from the country roundabout, who had oft heard of the scarlet letter These, after exhausting other modes of amusement, now thronged about Hester Prynne with rude and boorish intrusiveness and stood, fixed there by th...

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... act gross and brief, and brings loathing after it." This was said by St. Augustine, regarding immorality. This is discovered to be very true by the main characters in The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne's story of a woman (Hester) who lives with the Puritans and commits adultery with the local minister (Dimmesdale). In his novel, Hawthorne shows that sin, known or unknown to ... lines of dull red light" (Hawthorn). This is God's condemnation of the two sinners, most especially Dimmesdale. Hester has already been discovered and is receiving her punishment by wearing the scarlet lette...

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... Puritans also wrongly took authoritative action against Hester. It was not their duty to punish Hester for her sin. When speaking of the scarlet letter, Hester says, "It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off this badge"(176). She goes on to say that ... in the book. Arthur Dimmesdale suffers internally for the sin he committed with Hester. Dimmesdale says, "Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret"(200). Dimmesdale acknowledges that his pain is caused by the sinful secrets that he keeps hidden ... public confessio...

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... : Nathaniel Hawthorne Period 4 Adv. English 11 November 2, 1999 The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn begins by dealing with Hester Prynne's crime and sentence. She shows herself to be a proud woman in how she embroiders her bright red "A" ... the wee hours of the morning on the scaffold was the turning point of my impression of him. Pearl's role in the story, I felt, was the scarlet letter come to life. This is shown in several ways. She is a product of what Hester's red "A" represents and is usually dressed in shades of ... is described as having elfish qualities about her. Elves ar...

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• Has Bibliography
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... nature of evil. Every scaffold scene represents a time in which a character takes a step towards self-reliance and has changed in various ways. The Scarlet Letter begins with the three-hour punishment of Hester Prynne. The first scaffold scene takes place in the market place in front of society. Hester Prynne has ... Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast, that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes!-these were her realities,-all...

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... religion, because this was the most forced element of Puritan fellowship. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Puritan New England, Hester Prynne was the main offender. The Scarlet Letter is an isolated drama of one woman's shame and guilt for her solitary sin. She is ridiculed and cast off from her community and the ... with wonder. His tone at the description of the crowd is sorrowful, irked. Although significant, tone is not Hawthorne's only weapon of choice. The Scarlet Letter was a novel filled with antagonism. Main conflicts include man versus man, man versus self, and man versus society. The ...

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Often in society people are criticized, punished and despised for their individual choices and flaws. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author attempts to show the way society casts out individuals simply because their ideas and deeds differ from ... with this punishment and chose to pass their negativity on to their offspring. "Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast as the figure, the body, the reality of sin" (83). The mothers of the children in the community would point her ... young to comprehend w...

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... society. Characters in this novel go through their lives struggling with themselves and trying to cope with the guilt and shame associated with their actions. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, "The Scarlet Letter," he shows the lasting effect that adultery has on Chillingworth Dimmesdale, and Hester. Roger Chillingworth's first reaction to the crime of adultery committed by Hester is one of shock, but ... had to hold it all within himself. Hester Prynne's guilt is the result of her committing adultery, which has a profound effect on her life. Hester is publicly seen with the scarlet lette...

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The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (298 pages) The story begins in Salem, Massachusetts with a nameless narrator who was the surveyor in a customhouse. He stumbles across a number of documents ... surveyor who detailed events some two-hundred years before the narrator's time. He later decides to write a fictional story based on the events from the manuscript and calls it The Scarlet Letter. The narrator then goes into his book which takes place in 17th century Boston which was a Puritan settlement. A young woman is guided out of a prison with a ... sea. Apparently, while waiting, Hest...

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... Both the story and the song show the pain, guilt, wondering, and love Hester, Pearl, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale feel. The book The Scarlet Letter shows the consequences of peoples actions and how everything does not work out the way one has planed. In the song A Praise Chorus the beginning ... to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman. She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness . The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,""stern and w...

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... their chest was to walk through the town, they were pointed and taunted at, as though they were not a human being but of some sort of horrifying existence. The Scarlet Letter could have been written to show others of Puritan ways and beliefs but one who reads this would go on believing the people led their lives in a completely different way. ... a manner if one of their own performed any deed other then what they believed they were put on this earth for. Such people were punished in such ways as the scarlet letter, or in The Crucible, the Salem Witch Trials. The sad views of these nar...

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... , which prove that this quote is true. Two literary works which support this quote are A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry and The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. By using different literary elements, the authors of these two works prove this quote to be true. In the play, A Raisin ... tests of a courageous person and how he beared defeats without losing heart. Another work of literature which supports this quote is the novel, The Scarlet Letter. In this story, the main character, Hester Prynne, is being punished for adultery. Although the townspeople ignore her and cast m...

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The Scarlet Letter In the center of a town, a scaffold sits for sinners to undergo public humiliation, but in the end, it serves as a step towards an Emersonian ... People such as Emerson and Thoreau changed the views of the public, with words and actions. The scaffold similarly served as a link for the characters in the Scarlet Letter to separate their ideals from the ideological society in which they lived. Though the role of the scaffold was different, some sort of absolution was always the outcome ... scaffold scene resolves all of the unsettled matters, and Dimmesdale allows his own dea...

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... 1850, reveals the strict and severe ways of Puritan life that ruled New England two hundred years prior. At the same time, The Scarlet Letter, tells the story of one woman's struggle to find meaning in living after disobeying the highly regarded word of God. When dialogue is ... holy text. This type of language seems to stay consistent throughout the story, even when Mistress Hibbins and young Pearl are speaking. The Scarlet Letter uses dark romanticism as Hawthorne attempts to explain the sinfulness of human nature and why people act as they do. In a satirical ... even "present" in cha...

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• Grade Level: High School