... a constant source of torment. The vagueness of the symbol, however, allows its meaning to evolve as the novel progresses, thus "the scarlet letter had not done its office" (Hawthorne 160). Later on, the letter comes to stand for "Able," as Hester is "Able" to Talbert 5 overcome hardship, Talbert 5 live through the shame, and thrive in the hypocritical Puritan society. Towards the end of her life, the letter grows to mean "Angel", and "the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma ... which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness"(Hawthorne 229 ... ...

• Word Count: 2338
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 society itself as a character who sinned. What happens to Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth results from the ethics, morals, sterness and the rigidity of the individual Puritans the characters interact with. These individuals collectively are the Puritan society of Boston in1642 ... which in fact are sinners but not the most severe of the novel...

• Word Count: 2203
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter To the naked eye, the story of The Scarlet Letter appears to just be a well-written love story within a puritan society full of unexpected flips and turns. Upon closer examination, The Scarlet Letter is really filled with obsession, guilt, and morals. The author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses a twisted physician, a minister, and a very independent character to express the theme of revenge among his three main characters. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses his very different characters to ... almost evil smile; proud of what she had done, taunting them. When Hester was first c...

• Word Count: 1589
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... a child into the world with an unknown father. She is punished by Puritan society by wearing the scarlet letter "A" on the bosom of her dress and standing on the scaffold for three hours. The scaffold is an unpleasant punishment to bear; the townspeople gathered around to gossip and stare at Hester and her newborn child, Pearl, named because of her extreme value to her mother. In the middle of the faces in the crowd, Hester ... sees the face of a man she once ... ...

• Word Count: 461
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter To the naked eye, the story of The Scarlet Letter appears to just be a well-written love story within a puritan society full of unexpected flips and turns. Upon closer examination, The Scarlet Letter is really filled with obsession, guilt, and morals. The author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses a twisted physician, a minister, and a very independent character to express the theme of revenge among his three main characters. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses his very different characters to ... almost evil smile; proud of what she had done, taunting them. When Hester was first ...

• Word Count: 1480
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 female spectators; "but did ever a woman, before this brazen hussy, contrive such a way of showing it!- The Scarlet Letter served to separate Hester from the rest of the Puritan society in which she lived and had formerly ... been a part. Nathaniel Hawthorne states, "it had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanit...

• Word Count: 1295
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter "A"." pg. 51. Viewed from a Puritan perspective, she is a sinner, 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 ... ; I do not see his doings as wrong, but more of a purpose. Dimmesdale is not a bad character in terms for the reader, but he is the lea...

• Word Count: 833
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 used in the novel, which is quite frequently, Hawthorne conveys formal and proper language which assists the reader in understanding the Puritan culture and the ancestry of the Boston inhabitants. In chapter 23, Roger Chillingworth kneels down toward ... her heavenly actions and independence separate her from the other characters. The scaffold scenes are most important, a...

• Word Count: 1296
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 and that Hester does not feel this pain because she has been punished for her sin. Both Hester and Dimmesdale committed the same sin, but suffered different consequences because of their punishments. Society ... In the seven years of his life that follow his daughter's birth, he does not lead a normal and truthful life. This proves that public confession saved Hester from punishing herself with torture as Dimmesdale had don...

• Word Count: 942
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... sin, is usually dressed in red clothing, representing sin. Pearl is also called the names "Ruby", "Coral", or "red Rose," and "a little bird of scarlet plumage," further extending Pearl as a red representation of Hester's sin. Hawthorne also uses black and darkness as symbols throughout The Scarlet Letter. Black is used to represent evil and hiding. Hawthorne calls the prison the "black flower of civilized society," meaning it is evil ... as a state of hiding where the person will not accept life's experiences and holds back. Pearl's eyes are called a "small black mirror," meaning they ar...

• Word Count: 1044
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Guilt in Puritan Society The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, deals with crime, punishment, and guilt in Puritan society. The main characters include Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Dimmesdale. All of the characters undergo a certain degree of crime, guilt, and punishment. Each of the characters either share the same amount of guilt, or are less guilty then the other. Most of the sins the characters commit could have not ... taken place if it was not for the one sin that led it all on. Hester's sin plays a major role in leading on the sins of others in The Scar...

• Word Count: 757
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, is a book that was set at a time where the strict Puritan way of life was key. Hawthorne wrote about an intimate romance between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. The various relationships and feelings behind these relationships are intense, one can never really be quite sure of the true emotion. The moral of the story is to be true, yet each character ... to Boston when she married to wait for her husband while he was still in Europe, finishing business. After two years of waiting, Hester commited adultery, which was shunned in ...

• Word Count: 995
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 seemed absolutely hidden behind it"(72). The reflection of the scarlet letter is made to look larger than life, just like society blows it out of proportion in the beginning of the novel. This occurs during a time when ... existence shows the novels theme. The theme of guilt in The Scarlet Letter is a rather prominent one. The moral of the story is also bas...

• Word Count: 915
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter- Effects of Adultery Puritan society had placed great importance on a person's reputation. Without an honorable reputation a person is not worthy of respect from others in their 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 ... profound effect on her life. H...

• Word Count: 681
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 seemed absolutely hidden behind it?(72). The reflection of the scarlet letter is made to look larger than life, just like society blows it out of proportion in the beginning of the novel. This occurs during a time when ... existence shows the novels theme. The theme of guilt in The Scarlet Letter is a rather prominent one. The moral of the story is also based...

• Word Count: 917
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... thereof death" (Hawthorne 56). Different cultural upbringings and different thoughts influence truths to be understood differently. The Puritan belief encompasses that an adulterer must be put to death, yet instead, the ministers did not enforce their laws completely like the way it was meant to be. In a sense they did kill her, not by hanging, but by turning her and her child into social ... father. Both can be true; if she was devout, God is her father but in the earthly world He could not be Pearl's actual father. "Individuals in private life, meanwhile, had quite forgiven Hester Pry...

• Word Count: 1931
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... she should be banished from the community. They also branded her with the letter, "A" which stood for adulteress this way all in the Puritan society would know the sinful act that she has committed. There was a unique characteristic about the "A"; it was a deep scarlet. This was unusual because the society in this day wore gray, bland, boring colors. This characteristic makes the letter stand out all the more. Hester lives alone in a small seaside house. She makes ... money by sew and embroidering all different things. The child she had was a little ... ...

• Word Count: 677
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 else had vanished." (51). This idea represents how Hester accepts her realities and that she must become a new person. Hester now has changed and is self-reliant in a sense that she has accepted herself, which is against the Puritan belief ... important symbol for Dimmesdale and society. Although the society sees the celestial "A" in the sky to represent a conformation of the Governor Winthrop's ascending into heaven, Dimmesdale sees i...

• Word Count: 1995
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... , which he explains through the characterization, structure, and themes in his book. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne unveils the tale of two lovers in a Puritan society: one a minister and the other a lowly embroiderer. They fall in love and create a child together out of wedlock. The society then rejects the mother, Hester Prynne, and forces her to wear a scarlet letter, the novel's namesake. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister, stays quiet about this affair in fear that the society will similarly disown him. This ... novel focuses on the differences between these ... ...

• Word Count: 890
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography

Scarlet Letter 1.Setting: Where and When does the action of the story take place? The story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, during a Puritan settlement. It takes place in Salem and Concord, Massachusetts; late 1840. A young woman, Hester Pryne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter "A" on her breast. A man in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester's ... that earn her this reprieve? Would she have behaved this way is she did not have something to prove? Hester has become more active ...

• Word Count: 1337
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Protagonist role in The Scarlet Letter " But (Hester) is not the protagonist, the chief actor, and the tragedy of The Scarlet Letter is not her tragedy but Arthur's. He is the persecuted one, the tempted one. He it was whom the sorrows of death encompassed . His public confession is one of the noblest climaxes of tragic literature." The argument over the protagonist role in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne runs undeniably deep. At first glance it appears that the protagonist of ... Randall Stewart has presented an argument that suggesur Dimmesdale as the Protagonist of the story. Hes...

• Word Count: 855
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... and anguish and amend their spirit to become aliens of their past. With no recollection of their former being, their prior self ceases to exist and becomes anew. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne inspires the audience to comprehend how sin and incessant guilt have adverse effects on individuals living in a reproachful society that does not condone indulgences. As he uses expounding third-person omniscient perspective, employs ... his moral strength apart as he remains silent of his sin. The torment that Dimmesdale is constantly confronted by in the authoritarian Puritan society...

• Word Count: 855
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... and make them suitable for the role they play in the work. Authors present various characters possessing dissimilar qualities, to emphasize different aspects of the work. In the novel "The Scarlet Letter", the author Nathaneil Hawthorn's depiction of the two male characters, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth, emphasizes the moral problems of the seventeenth century puritan society. Hence, their different characters contribute vitally to the plot of the novel. Arthur Dimmesdale, the Reverent and the protagonists" lover, was not ... a very powerful character. At his first appearan...

• Word Count: 328
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... and make them suitable for the role they play in the work. Authors present various characters possessing dissimilar qualities, to emphasize different aspects of the work. In the novel "The Scarlet Letter", the author Nathaniel Hawthorn's depiction of the two male characters, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth, emphasizes the moral problems of the seventeenth century puritan society. Hence, their different characters contribute vitally to the plot of the novel. Arthur Dimmesdale, the Reverent and the protagonists" lover, was not ... a very powerful character. At his first appearan...

• Word Count: 746
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... in the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This quote talks about one sinner and it emphasis Roger Chillingworth. Even though Chillingworth is the most reasonable sinner, he has stolen Hester Prynne youth, another sin Chillingworth did was tricking the heart of a fellow mate and sacrificing a friendship to satisfy his own selfishness, and he also has lied to a society of Puritans which is a huge sin because in the ... doesn't know her. Roger Chillingworth befriends the good Reverend and becomes his doctor. He notices that something more than physical body problems is...

• Word Count: 794
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School