The Purloined Letter

While reading The Scarlet Letter, I was introduced to many characters such as Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, and Pearl Prynne. Of all the main characters in the story, the person I most empathize with is Pearl. Even though Pearl is a little girl, I can understand, in a way, what she is going through. Throughout the beginning of the story, she has no idea who her father is. While I have known my father for my whole life i have known of people who have never met…

The most important part of any story is the plot, but what is the most important part of the plot? As shown in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the characters are what drives the plot. Characters can drive the plot in a couple of ways that can be shown with The Scarlet Letter; they can be symbols, they can be used to show aspects of the plot in a more visual and less abstract way, and they will physically move the plot forward. Without the characters there is no plot and so by…

Revenge is one of the classic staples in drama, and its role in The Scarlet Letter is perhaps one of the greatest examples. The story is about Hester Prynne, a woman who tries to raise her daughter in a Puritanical society that shuns her for cheating on her husband, later revealed in the story as a man named Roger Chillingworth. As a result of this sinful deed, she is condemned to wear a scarlet letter, the letter “A”, as a reminder of the atrocity she had committed. Her lover is Arthur…

Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter. Every part of the work portrays meaning and every part is important. Therefore, to get an unabridged analysis of a character in the book, the reader must look at each action of the character and the character’s image in the book as a whole. Imagery, symbolism, and setting are important factors to take into account of throughout a literary work. Imagery denotes the visual description of the language. For instance, a point of imagery in The Scarlet Letter can be…

The Effects of Symbolism The Scarlet Letter is the magnum opus of Nathaniel Hawthorne and one of the most groundbreaking creations in American literature. As Hawthorne takes a society established to be a role model for all other immigrants like a City upon a Hill, he challenged the religious and political basis that formed our great nation. Simultaneously he discusses the morality, and moreover the immorality of the human race as a whole. The Scarlet Letter as a whole is an allegory of sin and…

Throughout the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne explores themes of conformity through Hester Prynne´s various relationships. Hawthorne illustrates three relationships in which Hester can frequently be seen both conforming to and rejecting societal expectations regarding how a woman should act, and for different purposes. As is demonstrated throughout the novel, Hester will -by nature- resist norms and expectations, but can be seen conforming when doing so will ultimately benefit her. Hester…

Scarlet Letter Essay The word “object” has a tremendous amount of different meanings. One of them is, “A thing that has physical existence”. This definition is a nearly perfect description of Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Once Hester is forced to wear the scarlet letter, she is nothing more than just a physical existence. The way that townspeople originally treat Hester after her punishment is declared is truly shocking. Throughout most of the novel,…

Scarlet Letter “A” “On a field, sable, the letter A, gules” (Hawthorne 259). The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story of a woman named Hester Prynne who overcomes the pestering punishment of wearing the scarlet “A”. This letter is given to her by the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester changes the symbolic meaning of the letter “A” from her sin of “adultery,” to being an “able” woman, to gracious, ultimately defining her own identity. The letter…

The effects of guilt can be seen at the beginning of the story in regards to the way that individuals in the colony perceive inappropriate actions. By first setting the stage by providing a context in which adultery is viewed as an extremely odious offense, Hawthorne creates an apt world which sets the stage for the rest of the story. As Puritan ideals that emphasize the need to remain accepted in society according to a strict set of values exist, so does the greater potential to be judged…

century. During this era in American history, the religious Puritans had no tolerance for those who did not live by their rules and punished those individuals in an effort to keep Puritan morals in line. In the historical fiction novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes in satire about the iron spikes of Puritan law and conforming to such a society. Three of the main characters, Hester Prynne, her daughter, Pearl, and her lover, Reverend Dimmesdale, stand out from Puritan…