Search results
Hester is also maternal with respect to society: she cares for the poor and brings them food and clothing. By the novel’s end, Hester has become a protofeminist mother figure to the women of the community. The shame attached to her scarlet letter is long gone. Women recognize that her punishment stemmed in part from the town fathers’ sexism ...
- The Scarlet Letter
Famous Quotes Explained By Theme Female Independence Guilt...
- Pearl
Hester’s daughter, Pearl, functions primarily as a symbol....
- Roger Chillingworth
From what the reader is told of his early years with Hester,...
- Arthur Dimmesdale
Dimmesdale speaks these lines to Hester as he contrasts the...
- Central Idea Essay
Hester’s reaction to her punishment might seem the model of...
- Historical Context Essay
The first chapter in The Scarlet Letter opens with a lengthy...
- Important Quotes Explained
Like Hester, the narrator both affirms and resists Puritan...
- Full Book Summary
The Scarlet Letter opens with a long preamble about how the...
- The Scarlet Letter
- Overview
- Summary
- Analysis
The Scarlet Letter, novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. It is considered a masterpiece of American literature and a classic moral study.
The novel is set in a village in Puritan New England. The main character is Hester Prynne, a young woman who has borne a child out of wedlock. Hester believes herself a widow, but her husband, Roger Chillingworth, arrives in New England very much alive and conceals his identity. He finds his wife forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her dress as punishment for her adultery. After Hester refuses to name her lover, Chillingworth becomes obsessed with finding his identity. When he learns that the man in question is Arthur Dimmesdale, a saintly young minister who is the leader of those exhorting her to name the child’s father, Chillingworth proceeds to torment him. Stricken by guilt, Dimmesdale becomes increasingly ill. Hester herself is revealed to be a self-reliant heroine who is never truly repentant for committing adultery with the minister; she feels that their act was consecrated by their deep love for each other. Although she is initially scorned, over time her compassion and dignity silence many of her critics.
Britannica Quiz
The Literary World (Famous Novels)
In the end, Chillingworth is morally degraded by his monomaniacal pursuit of revenge. Dimmesdale is broken by his own sense of guilt, and he publicly confesses his adultery before dying in Hester’s arms. Only Hester can face the future bravely, as she prepares to begin a new life with her daughter, Pearl, in Europe. Years later Hester returns to New England, where she continues to wear the scarlet letter. After her death she is buried next to Dimmesdale, and their joint tombstone is inscribed with “ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES.”
The scarlet letter A that Hester is forced to wear is finely embroidered with gold-coloured thread. As both a badge of shame and a beautifully wrought human artifact, it reflects the many oppositions in the novel, such as those between order and transgression, civilization and wilderness, and adulthood and childhood. The more society strives to keep out wayward passion, the more it reinforces the split between appearance and reality. The members of the community who are ostensibly the most respectable are often the most depraved, while the apparent sinners are often the most virtuous.
The novel also crafts intriguing symmetries between social oppression and psychological repression. Dimmesdale’s sense of torment at his guilty secret and the physical and mental manifestations of his malaise reflect the pathology of a society that needs to scapegoat and alienate its so-called sinners. Eventually, personal integrity is able to break free from social control. Perhaps more than any other novel, The Scarlet Letter effectively encapsulates the emergence of individualism and self-reliance from America’s Puritan and conformist roots.
- Ronan Mcdonald
May 3, 2024 · Symbolism In The Scarlet Letter. Symbol. Description. The Scarlet Letter. Represents sin, guilt, and societal judgment. It is a visible reminder of Hester Prynne’s adultery. The Scaffold. Symbolizes public judgment and personal redemption. It is where characters face the consequences of their actions.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Novel
- Description
The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. [2] Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not married and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, 晧四郎 木畑
- 1850
Hester Prynne's sin is symbolized by the scarlet letter "A" she is forced to wear. Initially, it stands for "adulterer," marking her as a sinner in the eyes of the Puritan community. However, over ...
The protagonist of the novel, Hester is married to Roger Chillingworth and has an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. The affair produces a daughter, Pearl. Hester plays many roles in The Scarlet Letter: devoted mother, abandoned lover, estranged wife, religious dissenter, feminist, and outcast, to name just a few. Perhaps her most important role is ...
People also ask
Why does Hester Prynne wear a Scarlet Letter a?
Who is Hester Prynne?
Did Hester Prynne quit her bosom?
Who is Hester in the Scarlet Letter?
Why does Hester wear a letter a in the Scarlet Letter?
How does Hawthorne portray Hester?
The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. The story is set in the 17th century in Boston, Massachusetts, during the Puritan era. The novel is a reflection of the author’s interest in the history of the United States and the Puritan culture that shaped it. The Puritans were a religious group that emerged ...
