Preview

Journal Entry from Chillingworth

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
435 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Journal Entry from Chillingworth
June 1642
What is it that I haveth seen today upon the scaffold? Could this be thy truth or are my own eyes deceiving me? I have fought grievous mishaps by the sea and by the land just to finally meet with my beloved Hester. After living in captivity under the heathen-folks for about a year or less, mine own eyes are completely drawn to her on the scaffold holding a small babe. My eyes were snatched by the infant only by the scarlet letter burning my once dearest wife’s bosom. It was as if the deep burning red of the letter set off a fiery passion of anger pulsing through my own body from her unfaithfulness. My heart feels as if it hath been ripped from my own chest and tossed on the ground unwanted. My body is fuming with jealousy! My Hester is an adulteress! She hath betrayed me in the most extreme way! How could she have done this to me? Is it my own fault? Didst I cause this myself wedding a wife of such youth and beauty like herself? Who am I to take her into my heart only being a man of knowledge and deformity? Is it so, that I have brought my own misfortune upon me, by bringing in my Hester, one that felt no love for me; While in such youth a real true love is so desirable? So it should be I knew the day we stepped down the church’s steps that it was the scarlet letter I saw in our future together.
I admit I have wronged Hester by wedding her in an unwanted relation. Therefore, I shall hold no vengeance against her. But the man that hath wronged both Hester and me both still walks publicly without a scarlet letter piercing his chest! My heart is torn! So, now this man’s heart must be ripped to pieces! I swear to it, that I will find him. I shall dedicate my life to exposing the root of my own torture! I will search for him as I have searched my life for extensive knowledge. I will become conscious of him! I will search these men until I can finally read it upon his own heart! When I have found him, I shall strive each minute of every day of my
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Evolution of the Scarlet Letter
    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Evolution of the Scarlet Letter

    Throughout the story, the reader can clearly identify the contrast of Hester’s views of her scarlet letter from the beginning of the book to the end. The defiance and ignorance of Hester is clearly visible when Hester is being questioned on the pedestal by Reverend Mr. Wilson. “Speak out thy name! That, and thy repentance, may avail to take the scarlet letter off thy breast. …Never! It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!” (47). This dialogue between Reverend Mr. Wilson and Hester clearly defines Hester’s thoughts and feelings towards her sin at the beginning of the book. It exposes Hester’s lack of self-acceptance of her adultery crime when she refuses to give out the name of the father of the baby. Further into the book, it is established Hester is a different woman who slowly defines herself as a sinner but an acceptor of her sin. After several years have passed since her sin, Hester is separated from the community but becomes very important to it with her needle work. She slowly morphs into a kind, helping community member who helps the less fortunate. All in all, Hester is a more confident and accepting person of herself and her life through the beginning of the book to the end.…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Dialectical Journal: The Scarlet Letter
    • 1624 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Dialectical Journal: The Scarlet Letter

    This excerpt displays how Hester has taken her ignominy and over exaggerated it so that she is almost mocking the very thing that was meant to shame her, making it her own.…

    • 1624 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Scarlet
    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Scarlet

    Every hero has to have their brutal beginnings before they blossom into their true hero status. For Hester Prynne, this was the constant critism and negative views the Puritan community held for Hester because of her commiting the crime of adultery, ultimately leading her to evolve into a stronger person. The townspeople feel like Hester’s sin deserves "At the very least…a hot iron on [her] forehead,” or even death. (Hawthorne, 53) Hester’s heroic charcteristics are first seen when she comes out of the prison. Every one expects Hester to be “dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud,” when she walks out , but instead she emerges with “a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed,” (55). Despite the harsh critisicm of the Puritan society, Hester does not allow herself to be influenced and show shame for her acts, like the community thinks she should. The critiscms of the town do not weaken Hester as a person, rather strengthen her to stand strong and accept her punishment with grace instead of shame. Hester also grew through the wearing of the letter “A” on her bosom. The letter was put on the bosom of Hester to inform the whole community of Hester’s sin. However, Hester embroidered the “A” “so fantastically…It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself,” (56). By making the letter look beautiful rather than shameful, like the towns intentions, Hester proves…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Scarlet Letter: Darkness Illuminated
    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Scarlet Letter: Darkness Illuminated

    passed judgment on Hester and her sin is laid bare to the reader's opened eye.…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Hester vs. adversities.
    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Hester vs. adversities.

    Hester Prynne herself occasionally allows herself to stumble, permitting her faith to diminish is magnitude. Her dwindling hope has caused her to become "a bare and harsh outline" of her former self (149). Yet, in a revelation to her of the importance…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Conformity In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
    • 1986 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Conformity In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

    After learning her earlier punishments carried upon the prison she was held in, our attention focuses on what the society has to say about it. At the market-place there is several Puritan women waiting in the crowd for Hester’s appearance. Their reactions to Hester’s punishments were something along the lines of: harsher judgments, a hot branding iron on her forehead, pity, and death. “Ah, but,’ interposed, more softly, a young wife, holding a child by the hand, ‘let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart. “What do we talk of marks and brands, whether on the bodice of her gown or the flesh of her forehead?’ cried another female, the ugliest as well as the most pitiless of these self-constituted judges. ‘This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die; Is there not law for it? (Hawthorne 36). As women in the crowd were saying such things, Hester is walking into the sunshine after her three month imprisonment. She’s carrying her child and wearing a scarlet letter “A” attached to her bodice with gold embroidery. Her initial reaction was to run and hide; but she walked with grace and beauty to the scaffold and began her three hours of public humiliation. As Hester is standing there soaking in all that she can, she notices someone at the end of the crowd. Her husband, who was held hostage by the Indians. He recognizes his wife after a while but says…

    • 1986 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dialectical journal
    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Dialectical journal

    "Come up hither, Hester, thou and little Pearl....Ye have both been here before, but I was not with you. Come up hither once again, and we will stand all three together!" Chapter 12…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Scarlet Letter Guide with answers
    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Scarlet Letter Guide with answers

    She has raised a scandal in the church. Wife of English gentleman, send Hester first while he tended to business. Never came for 2 years and now she has a baby.…

    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Role Of Hester Prynne In The Scarlet Letter
    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Role Of Hester Prynne In The Scarlet Letter

    In the beginning, Hester’s scarlet letter was seen as a sinful, dark, symbol of adultery. However, the townspeople “refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification” (168) and “said that it meant Able”…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Scarlet Letter
    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Scarlet Letter

    From the moment that Hester Prynne received the scarlet letter upon her breast, she had been the subject of public ridicule. Hester was shunned, and excluded from society “on the outskirts of the town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation (61),” called upon only when her handiwork was needed. For Seven years Hester was subjected to her daily punishment. There were many times when Hester thought she could no…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Unveiling of Roger Chillingworth
    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Unveiling of Roger Chillingworth

    In Chapter Ten, when Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates the transformation of Roger Chillingworth from an unoffending man to a leech-like character seeking revenge on his host, Dimmesdale, the author implements comparisons along with specific word choice to characterize Chillingworth. His personality in the reader’s eyes metamorphoses into one of a fiendish parasite due to Hawthorne’s application of comparisons and connotations relating to both leeches and Satan. Together these literary techniques develop Chillingworth’s mutation from an upstanding citizen to a devilish bloodsucker and depict his relentless obsession with vengeance.…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Analysis of the Scarlet Letter 1
    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analysis of the Scarlet Letter 1

    “Ah, but,” she interposed, more softly, a young wife, holding a child by the hand, “let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will always be in her heart,” (Hawthorne 47). Hester’s sin will always be a part of her soul, no matter how deeply she buries it. The scarlet A helps her to stop living her life a lie and forces her to show her sin to society, leaving her with nothing else to hide ( Morey 64). Hester is forced to set everything she has hidden free because her mistake and sin. Her life is turned into sorrow and denial leaving her a part of the dark side according to society’s view.…

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Diction of the Scarlet Letter
    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Diction of the Scarlet Letter

    Despite Hester Prynne’s disheartening sin of adultery, she constructs a beautifully crafted scarlet letter that she is told to wear for the rest of her life; the letter A. The scarlet letter is an “elaborate embroidery” against Hester’s breast with “fantastic flourishes of gold thread” (51). Hester first presents her “artistically done” apparel to her town as she stands high atop the scaffold, cradling her newborn daughter (51). While Hester is typically “dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud” in town, the scarlet letter she possesses constructs her new beauty, surprising those who now look upon her chest (51). Although the women in the crowd mock Hester for seeming to have pride in her sin, their eyes are all fixated on the “fantastically embroidered” symbol that “illuminates upon her bosom” (52). Despite the letter’s beauty, Hawthorne notes that Hester’s child is “the taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life” (54). Therefore, Hester and her daughter, Pearl, have caused the world to become “only the darker for this woman’s beauty” (54). Hawthorne infers that while Hester has become more beautiful from the scarlet letter and her newborn daughter, the world has inversely become a darker place. Regardless of what the townspeople say, Hester believes…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Roger Chillingworth's Journal
    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Roger Chillingworth's Journal

    The minister's health is fading. I fear that if I do not find a solution to his ailment soon that he may die, leaving me without a meaningful patient. Maybe it is Hester Prynne that is the problem. She is the evil influence that is taking the last little bit of life he has left. I am ashamed to think that I was even minutely involved with her many years ago. I used to be a good man but our terrible marriage corrupted me. All I have left is Mr. Dimmesdale. I have made him a concoction using plants I found on tombstones. I hope that these plants, which have grown from buried human hearts will have an effect on him. If he dies then I will no longer have a patient to perform experiments on so I will have to slow my medical research until I find another ailing individual. It will be hard to find another individual with such a strong heart and a similar aura to the pastor. Also, a victim with enough assets to pay for my expenses. He knows that I have profited from his ailments and his weak frame. I do not see the Pastor's recovery as a likely scenario. I see that he is heading to his grave so I need to take as much energy from him before he passes on. Maybe it is the demon child Pearl that is causing his imminent death. She has her own sickness which I tried to cure previously, but was unable. The deep rooted evil in the child is something even the most skilled physician cannot remove with any medicine. You can see the malevolent spirit in her eyes. I wonder if the father of this child is the devil himself. Hester is too ashamed to name her father even years after the incident. One day I will find out how this child came to be. Perhaps I will go out again to the forest tonight and perform a ritual to try to find out the true father. I must find out soon, I am getting to be an old man and I fear my time in this town is limited if I cannot find another host. I shall take the pastor for a walk on the beach tomorrow while I…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Contrast in The Scarlet Letter
    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Contrast in The Scarlet Letter

    The Puritan society was known for it’s strict morals and religious piety. But despite these supposedly virtuous qualities, in the Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, we are shown how twisted this model of society is. The people torment Hester, but refuse to see that their beloved minister carries the same sin in his heart; in fact, they revere him all the more for it. In his chapters, “Hester at Her Needle,” and “The Interior of a Heart,” Hawthorne creates an ironic contrast between Hester’s public torment and Dimmesdale’s inner agony. While there are many parallels between the two chapters, the contrasts in the character’s ways of dealing with their crime reveal how sinfulness leads to a development of oneself, as well as development of a sense of empathy for others. Paradoxically, these traits are shown to be incompatible with living the true Puritan lifestyle. This is why what goes on outside Hester and Dimmesdale is so vital to their inner narrative, Hester’s public torment eventually sets her free, while Dimmesdale’s public reverence slowly kills him.…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics