Nineteenth century writer Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered to be one of the greatest authors of American literature. His writings continue to be integral parts of the literary curriculum of today. A major theme of Hawthorne’s writings is pride and it’s consequence. He viewed pride as real evil. In The Scarlet Letter‚ Roger Chillingworth is the embodiment of this fatal flaw. Throughout the tale‚ Chillingworth is described as the leech. This is interesting‚ because at
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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most successful and best known novel‚ The Scarlet Letter‚ is driven by the theme of vengeance. That is to say that‚ the acts of retaliation played out by Hawthorne’s characters in response to the intense pain inflicted upon them by the consequences of sin moves the story chapter by chapter from Hester Prynne’s imprisonment a lifetime later. By the story’s conclusion‚ the characters are exposed for who they really are‚ which in some cases is the very opposite from what the reader
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is the main theme in The Scarlet Letter. All of the characters in the book were somehow affected by the main sin‚ which was adultery. The three main characters were the most widely affected‚ and their whole lives were molded by the way they dealt with the sin. The sin surrounds‚ encloses‚ and strangles them. There was no escaping from its cruel consequences. Hester Prynne’s sin was labeled an adulteress‚ and the result of this was that she had to wear the scarlet letter "A." She feels that her
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harsh punishment‚ and cruel judgment for those who do not follow societal guidelines. When Nathaniel Hawthorne penned The Scarlet Letter‚ he not only exposed the hypocrisy in the Puritan religion‚ but he revealed numerous psychological components. Within the lines of his novel‚ Hawthorne exposes what is perhaps Sigmund Freud’s most prominent theory‚ his take on personality. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter exposes Freud’s personality theory in providing explicit examples of the Id‚ Ego‚ and Superego
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Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne had to suffer his own sin and can’t find a way to confess to the society‚ no one understands what is he going through. Hester has to suffer from her own sin with everyone be disgusted by her‚ wish to not have any relationship with her. This is the same with John Proctor in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. He had to suffer a sin of his own‚ due to the affair between him and Abigail Williams. Therefore he has to face
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The natural world‚ in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s American Romantic novel‚ The Scarlet Letter‚ is utilized as the main tool to exemplify that appearances are deceptive‚ and often hide the truth beneath themselves. Hawthorne shaped the presence of nature through his interpretation of how the Puritans interacted with it‚ how nature itself shaped the personalities and actions of some characters (such as Dimmesdale‚ Hester‚ and Chillingworth)‚ and how Pearl interacted with it. Using nature as a cloak for
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Even though adultery is a pretty heavy sin‚ Hester Prynne really turns it around and makes herself the best citizen of Boston in the 1600s. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a girl‚ Hester Prynne‚ who commits adultery but doesn’t let that define who she is. In my opinion she ends up becoming the best citizen in the city of Boston in the 1600s. Even though she committed adultery with a minister and threatened to throw her daughter in a dark closest if she wouldn’t stop asking her
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Pearl Highlights Hypocrisy in the Scarlet Letter In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter‚ Pearl undergoes a dramatic transformation from a devilish infant to a sagely child. Born into a society full of judgment and hypocrisy‚ Pearl‚ a bastard child‚ is unable to escape her predetermined role. Pearl lacks a traditional family; her mother is the sole provider‚ a direct attack on Puritan standards designating this young family as outsiders. Furthermore‚ Pearl‚ unlike her peers‚ establishes a reputation
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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
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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter‚ the scaffold plays a vital role as a unifying device. It symbolizes not only sin‚ but also redemption.The scaffold scenes are very important because during that time‚ all of the major characters are united for a specific purpose. Each of the three scaffold scenes shows how the situations of Hester‚ Chillingworth‚ and Dimmesdale are drastically changed. These three scenes are ultimately the most dramatic scenes in the novel. The scaffold’s first appearance
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