The forest is like a dark and mysterious place where a dark creature, the "Black Man," lives. ... He gets reed of the pain by telling everyone about how he sinned with Hester, which takes away the burden on his heart. ... One major theme of The Scarlet Letter is that a dark hidden secret, unless the secret is told to others, causes pain and suffering to the beholder. ... Throughout the story Dimmesdale is haunted by his dark secret, even in his every breath. ...

• Word Count: 781
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

With a penitent heart, Hester travels through the story becoming only a shadow of her former passionate loving self. ... First, the forest can symbolize darkness and evil. ... Adjective: Dark: Darkness is associated with concealment, evil, and deception. For example, Hester and Dimmesdale commit adultery and continue to meet in the dark forest. ... Chillingworth is always associated with darkness. ...

• Word Count: 1015
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The only light in the dark atmosphere is a rosebush growing by the prison door. ... Meanwhile, venerable Reverend Dimmesdale's body starts to waste away from a mysterious heart condition. ... He does this, however, in the pitch-black darkness of the night, so the situation is not exactly the same. ... "And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. ... Dimmesdale clutches his heart instinctively and admits to Hester that he hat...

• Word Count: 3653
• Approx Pages: 15
• Grade Level: High School

Judge Me Not, Love Me, Seek No Revenge Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, a dark tale of sin and redemption, centers on the small Puritan community of Boston during the seventeenth century. ... Cillingworth devotes his life to revenge, which leads him to a state of darkness. ... He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart." (1345) This statement shows how demonic Chillingworth has become, and he will follow them to the ends of the earth to fulfill his longing for vengeance. ... The people of the town saw her as a teaching tool, "the young and pure would be ta...

• Word Count: 759
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

She also thinks it was even worse of Roger for asking her to marry him "when her heart knew no better."" ... The child replies that it is "the same reason the minister keeps his hand over his heart!... - Hester deviates Pearl's questions by replying that she knows nothing of the minister's heart and that she wears the scarlet letter for the sake of the gold thread. ... " Why does the minister keep his hand over his heart?- Hester, annoyed, harshly reprimands her daughter for asking, threatening to "shut thee into the dark closet!...

• Word Count: 609
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

This scene is left to be determined by the reader, but later in the novel, the minister is seen clutching his heart several times. ... Although the scarlet "A" keeps her in the dark, she also is a symbol of it. ... It is one piece of beauty in this dark, dull atmosphere. ... (Fossum 13) The forest is symbolic of nature and contains aspects of both light and dark. ... The dark aspect of the woods can be shown through the black man that Pearl sees, who was the people's symbol for the devil. ...

• Word Count: 1366
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

But little did the community know what contradictive ness, what dark secret Mr. ... It was that same intellect, powerful speeches, contradictive ness, and dark secret that let him get away with committing adultery and at the same time wilt away like a dying flower. ... Dimmesdale said " Be not silent from any mistakes pity and tenderness for him; for believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, one thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. ... Dimmesdale knew that all Hester had to do was speak ...

• Word Count: 1126
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

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 Puritans' eyes committing a terrible sin is failing to admit to it. Roger Chillingworth is twisted and in the puritans society he was consider a dark soul. ... " ― Nathaniel Hawthorne Roger Chillingworth has committed many sins that he hasn't shared with the public, he keeps...

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

Sin and its Effects on Dimmesdale and Hester Imagine going through your life carrying only a deep, dark secret with you. ... By her wearing her A on the outside of her heart, it does not stay there unlike Dimmesdale who keeps his tucked in deep inside so no one could see. ... He keeps his hand over his heart to hide where his guilt of his sine shines through. ... Dimmesdale exhibited no system of positive and vivacious suffering, except that, as little Pearl had remarked, he kept his hand over his heart." ...

• Word Count: 798
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

One day, Chillingworth brought a bunch of dark herbs to the reverends room. When the reverend asked Chillingworth from where did he get those he said he "found them on a grave, which bore no tombstone," and also added that "they grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime." ... Although he knew that the visions were not real, he still had to deal with the guilt and shame that dwelled in his heart and mind. ... His heart began to pain him so bad that he let out a loud scream. ...

• Word Count: 735
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

She followed her heart and therefore dealt with the consequences that soon followed. ... Although the scarlet letter burned a hole to her heart, Hester wears it and never denies it, which shows a true strength from within. ... He is acting as a leech, sucking away at Dimmesdale's life, trying to pry into all of his deep, dark secrets. ... Dimmesdale's health is quickly going down the drain and he is having heart trouble, not to mention various other health complications. ... They both exchange some words, but Chillingworth simply leaves Hester with the idea that this horrible thing h...

• Word Count: 1678
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Hester "was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance... she had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off sunshine with a gleam" (46). ... Her vulnerability to the crowd of Puritan observers is challenging, and Hester holds the child to her heart, a symbolic comparison between the child and the scarlet letter, suggesting that they are both connected. ...

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

He holds this huge secret inside of him, which does nothing but tear away at his heart and mind. ... "But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the colour to their lifetime; and, still the more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it." ...

• Word Count: 358
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

Dimmesdale explains the darkness of Chillingworth's sins to Hester: "' We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. ... He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. ... 'What we did had a consecration of its own '" (155-156) This quote illustrates the depth and darkness of Chillingworth's sin. ...

• Word Count: 695
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

"And so, Hester, I drew thee into my heart, into its innermost chamber, and sought to warm thee by the warmth which thy presence made there!" ... This usually led him to "some pretty dark conclusions about the world, man, society and their relationships to each other" (preface p1). ... He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of the human heart" (p273-274). ...

• Word Count: 670
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The novel begins to seek into the heart and conscience of Arthur Dimmesdale when Roger Chillingworth questions him about his thoughts on sinners and their secrets. ... (Hawthorne118) By this expression, Arthur offers a glimpse into his tortured heart and shows how heavy a burden his secret is. ... Not only is the health of Arthur's body in question, but the condition of his heart and soul is questionable. ... Later, Dimmesdale goes to the scaffold as a place where he can escape from the anguish of his concealed transgression and the evil-hearted schemes of Roger Chillingworth. ...

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

The scarlet letter "gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts- Last, this is shown when Hester got out of prison even though she could go anywhere she stayed in Boston. "It may seem marvellous, that, with the world before her,[ ] " free to return to her birthplace, or to any other European land, and there hide her character and identity under a new exterior, as completely as if emerging into another state of being,""and having also the passes of the dark, inscrutable forest open to her, where the wildness of her nature might assimilate itself with a people wh...

• Word Count: 615
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These three sinners, in the eyes of the puritan community are the beautiful Hester Prynne, the esteemed Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and the cold-hearted doctor, Roger Chillingworth. ... Then instead of admitting his sin to the public, he keeps his dark secret in his heart, knowing it will eat at him for the rest of his life until he reveals it. ... Chillingworth's second, and far more evil sin, is tricking the heart of a fellow man and sacrificing a friendship to gratify his own selfishness. ... He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. ...

• Word Count: 1211
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The Romantic literary movement was at its height, but Hawthorne and Poe strayed from typical Romantic writings with their darker tales concerning sin and morality (www.trackstar.com). ... And like [Edgar Allen] Poe, he has remained a man of mystery in American literature, whose heart successive biographers have tried to bare, each one with a different expiation [ ] but coming to the conclusion that " his reticence comes from finding no solution to the problems that constantly beset him,"" said McPherson. ...

• Word Count: 1751
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

"Hester Pryne was startled to perceive what a change has come over his features--how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure more misshapen- (108) He had established himself as a doctor in Boston. ... "He now dug into the poor clergy man's heart like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man's bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption." (125) Chillingworth is now almost completely consumed with evil. ... "This unhappy person had effected s...

• Word Count: 1089
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

"Hester Pryne was startled to perceive what a change has come over his features--how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure more misshapen- (108) He had established himself as a doctor in Boston. ... "He now dug into the poor clergy man's heart like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man's bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption." (125) Chillingworth is now almost completely consumed with evil. ... "This unhappy person had effected s...

• Word Count: 1075
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Committing a much darker sin, Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband, is guilty of violating another human's heart and soul. ... While the sins of the other characters were sins against society, Chillingworth's sin is a sin against another person's heart and soul. ... This violation of Dimmesdale's heart and soul becomes Chillingworth's obsession and sole reason for being. ...

• Word Count: 897
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

A delicate balance between forces that are good and those that are evil hangs within every beating heart. ... After moving in with Dimmesdale, "Roger Chillingworth- the man of skill, the kind and friendly physician- strove to go deep into his patient's bosom, delving among his principles, prying into his recollections, and probing everything with a cautious touch, like a treasure seeker in a dark cavern" (114). ... Hester's goodness is expressed through her willingness, "to give her little substance to every demand of poverty; even though the bitter-hearted pauper threw back a gib...

• Word Count: 1073
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Reverend Dimesdale's image radiates the dark, gloomy truth of his impurities as well as the severe internal conflict within that is threatening to tear his soul. ... Forth peeped at her, out of the pool, with dark glistening curls around her head and an elf-smile in her eyes, the image of a little maid, whom Pearl, having no other playmate, invited to take her hand and run a race with her." ... The very limited light that shines onto the looking glass is used to burn deep into the minister's soul, prodding at the shameful secret he hides within his heart, and shine the consequences b...

• Word Count: 2043
• Approx Pages: 8

Dark sides of human nature are presented in this novel, such as Dimmesdale's cowardice, Chillingworth's evilness and the persecution existing for the cruel laws. ... "(p177) Pearl's capriciousness and wild is the expression of her mother's anger about puritan society hidden in the heart. ...

• Word Count: 830
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School