In a way, the natural setting of the prison showed the contrast between the utopian Puritan society and the evil, dark place where the audience meets Hester Prynne. But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him. (56) This passage shows how Hawthorne uses the setting to port...

• Word Count: 855
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Chillingworth affirms that men who don't reveal their sins " deceive themselves They fear to take up the shame that rightfully belongs to them their zeal for God's service, these holy impulses may or may not coexist in their hearts with the evil inmates" (122). ... Hawthorne describes the physician's intentions with Arthur Dimmesdale mentioning he " strove to go deep into his patient's bossom, delving among his principles, prying into his recollections, and probing everything with a cautious touch, like a treasure-seeker in a dark cavern" (114). ... Therefore, Hawthorne&#...

• Word Count: 699
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate