... , a famous novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reverend Dimmesdale carries the problem of confession and his wrongdoings are what makes him a far greater sinner than any other character in the novel. Arthur Dimmesdale is known to be the ˜perfect' example of a pious man. He is the eminent minister of the Puritan society who centers his teachings on what the bible says to be right or wrong and how performing ... Hester to confess her lover's name in public. According to Chillingworth, he is often seen "holding his hand over his heart, as was his custom whenever his peculiarly nervous te...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... to portray how Hester is an outcast in the Puritan society, which aids in the character development of Hester. Also, another important factor that affects the plot is when Chillingworth goes to gather herbs to heal Dimmesdale from the graveyard. Hawthorne describes the graveyard in detail to show Chillingworths evil heart, and also to foreshadow the death of Dimmesdale. They grew out of the 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" (129). By using the eerie setting of the graveyard, Hawtho...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... be a focal point of disgrace for the community proving that she could carry on in the midst of crime and others could as well. Hester's change in character is noticed in the community and once more the scarlet letter's meaning shifts, this instance not to prolong as a blazing and blistering impediment of coals upon her heart, but as reference to "Angel." The letter seen in the sky was not directly ... referenced toward Hester, but the detail that it was not referenced to Hester exhibits that the town has forgotten her transgression and now thinks of good when the letter "A" is seen. No ...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... are described by Hawthorne as harsh, and hypocritical human beings. Hawthorne starts off by introducing the Puritans in Boston, anxiously awaiting the punishment of a prisoner. They seem to anticipate punishment, and are intigued and amused by harm that comes to others. For example, "...the women, of whom there were several in the crowd, appeared to take a particular interest in whatever penal infliction might be expected to ... ensue." This seems to show just how harsh and unforgiving the Pritans are to anyone who does wrong or does something not of the Puritans way. Hawthorne also bec...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... child to have an Earthly father but instead she wanted Pearl to have an heavenly father. Hester wanted pearl to be brought up in the normal way of the time of Puritanism. At this time they used strictness and used the rod frequently, but even though Hester at first tried to do her best at this. She quickly realised that Pearl was not going to ... her mother as she changes her mood so often, she seems to be very emotionless and does not show any sorrow, but that is a part of her wild nature. Her way of behaving were seen as an outcome of the adultery that Hester had committed, and now sh...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... she was forced to wear. Actions taken to remove Pearl from Hester's care are an ideal example of society overstepping the boundaries of regular punishment simply to expel any sense of happiness Hester has retained. The argument that Hester was not a fit mother because of her sin was used heavily against her. In cases such as these, society wishes to forcefully make ... modern society. Disgust with those who commit such acts is a prevalent attitude. The alienation of individuals has transcended time and is evident in any community. From a nation which questions the sexual activity of their...

• Word Count: 568
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel in which a lonely woman, Hester Prynne, commits adultery with a preacher, Reverend Dimmesdale, while her husband is away. When leaders of the village learn of Hester's sin they punish her by forcing her to wear the letter "A" on her chest at all times so that everyone will know that she is an adulterer. Despite our initial negative perception ... Hester by incorporating times when the true symbolization of the "A" is positive. Hawthorne also allows the reader to analyze how Hester is able to further develop the meaning of the "A" by allowing us to compare ...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... was not under the critique and ridicule of a harsh Puritan God, which plagued the town. The phrase "subjugated by human law" means that the forest was not restricted by the fabricated rules of the Puritans that control and critic Hester's decisions. The idea that the forest is not protected by God or by the rules of the town makes the townspeople uncomfortable with the thought of spending extensive time in the forest. Because the townspeople refuse ... to enter the forest due ... ...

• Word Count: 1003
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of the novel. His descriptions of the peoples clothing being sad colored, their hats being gray, the "weather stains and other indications of age- and rust on the "oaken door" (45), and the overgrowth of vegetation surrounding the jail all create images in the reader's mind of the tone and mood of the novel. The term juxtapose can be best defined as to place one on top of another. In the opening chapter of The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne juxtaposes the image of ... a prison against the image of a rosebush. The weathered prison described with ... ...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... depictions of the power of Puritanism on the lives of its followers are evident within the books. The Crucible uses this power in a more apparent fashion by personifying this necessity for power through Reverend Parris, while The Scarlet Letter explains the inabilities of these powers, which in turn explains the devotion of these powers to absolute power. The overall differences between The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter are perceptions of Puritan life show the different views of morals. The ... Scarlet Letter depicted the effects of one person's sins on the entire town, while The Cruc...

• Word Count: 710
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... him as "devilish" as he says, " [Dimmesdale] was haunted by either Satan himself, or Satan's emissary, [in the guise of Roger Chillingworth]" (78). The Satan-like depiction of the once rational character allegorizes how the sin and disgrace that his spouse experiences can also affect him. The overall illustratrion of the immoral character Roger Chillingworth are provided in order to show how indulgence and shame can have affects outside ... and bodily ill from the omniscient narrator perspective, the vantage point of the Puritan society portrays Dimmesdale as "holy" and "revered" when H...

• Word Count: 855
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... more appealing if authors let their readers make their own decisions about the events or characters in the story. The ambiguousness of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne leaves many of the actions, events, and issues involving the characters up to the reader's own assumption. One of the issues posed by Hawthorne during the story is that of responsibility. Hawthorne illustrates that the lack of responsibility is harmful and should be held with contempt through ... the character Arthur Dimmesdale, the unholy minister whose guilt of being an adulterer eventually kills him ... ...

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... , when juxtaposed with the rosebush, is completely opposite to the beautiful and passionate Hester. Due to the beauty and passion of Hester's character, the readers make a connection with her and even develop a feeling of sorrow and hopefulness for Hester throughout the novel, regardless of the sin she committed. The reader awaits the inevitable downfall of Hester, secretly wishing that it will never come. The ultimate downfall of Hester occurs at the end of the book when she ... nearly leaves the town that caused ... ...

• Word Count: 1733
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... by the author to give negative and positive connotations and attributes to the characters and their actions. Therefore, Hawthorne's depiction evidences an evolution in character with this simile referring to his searching in the darkness, adhering a menacing and evil characteristic to his traits as a character, giving a tailspin to his role in the novel. Hawthorne continues to exhaust the manifestation of Chillingworth's ... variation in character with the following fragment, "At first his expression had been calm, meditative, scholar like. Now, ... there was something ugly and evil in...

• Word Count: 699
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... various characters possessing dissimilar qualities, to emphasize different aspects of the work. In the novel "The Scarlet Letter", the author Nathaneil Hawthorn's depiction of the two male characters, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth, emphasizes the moral problems of the seventeenth century puritan society. Hence, their different characters contribute vitally to the plot of the novel. Arthur Dimmesdale, the Reverent and the protagonists" lover, was not a very powerful character. ... to face his society reflected his weak character. Dimmesdale was put into great pressure when he...

• Word Count: 328
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... unexcitable, and his fear to face his society reflected his weak character. Dimmesdale was put into great pressure when he was notified by the public to persuade Hester to confess who the father of her baby was, this caused his constant wounding of heart, which also stresses on his weak character. Dimmesdale's health was lead to rapid deterioration, so he went to visit Roger Chillingworth ... , the real husband of the character Hester, and one of the few doctors in town; by that time, Chillingworth had already known that Dimmesdale was the one that committed adultery with ... committed ...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... but she doesn't tell anyone that Dimmesdale was involved. Since the townspeople knew Hester committed adultery she had to wear a scarlet "A" on her chest and went through public humiliation. The townspeople didn't even suspect Dimmesdale of committing any kind of sin. To the townspeople Reverend Dimmesdale is the holiest and most perfect person in the town. I believe that Dimmesdale was unwilling to take responsibility for ... his crime because he was looked at as the perfect person so if anybody found out it would ruin his ... didn't understand exactly what he was doing and thought he ...

• Word Count: 391
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... if she revealed her partner because otherwise he would live a life of guilt. The harshness with which Dimmesdale speaks to Hester reinforces his effort to hide that he is the man which he condemns. In the chapters that follow, Dimmesdale's condition is described; he frequently clutches at his chest as though his heart pains him as he deals with his buried sin. When Dimmesdale said ... it all up in his heart", he delineates the contrasts between the fact that Hester can deal with her pain publicly, while he is forced to keep all of his emotions inside. Dimmesdale does not consider the op...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... that Prynne has committed an unspeakable sin, and not until the end of the novel does he fully disclose Prynne's sin. Prynne, an dweller of a Puritan village during the early settlement period from England, has defied the conventional standards of the rigid and austere Puritan society in an effort to follow her heart and pursue self-interest, as opposed to the meaningless standards. Consequently, Prynne serves a period in prison, and ... upon her return, she isolates herself in a secluded cottage ostracized from the mainstream life. Hester's child, the product of her sinful act, symboli...

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... universal truths. Dimly seen and mysterious truths were the ones to be found in Hawthorne's allegories. He sought for those truths in an area that has hardly been explored even today -- the human heart and mind. Hawthorne believed that the natural world around us, as well as ordinary humans, contained dark places that the cold light of reason alone could not break through. Relating ... directly to allegories is Hawthorne's use of symbolism in his stories. This is very evident in The Scarlet Letter where he uses setting and characterization ... to create an image of the various character...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... ; yet he is commended for his great talent in revealing his beliefs of anti-Transcendentalism in The Scarlet Letter creatively. These themes include his love of the destructive human nature and experimentation of questioning the standard instead of the Transcendentalist worship of natural instinct. Because The Scarlet Letter is based on a concept of his own, his writing, although still unpolished, it is developed better in ... setting and character in this novel. This style of his writing is much more useful in portraying his moral idea. Well thought and splendidly created, The Scarlet Le...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally over-shadowed it, -or whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Anne Hutchinson, as she entered the prison-door, -we shall not take upon us to determine." In ... , there is also a pleasant side to each character's transgression, illustrating hypocrisy. Hester Prynne is introduced as a tall, beautiful woman condemned for committing a serious sin of adultery. During ...

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... in America. However, Hawthorne's presentation of their idealistic settlement is a harsh contrast to this. The prison and the cemetery are in prominent positions within the settlement as the reader is first introduced with the Puritan community. The emphasis of the prison is used to represent the rigorous enforcement of the laws and the inability to break free of them. The prison door itself also serves as a metaphor for the authority of religion, which will not tolerate deviance ... . In using the cemetery in context with the prison, it reveals that ... ...

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... , and reviled their tongues" when they found out about the sin Hester has committed. Through this description, Hawthorne displayed the intolerance and lack of compassion possessed by the Puritans. Hawthorne's negative tone conveyed his disapproval of the Puritan reaction to Hester's sin, and his tone and diction also alluded to the hypocrisy of the Puritans, for they persecuted sinners while they themselves sinned as ... "bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself". Though an outcast, an adulteress, and a sinner looked down on by all of the Pur...

• Word Count: 548
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Eve committed man's first sin by eating a piece of fruit from the Garden of Eden. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Crucible by Arthur Miller portray characters committing sins throughout the novel. More importantly both novels incorporate the theme of sin as adultery throughout the sequence of the story. John Proctor, a farmer in The Crucible, and Arthur Dimmesdale, a minister in The Scarlet Letter, both have similar experiences with adultery, but ... ). Here he is not necessarily saying that God himself is dead, but in fact that religion is no longer about God but ra...

• Word Count: 689
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate