When Hawthorne was four years old, his father, who was a sea captain (also named Nathaniel), died of yellow fever. ... Hawthorne married Sophia in 1842 and the couple moved to Concord, Massachusetts where their first child, Una was born ("Nathaniel Hawthorne"). ... He was not fond of the job and was relieved in 1848 when he was fired, giving him time to write his most famous work The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850 (Turner, 137). After The Scarlet Letter was published, Hawthorne who had never truly felt comfortable in Salem moved the family to Lenox. ... His deep infatuation with the...

• Word Count: 1129
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables, and The Blithedale Romance Hawthorne exhibits his themes of evil, moral responsibility, and crime and romance, and proves that anyone is capable of falling from grace, as humans are born with an evil nature. ... After college, It was during his time of unemployment that Hawthorne returned to a career of writing and published The Scarlet Letter in 1850. The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne's master opus, "a genuine native romance" (Whipple, 3) full of subtle terror and particularly appealing remains one of the most well-received America...

• Word Count: 646
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Throughout the passage from the scarlet Letter, Author Nathaniel Hawthorne's emotions about the Puritans and the Puritan community are deeply expressed with a sense of critisism and mockery. The Puritans, who are to be honorable people with good morals, 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. ... The way Hawthorne describes these people shows his attitude toward Puritans not so much as a kind of malice but in a disbelieving and negative way. ... Anot...

• Word Count: 398
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In the novel The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne takes a very biased side against the Puritans he writes about. Hawthorne himself was a descendant of Puritan ancestors, and it seems that in many ways he still cannot escape the engulfing guilt of their crimes, as he never truly held their religion; "Hawthorne never felt he belonged to any such community of love and belief." ... Hawthorne's presentation of the Puritans throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter is not much different from my own opinion, though he leaves out even the slightest amount of good characteristics that they might...

• Word Count: 513
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the greatest Anti-Transcendentalist writers of all time. ... His most popular book, The Scarlet Letter, earned Hawthorne international fame. ... Terence Martin sums up the meaning of Hawthorne's best known book, The Scarlet Letter in three sentences: "Taking its form in Hawthorne's imagination, the total context of The Scarlet Letter inheres in the letter itself. ... Hawthorne begins and ends with the letter, which encompasses and transcends all its individual meanings, which signifies, totally and finally, The Scarlet Letter itself." Shown by his past,...

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

In the book, "The Scarlet Letter," Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a character who is so loving, passionate, and mistreated that the reader cannot help but feel badly for her. ... She is reminded of her sin every day with her child, Pearl, and the scarlet letter. ... Throughout the story of "The Scarlet Letter," Hawthorne tips off the reader that Hester Prynne is destined for a downfall because her character is written a classic tragic heroine. ... The first scene of "The Scarlet Letter" is described as "A throng of bearded men, in sad colored garments and gray... assembled in front of a wooden ed...

• Word Count: 1733
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

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's story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter "A" on her breast. ... Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter, is a means of presenting an issue on not taking responsibilit...

• Word Count: 1146
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Known for their strict, repressive society, the Puritans barred all forms of deviation within their community, as described in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Set in the mid-1600s, The Scarlet Letter epitomizes the religious intolerance of Puritan society. ... In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the Puritan community of Boston essentially creates Hester Prynne's deviation. ... Nathaniel Hawthorne, portrayed as the Narrator, appears to be a deviant character himself. ... Puritanism's repressive intolerance challenged the people of the 17th Century, as portrayed ...

• Word Count: 789
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, nature is extremely significant in the development of the plot, characters, themes, and main idea. Nature plays a very significant role in the plot development of the Scarlet Letter. ... Nathaniel Hawthorne expertly uses nature to affect the plot development. Nathaniel Hawthorne also uses nature to influence the character development in the Scarlet Letter. ... The themes and main idea are portrayed and are more apparent in the Scarlet Letter by Hawthornes use of nature. ...

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

The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, conflicts the effects of the conjunction of church and state while The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, conflicts the inability to perfect human nature regardless of any assistance given by a created lifestyle such as Puritanism. ... The conjoining of church and state was not as evident within The Scarlet Letter but instead displays the inability to perfect human nature regardless of any assistance given by a created lifestyle such as Puritanism. ... Sin, rather than power, is the basis of The Scarlet Letter and donates to the message that...

• Word Count: 710
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

American Renaissance Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," belongs to the period known as American romanticism, the period called, by F.O. ... Matthiessen was influential in determining the canon of American writers from this period: Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman. ... Herman Melville: an author of romantic fiction as was Hawthorne, Melville is particularly well known for his novel Moby-Dick. ... Nathaniel Hawthorne: many of Hawthorne's stories are set in Puritan New England, and his greatest novel, The Scarlet Letter (1850), has become the classic port...

• Word Count: 917
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel that illustrates the importance of one person in the community and how that individual has the capability to alter the outcome of himself and the community. ... She first appears to the host with her head held high and a brilliantly embroidered scarlet letter "A" upon her chest. With the use of her needle working skills, Hester presents the highly ornamental scarlet letter on her chest proving she will stand tall though she may be ashamed. ... As a consequence of the scarlet letter, Hester observes that what she is adorned with is a gatew...

• Word Count: 842
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, addresses an issue which has not only existed in the past, but permeated through time. In this American classic, Hawthorne depicts a narrow-minded society which blindly follows particular standards and rules without individual inputs. ... In the novel, Hawthorne gradually releases information regarding the protagonist, Hester Prynne. ... In the novel, Hawthorne points out the rigidity of the Puritan society, and the enormous influence which the ministers and the church played on the thoughts, beliefs, and standards of the town. ... Through the fear o...

• Word Count: 748
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

"The Scarlet Letter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel in which a lonely woman, Hester Prynne, commits adultery with a preacher, Reverend Dimmesdale, while her husband is away. ... Hawthorne also allows the reader to analyze how Hester is able to further develop the meaning of the "A" by allowing us to compare her to Mr. ... In The Scarlet Letter, the "A" is intended to be a symbol of shame, but instead it gradually shifts to represent the fact that Hester is an asset to society because she exemplifies the only way how society can better itself: by accepting and learning ...

• Word Count: 1123
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

However, in The Scarlet Letter, 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. ... Due to this sin, Dimmesdale becomes physically and psychologically weak to the point where his once young lively face "seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure more misshapen " (Hawthorne 102). ... According to Chillingworth, he is often seen "holding his hand over his heart, as was his custom whenever his peculiarly nervous temperament was thrown into agit...

• Word Count: 557
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

If the steps and concept of symbolism are then applied to the Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, we would find a multitude of example of symbols in the characters' lives, objects and the characters themselves. ... We see light and dark represented though out The Scarlet Letter from seeing Hester in the dark to Pearl in the light. ... Seemingly well informed, Pearl explains this occurrence being caused by the fact that "the sunshine does not love her" mother and it is afraid of something on her chest (Hawthorne 160); the scarlet letter. ... The role of a charac...

• Word Count: 1244
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel which portrays the message of sin and punishment, through the outcome of an adulterous relationship between Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne portrays the tension between Dimmesdale's guilt and the fact that he cannot confess to his sin. ... Hawthorne does not express a plausible ending to the progression of Dimmesdale's developing emotions, rather, he creates an ending in which Dimmesdale reverses his fundamental principles. ... His reaction, however, is not to palliate his suffering by...

• Word Count: 1174
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Crucible by Arthur Miller portray characters committing sins throughout the novel. ... John Proctor, a farmer in The Crucible, and Arthur Dimmesdale, a minister in The Scarlet Letter, both have similar experiences with adultery, but Proctor seems to approach his sin in a more honorable manner than Dimmesdale. ...

• Word Count: 689
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The act of Shunning is viewed in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter when the protagonist Hester Prynne commits adultery in the puritan society. ... This can be directly linked to how Hester was treated for what she did in puritan society in The Scarlet Letter. ... Dimmesdale was shunned by all of Puritan society in the Massachusetts Bay colony. she was forced to stand on a scaffold in front of the townspeople for three hours wearing an embroided Scarlet letter "A" which stood for "Adultery" at that point in the novel. ... In comparison to Ray rice, a football player who was well li...

• Word Count: 1654
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Crime and Punishment in Colonial Massachusetts Throughout Massachusetts's colonial history the interest and confusion can be targeted to the punishments done, for the crimes committed. Presentism is a major idea to remember when reflecting on the actions taken during colonial times. The below excer...

• Word Count: 2078
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate