Nathaniel Hawthorne felt that the Puritans were people who believed that the world was a place where the battle between good and evil was a never-ending one. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict this battle among the characters Hester Prynne, Pearl, and Rog...

characterization of the townspeople as unforgiving and bloodthirsty individuals serves to heighten the guilt felt by the novel's sinners. Roger Chillingworth is an erudite, scholarly physician, and Hester's husband. His and Hester's marriage was arranged by Hester's parents, de...

Have you ever did something wrong but felt that it was right? After thinking about the situation, did you feel like it was the worst sin you ever committed? Did you confess at the time you realized it was wrong or did you confess because you had no other choice? In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The ...

Dimmesdale and Guilt The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most well known novels of the romantic writing era. It is a fascinating story about human frailty and its attempt to redeem itself. Set in Boston, the story involves a woman, Hester Prynne, who has a child by another man...

Cruelness is what we try to avoid for our own sake of well being. Unfortunately our lives are somewhat in other people's hands where one has a choice to make another feel small, and incompetent, making our "well being" topple from icy hands that grip our heart. With every beat it shiv...

Sin is defined in Webster's New World Dictionary as, "any offense, fault, or the willful breaking of religious or moral law." Mankind is prone to some degree of sin: it is a barrier that can not be avoided. But it is a question as to what mankind can do in order to achieve redemption ...

Many characters go through transformations in The Scarlet Letter, and one of those characters is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Author Nathaniel Hawthorne writes of a puritan society, and it is the laws of that society, both written and unwritten, that Dimmesdale breaks and which causes the changes to ...

"Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy" (Proverbs 23:13 NIV). Throughout The Scarlet Letter, the effects of sin on the physical and emotional part of the body are visible. This story deals with many themes, the most powerful ...

Throughout time, the human race has fought an on-going battle of lies and guilt from internal forces that divides the heart from the brain. In a community, especially one of high religious expectations, people suffer the warfare of every challenging consequence conceivable in order to alleviate th...

A symbol is a person, place, thing or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more. Direct statements of feeling can sometimes be inadequate; instead the use of striking symbols to evoke complexities of mood and meaning are much more interesting to read and analyze to...

The Scarlet Letter The "6th Sense" of Sinners In the Novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the society of a Puritan town of Boston excludes anyone who is a nonconformist or is in any way deviant from their thoughts, laws, and standards. However, the townspeople themse...

There are numerous characters in The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, that play noteworthy roles. The character that stands out the most is Hester Prynne. Hester changes significantly during the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel she is conceived as an extreme sinner throug...

Jane Manwelyan Bewilderment at the Hands of Sin "No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally becoming bewildered as to which may be true. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, this quote applies to the two main c...

In Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne seems to intimate that what Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmsdale shared wasn't quite as sinful as is supposed. The real sin seems to lie in the marriage of Hester with Chillingworth. Similarly, "A Pair of Eyes; or Modern Magic" by Louisa May Alcott also por...

Can a theocracy be an effective type of government? Many object to this idea, but it was the basis of the Puritan religion, which reformed against the Catholic Church of England by placing their religion in the New England area. Theocracy is a government in which the church leaders are also the st...

The heroine in the Scarlet Letter is Hester Prynne. Even though Hester sins against God, she is a woman who survives the horrendous trials of a "Puritan" society-the society that wants to be a Utopia among imperfect people. From her horrendous trials, Hester gains strength, courage,...

In early American Puritanism, women who'd committed adultery were forced to wear a letter "A" was worn as a punishment, to cause shame, to draw attention to the woman's sin. This may not have been clearly and directly stated to the reader, but throughout reading the book, you gather possible hid...