Edward Said claims that exile is both an "unhealable rift" and an "enriching experience". It is easy to say that exile is a terrible experience, but when viewed at a different perspective, it is plain to see that exile can an enriching experience. These two remarks may be contrad...

Why the Custom House? When reading The Scarlet Letter, one might find the introduction chapter, The Custom House, a little bit confusing and maybe even a little bit pointless. Despite the temptation to just flip through the first 44 pages and go on to the first chapter, one needs th...

In June 1642, in the Puritan town of Boston, a crowd gathers to witness an official punishment. A young women, Hester Prynne, has been found guilty of adultery and must wear a scarlet A on her dress as a sign of shame. Instead of killing Hester the courts decided to put her on a scaffold for a si...

The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter: A Study in the Overuse of Symbolism The Scarlet Letter is considered to be the first psychological novel, dealing with the interworkings of the characters' minds rather than with their actions. In this novel, acclaimed as Hawthorne&...

"Woman, it is thy badge of shame!" Governor Bellingham was describing the image of the scarlet letter to Hester while they were discussing if the punishments that Hester had to go through were adequate for the crime. Hester was living in the outskirts of the city in a small abandoned cottage for s...

Sin in The Scarlet Letter There are many ways tointerpret literature. Nathaniel Hawthrone is considered a very influentia writer of the American Transcendentalist era; his writing deals a lot with the Puritans times, including his most novel The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter is mainly focu...

Symbolism in Rappaccini's Daughter By Nathaniel Hawthorne In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter", Hawthorne uses symbolism as one of the many literary devices in the short story. The main symbol in the story is the purple shrub set in a marble vase. Nathaniel Haw...

The Unitarians of New England started transcendentalism, reaching its peak during the 1840s. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the foremost American Transcendentalist, and he believed that the physical world was minor to the spiritual world. Still, the physical world served society by showing splendor, discip...

Nathaniel Hawthorne's obsession with sin spurred him to write several novels unlike any others seen in his lifetime. His writing style was unique for his time and sometimes criticized. He worked most his life trying to write the perfect novel, trying to be a success and finally won out. ...

Nathaniel Hawthorne's obsession with sin spurred him to write several novels unlike any others seen in his lifetime. His writing style was unique for his time and sometimes criticized. He worked most his life trying to write the perfect novel, trying to be a success and finally won out. Na...

Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale In the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are two estranged lovers. They have a daughter named Pearl, who was the product of Hester's and Arthur's adultery. When Hester became pregnant, she had absolu...

Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale In the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are two estranged lovers. They have a daughter named Pearl, who was the product of Hester's and Arthur's adultery. When Hester became pregnant, she had absolu...

Hawthorne's Portryals In the opening chapters of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne provides a detailed description of Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale. The reader is able to look into the souls of these characters and learn of their deepest feelings. Along with this Haw...

Puritan men held dark suspicions of all women as daughters of Eve, hungry for both control and sexual indulgence. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne investigates the nature of sin and criticizes Puritan cruelty and intolerance. Throughout the novel, the scarlet A comes to represent a refusa...

We are in full bloom, fertilizing the American soil rich with nutrients of intellect and imagination. Shouting our 19th Century American voice far and wide for all to hear. Appealing to most, offensive to others, yet engrossing the minds of future generations to come. We see an era where liter...