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When women try to fling mud at Hester, as they are 'supposed' to do, because she is an adulteress, Pearl, the "imp," "who was a dauntless child, after frowning, stamping her foot, and shaking her little hand with a variety of threatening gestures, suddenly made a rush at the knot of her enemies, and put them all to flight." (Hawthorne, 1850, Chapter 7)
After giving birth to her daughter Pearl, Hester's early mode of opposition to society changes and becomes broader. Rather than simply show her resistance through sexual defiance, her defiance begins to embrace the entire Puritan structure of ruler. Her opposition becomes more internal, as she becomes more and more critical of societal standards beyond the purely sexual and material. When are still flashes of the old Hester, as when she sees her old husband, Chillingworth: "Be it sin or no,' said Hester Prynne bitterly, as she still gazed after him, 'I hate the man.' She (Hawthorne, 1850, Chapter 15) Chillingworth demanded that his wife accept his hours of religious...
He is bent upon revenge as his husbandly 'right.'
In her new life as the woman who wears the scarlet 'A,' Hester begins to show more attention for the care of the poor, and accepts her role within the community. She no longer shows the same sort of open defiance as she did before, for the sake of her daughter, although she continues to show resistance, through her displays of charity, and by refusing to name Pearl's father. By the end of the novel: "Her face, so long familiar to the townspeople, showed the quietude which they were accustomed to behold there." (Chapter 21) Yet this quiet moral integrity, even when not voiced as loudly as when Hester is still young, proves to be just as socially destabilizing as Hester's initial, passionate act of open, sexual defiance.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. 1850. Online edition. [28 Oct 2006] http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/sl.html
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. 1850. Online edition. [28 Oct 2006] http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/sl.html
They also become physically afflicted, afflicted in their corrupt and judgmental flesh, in the case of Chillingworth, rotting like a plant. Hawthorne's fairy-tale like ending, however unrealistic it may sound, because surely the bad and cowardly are not always punished by death and despair, does strike one true note. People who morally condemn others are entirely dependant upon finding moral causes to uphold, and people to defame. With no one
That's a very sad thing and it again shows that lack of forgiveness in the Puritan society of 16th century. Pearl thus stands for innocence in the novel- innocence that is tainted by someone else's sins. Dimmesdale represents the psychological damage that wrong teachings of the Church could produce. He is also symbolizing the weakness in the structure of the Church. He is a minister who preaches people against adultery
Hester refers to her label as a "passport" revealing that it is freeing for her, and Dimmesdale is able to preach and understand humanity better because of his relationship. True sin is not understood by the other preachers, but evil is found in the closeness of love and hate in the society. Another major theme in the Scarlet Letter is identity. Hester embraces her "A" identity and refuses to leave
As written in the novel, can teach my little Pearl what I have learned from this!" In the side of Dimmesdale, on the other hand, the effect of the sin he committed is perhaps stronger and more painful than Hester's because the bad effects caused by his sin were not instigated by the people around him, but by himself. Being a minister, Dimmesdale was known in his community as a
Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne [...] ways in which the book is a critique of Puritanism. "The Scarlet Letter" was written in 1850, but it takes place in the 1600s, when Puritanism was at its height in New England. Hester Prynne, the heroine of the novel, is ostracized by a very strict and proper Puritan society, because of her affair with the Revered Arthur Dimmesdale. Puritan society had strict
Scarlet Letter. There are three references used for this paper. The novel "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne has been a classic for many years. It is important to examine the theme Hawthorne develops and how he exhibits it through the lives of his characters. Sin and Guilt Hawthorne carries the theme of sin and guilt throughout his novel. This theme is noticeable in the plot line and is illustrated through the