The Scarlet Letter Essays

People often overlook obscure details due to a variety of reasons. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, symbols are notable and powerful sources of percipience. Throughout the story, the author uses flowers as messengers of hope, love, forgiveness, and other emotions. In the novel, the disparity of wild-flowers and …

Thus far in “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne he has made it clear the tone he has taken towards Pearl Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and the Puritans as a whole. Hawthorne portrays his tone by his use of diction and syntax. Hawthorne’s view of Pearl is exceptionally adoring. There are …

A community is a social group whose citizens reside in a like region, share government, and posses a common culture. The Puritan societies that once populated the New England colonies captured this idea of community and heightened it to its extremes. The community’s stern regulations create a habitat which lacks …

In “The Scarlet Letter”, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the hypocrisy of the Puritan society of the seventeenth century with the story of the downfall and redemption of Hester Prynne. The hypocritical Puritan society punishes Hester for committing adultery. However, in her own mind, she does not see her actions as a …

Ambiguity, which is doubleness or inconclusiveness of meaning, is an important characteristic of Hawthorne’s style in The Scarlet Letter. Constantly used throughout the story, ambiguity continually keeps the readers attention. Examples of ambiguity are clearly seen throughout the book. When Hester Prynne is leaving the prison, Hawthorn briefly describes a …

Nathaniel Hawthorne lived during an extraordinarily turbulent time in American history. Our young nation was barely into its second generation of independence from England. Emotionally volatile issues revolving around religion, slavery, and liberty abounded. During American’s antebellum period, citizens struggled to define themselves in a rapidly changing world. Questions concerning …

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s two stories, “The Birthmark” and “The Scarlet Letter”, have very similar themes and plots. The two stories were written in the 1800’s when Europeans, that practised the Puritan religion, started to move to America. The two stories share similar themes of sin and desire with underlying Puritan values. …

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 occur. He commits …

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, biblical allusions are crucial to the story as a whole. For example, in the chapter entitled “The Marketplace”, Hawthorne explains that a Papist (Roman Catholic) would view Hester Prynne–who was standing on a scaffold in front of the Salem townsmen at that time–“picturesque …

Redemption is the act of rescuing oneself as by payment of ransom or by complying with specific peremptory requests and demands. Traditional Puritan society began with the thoroughgoing conviction of sin. After Adam and Eve committed their sin of deception and adultery every man and woman after that was thought …