Scarlet letter text. Feminism in The Scarlet Letter 2022-10-22
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The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in 1850. Set in the Puritan settlement of Boston in the late 17th century, the story follows Hester Prynne, a young woman who is publicly humiliated and ostracized after bearing a child out of wedlock. The novel explores themes of sin, guilt, and redemption, and the impact of social norms and expectations on the individual.
At the beginning of the novel, Hester is forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her clothing as a sign of her sin and shame. The "A" stands for "adultery," as Hester has given birth to a child while her husband, Roger Chillingworth, was away. Hester is ostracized by the community and forced to stand on a public scaffold, where she is subjected to the scorn and judgment of her fellow townspeople.
As the story progresses, Hester becomes a symbol of strength and resilience, defying the expectations of the Puritan community and standing up for her own beliefs and values. She refuses to reveal the identity of the father of her child, despite intense pressure from the community, and instead takes on the burden of raising the child, Pearl, on her own.
Throughout the novel, Hawthorne examines the complex themes of sin and redemption, exploring the ways in which individuals respond to guilt and shame. The character of Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband, serves as a foil to Hester, representing the destructive power of revenge and the corrupting influence of sin. In contrast, Hester's character arc shows the transformative power of redemption and the possibility of growth and self-improvement.
The Scarlet Letter is a powerful and enduring work of literature that continues to resonate with readers today. Its themes of sin, guilt, and redemption are timeless and universal, and its portrayal of Hester Prynne as a strong and independent woman remains a source of inspiration for readers of all ages.
The Scarlet Letter Quiz: Check Your Knowledge
The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognised it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison. Thus, on taking charge of my department, I found few but aged men. The shunning of Hester also extends to Pearl, who has no playmates or friends except her mother. Nevertheless, vixenly as she looks, many people are seeking at this very moment to shelter themselves under the wing of the federal eagle; imagining, I presume, that her bosom has all the softness and snugness of an eiderdown pillow. HESTER AND PEARL CHAPTER XVI. The merchants,—Pingree, Phillips, Shepard, Upton, Kimball, Bertram, Hunt,—these, and many other names, which had such a classic familiarity for my ear six months ago,—these men of traffic, who seemed to occupy so important a position in the world,—how little time has it required to disconnect me from them all, not merely in act, but recollection! The same torpor, as regarded the capacity for intellectual effort, accompanied me home, and weighed upon me in the chamber which I most absurdly termed my study.
Posted By Bikko57 at Wed 7 Sep 2016, 1:16 AM in The Scarlet Letter 1 Reply I have a pretty solid understanding of The Scarlet Letter but I have a very difficult worksheet. Externally, the jollity of aged men has much in common with the mirth of children; the intellect, any more than a deep sense of humor, has little to do with the matter; it is, with both, a gleam that plays upon the surface, and imparts a sunny and cheery aspect alike to the green branch, and gray, mouldering trunk. The new inhabitant—who came himself from a foreign land, or whose father or grandfather came—has little claim to be called a Salemite; he has no conception of the oyster—like tenacity with which an old settler, over whom his third century is creeping, clings to the spot where his successive generations have been embedded. Hester shows herself to be far stronger than her lover, Dimmesdale, who can't acknowledge his sin. And here, some six months ago,—pacing from corner to corner, or lounging on the long-legged This old town of Salem—my native place, though I have dwelt much away from it, both in boyhood and maturer years—possesses, or did possess, a hold on my affections, the force of which I have never realized during my seasons of actual residence here. The original papers, together with the scarlet letter itself,—a most curious relic,—are still in my possession, and shall be freely exhibited to whomsoever, induced by the great interest of the narrative, may desire a sight of them. Hawthorne: A Critical Study, 3rd ed.
It's between Privileged or Effaced. The old Inspector,—who, by the by, I regret to say, was overthrown and killed by a horse, some time ago; else he would certainly have lived forever,—he, and all those other venerable personages who sat with him at the receipt of custom, are but shadows in my view; white-headed and wrinkled images, which my fancy used to sport with, and has now flung aside forever. The American Notebooks of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Based upon the Original Manuscripts in the Piermont Morgan Library. At all events, I, the present writer, as their representative, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes, and pray that any curse incurred by them—as I have heard, and as the dreary and unprosperous condition of the race, for many a long year back, would argue to exist—may be now and henceforth removed. ESQ: A journal of the American Renaissance 23 1977 , 1—26; repr. Might it not, in the tedious lapse of official life that lay before me, finally be with me as it was with this venerable friend—to make the dinner-hour the nucleus of the day, and to spend the rest of it, as an old dog spends it, asleep in the sunshine or in the shade? In my delusional state, I randomly hallucinated just enough to believe that Dimmesdale is an anagram for: misled man. Nor did his demeanor change, when the withdrawal of the prison-keeper left him face to face with the woman, whose absorbed notice of him, in the crowd, had intimated so close a relation between himself and her.
No Fear Literature: The Scarlet Letter: Chapter 10: The Leech and His Patient Page 1
An entire class of susceptibilities, and a gift connected with them—of no great richness or value, but the best I had—was gone from me. He usually keeps his ground just long enough for his own ruin, and is then thrust out, with sinews all unstrung, to totter along the difficult footpath of life as he best may. Meanwhile, there I was, a Surveyor of the Revenue and, so far as I have been able to understand, as good a Surveyor as need be. The merchants valued him not less than we, his esoteric friends. It can be viewed as separating the book into its beginning, middle, and end. Later, most witnesses swear that they saw a stigma in the form of a scarlet "A" upon his chest, although some deny this statement.
In the way of furniture, there is a stove with a voluminous funnel; an old pine desk with a three-legged stool beside it; two or three wooden-bottom chairs, exceedingly decrepit and infirm; and—not to forget the library—on some shelves, a score or two of volumes of the Acts of Congress, and a bulky Digest of the Revenue laws. Continually, and in a thousand other ways, did she feel the innumerable throbs of anguish that had been so cunningly contrived for her by the undying, the ever-active sentence of the Puritan tribunal. He noticed her involuntary gesture, and smiled. Does Hawthorne enter the consciousness of his characters or does he reveal their thoughts and feelings through their actions? But the past was not dead. But it is a strange experience, to a man of pride and sensibility, to know that his interests are within the control of individuals who neither love nor understand him, and by whom, since one or the other must needs happen, he would rather be injured than obliged.
Her heart, mind, and soul belong to herself and God, not the community. There he used to sit, gazing with a somewhat dim serenity of aspect at the figures that came and went; amid the rustle of papers, the administering of oaths, the discussion of business, and the casual talk of the office; all which sounds and circumstances To observe and define his character, however, under such disadvantages, was as difficult a task as to trace out and build up anew, in imagination, an old fortress, like Ticonderoga, from a view of its gray and broken ruins. Why, the degenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler! The shadow of the curtain fell on Hester Prynne, and partially concealed her. These magistrates could easily enough take Pearl away from Esther. This book explores emotion, imagination, and the human spirit, and it remains an exemplar text for the Romantic period. Whoever touches it should look well to himself, or he may find the bargain to go hard against him, involving, if not his soul, yet many of its better attributes; its sturdy force, its courage and constancy, its truth, its self-reliance, and all that gives the emphasis to manly character.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Search eText, Read Online, Study, Discuss.
The room itself is cobwebbed, and dingy with old paint; its floor is strewn with grey sand, in a fashion that has elsewhere fallen into long disuse; and it is easy to conclude, from the general slovenliness of the place, that this is a sanctuary into which womankind, with her tools of magic, the broom and mop, has very infrequent access. It is now nearly two centuries and a quarter since the original Briton, the earliest emigrant of my name, made his appearance in the wild and forest-bordered settlement, which has since become a city. In my particular case the consolatory topics were close at hand, and, indeed, had suggested themselves to my meditations a considerable time before it was requisite to use them. In the absorbing contemplation of the scarlet letter, I had hitherto neglected to examine a small roll of dingy paper, around which it had been twisted. There, beside the fireplace, the brave old General used to sit; while the Surveyor—though seldom, when it could be avoided, taking upon himself the difficult task of engaging him in conversation—was fond of standing at a distance, and watching his quiet and almost slumberous countenance.
No Fear Literature: The Scarlet Letter: Chapter 4: The Interview Page 1
A spell was broken. Though by no means less liable than their fellow-men to age and infirmity, they had evidently some talisman or other that kept death at bay. . Or art thou one of those naughty elfs or fairies, whom we thought to have left behind us, with other relics of Papistry, in merry old England? Dimmesdale, who, leaning over the balcony, with his hand upon his heart, had awaited the result of his appeal. I will not lose the child! And when the clever husband returns, shall the father survive his venomous wrath? In this state, the voice of the preacher thundered remorselessly, but unavailingly, upon her ears. THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER CHAPTER IX. Surveyor Pue, about fourscore years ago; and likewise, in a newspaper of recent times, an account of the digging up of his remains in the little graveyard of St.
The figure of that first ancestor, invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur, was present to my boyish imagination, as far back as I can remember. University of Illinois Press. The Reverend John Wilson and the minister of Hester's church, Arthur Dimmesdale, question her, but she refuses to name her lover. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was meant, doubtless, as the mother herself hath told us, for a retribution too; a torture to be felt at many an unthought-of moment; a pang, a sting, an ever-recurring agony, in the midst of a troubled joy! An entire class of susceptibilities, and a gift connected with them,—of no great richness or value, but the best I had,—was gone from me.
