Through the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the reader learns that the Puritan religion looks down on sinning and punishes sinners harshly. Through several examples throughout the text, the reader can conclude that Hawthorne did not agree with the Puritans’ attitude toward sin. Hawthorne uses satire throughout the novel to make fun of the Puritan views. The main character of the novel is Hester Prynne, who is found cheating on her husband. As a result, she is forced to wear a sewn scarlet “A” on her clothing.
The scarlet letter is one of the main symbols Hawthorne uses in the novel. The scarlet letter is an A, which stands for “adultery.” Hester wears this letter on her breast as a reminder of her sin. The letter is mentioned numerous times throughout the novel because it is a constant reminder to all the characters of what Hester had done. Hester feels guilty while she wears the scarlet letter because she knows she committed an immoral sin, and the townspeople scorn her for it. Reverend Dimmesdale also wears in A on his chest, since he too was a part of this sin.
Could they be other than the insidious whispers of the bad angel, who would fain have persuaded the struggling woman, as yet the only half victim, that the outward guise of purity was a but a lie, and that, if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides mines. (Pg: 59)” There was no triumphant individual
“Wherefore not; since all the powers of nature call so earnestly for the confession of sin, that these black weeds have sprung up out of a buried heart, to make manifest an unspoken crime?” This quote from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, represents the truth upheld by a person, and how it carries with them through eternity. Hawthorne captures the truth of reality and sin in The Scarlet Letter. By using many literary devices, he reveals the truth of the Scarlet Letter and the characters in his novel. Being a novel during the romantic period, Hawthorne makes many symbolic and archetypical references to the power of nature, and the supernatural. Hawthorne uses these archetypes and symbols in addition to light motifs to demonstrate
Suppose Hester never met Dimmesdale? According to Hawthorne, Chillingworth is the worst sinner in the novel. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a young pure woman named Hester Prynne. In the novel, her marriage to Roger Chillingworth led to her wrong doings of the sin adultery. A symbol of a scarlet “A” was placed on her chest as a constant reminder of her mistake.
It takes real love to take the punishment upon her. Hester could have given pearl and herself a better life and a life without infamy of the scarlet letter depict on her bosom. She shows strength in which she followed through and continued to her word by not speaking his name. A weak individual would have easily given up and taken the easy way out by revealing there “fellow sinner”. Nathaniel Hawthorne fulfills the writer’s principle through Hester and Pearl’s intricacy of religious mentality.
The first reason is that because Abigail Williams is extremely manipulative and vindictive. Abigail tries to get Procter to pity her saying, “You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet! John, pity me, pity me!” (Miller 22). Abigail wants Procter to pity and give her what she wants, regardless that his wife caught them once and can catch them again. Another reason their relationship is dangerous is that if John Procter were to prosecute against Abigail Williams saying that she is in fact a witch, Abigail Williams could very easily tell the entire town that she and Procter have been having an affair to get revenge on him.
Sonja is not satisfied with the dispassionate marriage she is having with Leon as she describes it as merely “going through the motion”. She also suspects Leon of having extramarital affair and once Leon confesses his “one night stand that happened twice” their marriage breaks. However, because Leon hardly tries to communicate with his wife about his inner feelings and thoughts, it is this rare courage of honesty and his latter efforts that save his marriage. Honesty also acts as a tool that penetrates their respective emotional walls that are set private to each other. After
Before this line, Jordan remarks that she’s “never seen a girl so mad about her husband,” it’s more like Daisy was mad with worry that her husband was off with some other woman. That’s why she would look “uneasy” when he wasn’t around, because she knew of the possibility. Daisy, entirely aware of her husband’s infidelities does nothing to stop them yet she complains that she is unhappy. She has no right to do so seeing as she had the choice of not marring Tom but
His goal of being with her had come true, but while being out on the town Tom finds out about the affair and things are laid out on the table. An argument starts up between Tom and Gatsby on who Daisy loves with Gatsby saying, “ ‘ Your wife doesn't love you…. She never loved you. She loves me….. She never loved you, do you hear...She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me (137).” As he argues with Tom you can see his defiance to believe that Daisy could love another.