It felt to Hester as though the red cloth emanated a “burning heat; and as if the letter were not of red cloth, but red-hot iron” (30). As beautiful and as ornately designed as the letter was, it was created as a symbol of shame to be worn by Hester and to be seen and condemned by everyone in the town. Hawthorne’s decision for the letter to be red can be seen as symbolic, as the color can represent the pain that Hester has with the situation. It can also be seen as the death of her innocence as she is judged by society. Later in the novel the color red is used to describe Pearl, called a “scarlet vision” by the narrator (101).
Alisa Key August 16, 2010 AP English 11 The Scarlet Letter The progression of Hester throughout The Scarlet Letter was dramatic and varied greatly. In the beginning of the book she was feeling ashamed, isolated, and shunned by the townspeople. To her, the “A” stood for more than adultery, it stood for “ashamed.” She was being imprisoned by the judgment of others; the lock was a simple scarlet letter. She was living while being haunted by her past. Even seeing her own daughter, Pearl, would sometimes bring up the emotion of her sin all over again.
Hester Prynne: A Casualty in her own Erotic War. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne’s depiction of Hester Prynne’s inner turmoil can be viewed and deliberated on in numerous ways. As the reader myself, Hester’s inner turmoil is given off as that when she is denying her secret of Dimmesdale being her lover, she wishes she could deny that anything between them ever happened. Whenever Hester would think about her sin of adultery, Hester would in turn feel sick to her stomach. To me it looks as though Hester believes that Dimmesdale and herself could be together, but will not be able to on this earth before they die.
Caroline Cory 12/2/12 AP English Scarlet Letter In Nathanial Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, we do not see the characters to be heroes at first glance. In fact, the dark mood set by Hawthorne in the story makes many of the characters seem dark and troubled. However, with further examination of the story we are able to see true heroes emerge. Pearl is an important character in the symbolism of the story. Pearl is a sort of living version of her mother’s scarlet letter.
He, in fact, faced a constant inward struggle with his immense guilt of having sinned with Hester. Hawthorne uses Dimmesdale to represent the conflict love versus hate in that Dimmesdale does both. He has a great deal of love for Hester and Pearl, and even the people he preaches to. However, due to his overactive conscience and his desperate struggle for salvation in the afterlife "above all things else, he loathed his miserable self," for committing what the Puritan community believed to be a terrible sin (Hawthorne 141). Throughout the novel, Dimmesdale self- inflicts suffering in the form of extreme fasting and whipping on his shoulders and back.
“A sad sympathy filled her eyes. Sharada lowered her knife”. Her personality appears to take a radical turn, though it is not documented through a conversation. Due to the fact that the authentic character of Sharada is exposed mainly through her psychological and inner expansion, leaving the audience to fill in several facets of the story in its maturation, this story can not only be placed under the Poe genre of short stories but it can also be set in the category of the “ideal short story” stories within the Poe
moment. I like how the author stated that a certain abnormality may be just that- a certain abnormality. But, apply that abnormality to a character, especially in literature, and you get a unique hero/heroine who'll make an amazing impact on the story. I also found it ironic how characters of stories with abnormalties are discriminated against in the story, yet they end up being the hero/heroine of the story. Also, in the real world, we'd feel sorry for these people, sympathize, or even evade them, viewing them as different, and maybe even discriminate against them (meaniieeess!).
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 Yellow Wall-Paper’ Argues without Argument ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’ is a complex short story told though the point of view of a sarcastic and insane protagonist, who has rapidly changing ideas about her surroundings, other characters and even her own psychological state. Because of this, readers may come to a variety of conclusions about major plot points and themes. Puzzled, readers will identify the piece as a horror story—a vivid portrayal of insanity with unsettling realism. This is indeed the conscious conclusion that Charlotte Perkins Gilman intends for her readers to form. However, the piece is so much more than a simple horror story; it is a deceptively hidden but powerful essay on female equality and marriage, two topics about which Gilman wrote frequently.
Macbeth 2nd Quarter Paper Everyone has experienced guilt at sometime in their life. It plagues the minds of children and adults who have done wrong and violated their own moral standards, or even that of society. It is a natural human reaction to committing a wrongdoing like stealing a cookie or hurting someone. In the case of Macbeth and his wife however, their guilt stems from their horrid act of murder against their innocent King Duncan and their friend Banquo. Their reactions and ways of experiencing guilt differ.