Scarlet Letter Character Analysis

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The Scarlet Letter is a novel and an allegory written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne was born in 1804, almost two centuries after the time period in which The Scarlet Letter is set. The setting for the novel is in Puritan America in the early seventeenth century. Hawthorne was a serious writer who often wrote about moral values and whose writings stood in stark contrast with the transcendentalist writings of the early to mid nineteenth century. Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter to send a message about the hypocrisy of the church to the people of his time. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne portrays the Puritans as prude and hypocritical. Because this writing is an allegory, the characters tell us universal truths about mankind through what happens in the story. Therefore, when the reader is shown the different effects of exposed sin(Hester Prynne), partially exposed sin(Reverend Dimmesdale), and completely hidden sin(Roger Chillingworth), he/she can draw conclusions about how different types of sin affect mankind in general. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne demonstrates through Reverend Dimmesdale how not repenting for sin can affect a man's soul, which changes the ways that he relates to himself, to others, and to God. The most noticeable effect of sin on Dimmesdale is how it changes his character, and the ways that he sees and relates to himself. Dimmesdale is a highly respected and eminent clergyman, who is renowned as one of the most godly men in Massachusetts. Hawthorne attests to this when he writes of Dimmesdale, "His eloquence and religious fervour had already given the earnest of high eminence in his profession"(26). However, Dimmesdale possesses an unusual manner about him for a man of his position. Hawthorne describes it as "an apprehensive, a startled, a half-frightened look-as of a being who felt himself quite astray and at a loss in the pathway of
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