Even after twenty years of examination there still hasn’t been an agreement on Hawthorne’s purposes and sympathies in the book. He makes a clear connection to the historical and ideological background of the Revolution by writing “The Custom-House” alone. Jefferson’s writing of the Declaration shows distinct differences when compared to Hawthorne’s novel. However, they are similar in their purposes and themes of wanting to show the world the worst that can happen in society. Baym, Nina.
Summary and motifs of Scarlet Letter chapter 4 I was unable to find the paper on what this journal is designed to be about in my binder or on the class website so I figured I would just result to the original journal format from “The Scarlet Letter” 1. Act 4 2. Summary- This is relatively slow and short act, most likely because they final outcome of the story is basically revealed in the previous act. It starts off in the town jail, with a scene of Tituba and Sarah Good in jail together talking about a journey they will make with their king, more commonly known as the devil. It is at this point that Herrick enters the room requesting Tituba to come with him, most likely for execution.
Jacob Poiner Theatre History III Dr. Teresa Durbin-Ames 12/6/2013 The Play: 4.48 Psychosis is a play by Sarah Kane, a British playwright, and is about psychotic breakdown. In this disjointed play there are no specified characters, setting, or time lapse. This play is a paint by number for lack of better terms. There is the skeleton—the text—other than that the interpretation of how many characters, where it takes place, and how long it takes is completely up to the director. The script takes a look into what happens when the barriers of the mind and reality are torn down.
Andres Salazar “Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era”(43). Only taking fifteen to twenty years for the wooden jail to become darker besides its already gloomy appearance, the prison-door never looked new. With crime being associated to bad people and hatred, the prison door sets the tone for the novel. This prison-door, appearing to hold dangerous criminals, set in Utopia, where they know that misbehavior, evil, and death are unavoidable, sets the tone of sadness filled with sin. In Hawthorne’s passage from The Scarlet Letter, the prison-door‘s contrasts and detailed description convey the tone of sadness and condemnation, along with its connection to social order which helps create the overall thematic meaning.
A small crime was considered to be as terrible as the worst of crime, and criminals were punished strictly. For example, a child will be beaten in the town square as a punishment for being ungrateful to his parents. The punishment to Hester Prynne for adultery is the scarlet letter "A" on the front of her dress after seven years prison life. Therefore,at first, the scarlet letter "A" symbolizes "adultery" here and means AD which is short for Arthur Dimmesdale, who is Hester's lover. With the development of plot,the scarlet letter"A" represents "amazon".
Then, in chapter 18, Hawthorne writes, “Thus, we seem to see that, as regarded Hester Prynne, the whole seven years of outlaw and ignominy had been little other than a preparation for this very hour.” Throughout the book, there are various meanings to the scarlet letter. It means different things to different people – a sign of wealth to the butler, curiosity for Pearl, guilt for Dimmesdale, rebelliousness, revenge or motivation for Chillingworth, and betrayal of one’s spouse, to name a few. Regardless, the true duty was to punish and teach a lesson, neither of which the letter
The most important symbol which is carried in The Scarlet Letter is certainly the letter A. In the beginning of the story it symbolizes the act of adultery, but by the end of the tale the A has a variety of meanings. The letter appears in many other places other than the chest of Hester Prynne. For example: while Dimmesdale is standing on the scaffold he sees a bright red letter A in the sky. One of the most significant A's is one the townspeople see on Dimmesdale's chest at the end of the novel.
What was once considered a mistake is now seen as a mischievous child named Pearl. After her extramarital affair, Hester has to go through the humiliation of standing in front of the entire town wearing her scarlet letter and holding her illegitimate child. She feels remorse for her action: “Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast, --at her, the child of honorable parents, --at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman, --at her, who had once been innocent, --as the figure of the body, the reality of sin” (Hawthorne 73). Society sees Hester in various roles but they judge her according to unforgiving rules. While Hester’s “sins” are out in public where all could see, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth hide their debaucheries from public view.
Hester and Pearl leave town. Hester passes away years later while Pearl is never to be heard of. "The Scarlet Letter" contains the use of irony. The characters really know what is going on but no one will come out and actually say it. The names of the characters are extremely ironic such as Pearl, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. Euripedes’ Medea embodies this quote from William Cosgrove’s play. Medea is a play that symbolizes feminism and the overturned of fate from a woman grieving in sorrow over the loss of her husband to another wife, to a man grieving in sorrow over the loss of his bride and children to Medea. The one thing about Euripedes’ play is there was a lot of word play to describe the situations and actions of one person, almost never giving a suspense of what is to come next. We knew ahead of time that Medea was bound to murder her children, which I thought should build a nice suspense to the play had it not been mentioned.