Since the prison is a place of darkness and sin, the beauty of a wild rose bush growing in such an unexpected place symbolizes God's grace. By starting off with a prison door and beautiful rosebush, Hawthorne is letting us know that the issues punishment versus forgiveness and judgment versus grace are going to be super important. Like I said earlier even though Hester went through many hardships she was able to overcome and bloom just like a rosebush would. The Scarlet Letter is a dark book at the beginning because the setting of the prison makes me think of sadness. When the prison is being described Hawthorne names everything that makes it such a sad place.
Archetypes are specific details such as color or lighting that stand out and have a symbolic meaning in a text. The Scarlet Letter uses many color archetypes. In the novel, Hester Prynne has just emerged from the prison and has fully revealed herself to the public. The narrator describes, “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A.” The gold thread around her red scarlet letter draw attention to the letter that represents her sin, showing that sin cannot be kept a secret. Yellow, or gold, is an archetype that in a room is commonly the first color to be noticed.
The chapter describes a rosebush that grew from where Anne had stepped into the prison. Rose bushes are usually associated with passion (beauty plus pain) or the church (as in Dante). Anne had a passion about her beliefs about the church and is a heroine. This rose bush grew in memory of her. Hester Prynne herself walks into this prison for almost the same reason as Anne Hutchinson.
'Humiliation. In The Scarlett Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne adeptly employs rhetorical devices such as allusion, syntax, metaphor, irony and imagery. He dares to probe the deleterious nature of revenge and the duplicity of character in the Puritan society circa the late 1600’s. The Biblical allusions found in the Scarlet Letter are so great in number to the point of being obvious. First, Hester and Dimmesdale are comparative to Adam and Eve; after committing the infraction, she is cast out of the Puritan community and both are forced to live under the stress of their guilt and work to ease their consciences (Faira 1).
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a gothic romance of two prohibited lovers who face the consequences of their shared adultery. In the last chapter which serves as an epilogue; informs the reader of the events following Dimmesdale’s death and reports on the fates of the major characters. Hawthorn uses a series of Rhetorical Devices – such as Irony, symbolism, and imagery- to explain that the admission of sin leads to redemption and forgiveness. Irony is a major role in this last chapter; it helps the reader understand the point Hawthorne is trying to deliver. He uses Chillingworth actions as an irony act, as an example, that even the evilest person can still reach redemption and forgiveness; as long as they accept their sin and the consequences.
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.
57).In the market place, people criticize Hester as she emerges from the prison door and makes her way to the scaffold to be publicly condemned. Women in the crowd make comments of the letter A on her chest. She is sentenced to stand on the scaffold for three hours is forced to wear the A on her chest for the rest of her of life. ‘“A wise sentence!’” says a stranger in the crowd. ‘“Thus she will be a living sermon against sin, until the ignominious letter be engraved upon her tombstone’” (Hawthorne pg.
In the end of the novel, Hester and Pearl are both seen in the light. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to show the corruptness of Puritan punishments, and the goodness that can come from them. The symbols he chose had to do with Hester’s sin and the good things that come from it. The scarlet letter was his main usage of symbolism, which symbolized Hester’s sin. Hawthorne also used the scaffold, as well as lightness and darkness as symbols in the novel.
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.
Nathaniel Hawthorne evaluates the concept of sin greatly in The Scarlet Letter–– the sin committed as well as the effects that sin has and the events that are caused by it.The sin of adultery is what condemned Hester Prynne “for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom” (46), and therefore live a life filled with ignominy, in the 17th century Puritan community of Boston. Her fellow sinner, Reverend Dimmesdale, had but another sin in his heart–– concealment. As Hester wears her sin on her chest, in the form of a “fantastically embroidered” scarlet letter A, Dimmesdale locks his sin within the confines of his soul. Meanwhile, Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, sins with his wrath–– by seeking revenge against Dimmesdale. The psychological