Character Analysis Hester Prynne is the character I have chosen to accomplish this character analysis. I chose to analyze Hester Prynne, because she plays a major role in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester Prynne is a young rebellious lady who succumbed to temptation. This caused her many problems, because in her religion adultery is the worst sin you can perform. This caused her to be humiliated and punished in front of the whole town.
Expository Essay In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the magistrates of the Boston colony penalize Hester Prynne by forcing her to wear a letter A on her breast, intending to isolate her from society and call attention to her sin. I feel that the letter did exactly what they anticipated. First of all, the letter did isolate her. It made Hester an outcast in almost every aspect and life for her was difficult. Second, she was looked down upon, and known to everyone as a sinner and nothing more.
Hester’s actions were motivated by two elements, Freedom of her soul, and the right to raise her child. By confessing to the mortal sin, she freed her soul from corruption and suffered the consequences. She was forgiven by God and she acknowledges that by raising her daughter, Pearl, the best way she could. Prynne was shunned by the society but she had won the most precious of gifts, her child. She was imprisoned, yet free at heart.
Because she lived in such a God driven and puritan town, the judicial system of the settlement had decided for her to acknowledge her sin by embroidering a vibrant scarlet letter “A” onto her dress to symbolize adultery. She was often ostracized from the rest of the town since she was forced to wear the crimson “A” everywhere she went. As well as the letter to remind her of the wrong she had done, the affair had left her with a fatherless daughter named Pearl. Later in the novel we discover the father is the Reverend of the town, the admirable Arthur Dimmesdale. Through pain, remorse and agony the novel reveals that it is better to tell a harmless lie then to confess a hurtful truth.
If women try to explain herself it becomes very complex with unclear ideas because of cultural codes, representations and then the sense of real identity lose its words. Women are a sign of social agreement, and they are influenced and warned to follow the social assembly and if she follows the assembly it led her to the same fate of her foresisters and their foresisters lived, but still in some sense women get the feelings of separate identity of her. However, in every area some women exist who try to invent new identity out of the social circle. They do it by accepting their differences and turning it into power to change the society. In her opinion, men will allow us to bring little change being in the social circle of limitations, but if we try to bring a big change out of codes and connotations,
The major critical article “Critical Analysis of the Scarlet Letter Analyzing Strength and Passion” analyzed Hester after being punished of her sin. The author talks about Hester’s strength and compassion. It states that Hester in the puritan eye’s, has committed the worse crime possible at the time. She was looked down on as a criminal in town although she maintained a job as a seamstress and was a good mother. Living with that every day isn’t an easy task but she remained strong and did what she had to
The Scarlet Letter Essay Through out The Scarlet Letter one of the main themes deals with the effects of guilt and hidden sin. The first character that inquired the effects of sin was Hester Prynne; she had slept with the Pastor of the town Arthur Dimmesdale and become pregnant while she was married even though her husband was thought to be at the bottom of the sea. Since you cannot keep a baby secret, Hester had to face the punishment of adultery, which the judge decided that she was to wear the letter A on her chest for the rest of her life. Hester had to face all the negatively things all the towns people said about her, but at least it made herself and Pearl more stronger physical and mentally. Hester worked hard to get the towns people to respect her, the little bit they do by making clothes for the whole town except for brides because they were thought to be pure.
Her daughter Pearl is born because of this sin. Hester loves Pearl very much and wouldn’t have changed what she did. Pearl is a very significant symbol in this novel because she is a constant reminder to the citizens that Hester had committed adultery. At the beginning of the novel, when Pearl was just a baby, she was a symbol of the sin that Hester had committed. Pearl was proof that she had committed adultery.
The reader gets the feeling that the townspeople are more impressed by the scarlet A she wears and not for the punishment she is serving for the sins she committed. When Hester gets out of prison everyone starts at her and she is the topic of conversation. But what she doesn’t realize is that the townspeople are talking about the embroidery that she has done. “Lonely as was Hester’s situations, and without a friend on earth who dared to show himself, she however, incurred no risk of want.”(56) Hawthorne uses selection to detail of detail to show that Hester Prynne has a wonderful talent for needlework, and that she also loves to make cloths for the townspeople. On the other hand the reader learns that Hester is ashamed of herself, and that she cares what other people think.
Abigail’s assumptions about the nature of power. b. Encouraged women to start standing up to themselves for their rights. c. To make existing laws more applicable to their needs or to create new laws that best fit women. III.