Adulteress In The Scarlet Letter Essay

Lawrence incorporates a sarcastic tone in his essay to belittle the adulteress because she is not deserving of a high reputation. Hester is degraded because she is shameful to all women. Lawrence sarcastically insists that she be put “upon the scaffold and worship her there” (Lawrence). Since the author does not approve of Hester’s adultery, he uses sarcasm so his readers can envision another side of Hester as a woman who is worthy of anything but praise. Lawrence sarcastically comments that she is being worshipped, which contrasts with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s judgement towards Hester who he believes plays the heroine in the novel. His sarcastic tone enables him to bring more emotion beyond the words’ literal meaning. In addition to Lawrence’s disrespect for Hester regarding the unnecessary worship she receives in the novel, he is also sardonic when he describes her appearance. Hester’s scarlet letter only represents her shameful sin of adultery in Lawrence’s eyes. He speculates that the women will be “envying [Hester’s] sin, and beating [her] because [she’s] stolen an advantage over them” (Lawrence). His sarcastic tone indicates that he has no respect for any woman who commits adultery. Because Lawrence believes that it is the woman, not the man, who is at fault for the development of an unorthodox relationship, he immediately blames Hester for creating such a relationship with Dimmesdale. Lawrence will not change his opinion on Hester no matter what she does in attempt to better her reputation.

In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is portrayed as an adulterous woman, having a child out of wedlock. She is forced to display her terrible sin publicly by wearing a letter A the color of scarlet. Though she is seen by the Puritans as sinful, she displays many of the virtues stated in Proverbs 31. Hester Prynne shows moral excellence as well as righteousness and goodness despite being wrought with sin.

Over that course of time, seven years to be exact, we observed the mental and

Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne committed the sin of adultery. Hester couldn’t hide this sin because she had Pearl, and she couldn’t get rid of her. Dimmesdale on the other hand was capable of hiding this sin because he wasn’t the one that got pregnant, and Hester wasn’t going to tell everyone what he did. So Dimmesdale hid his sin until the end of the book. The result of this however wasn’t a good one.

Adultery is having relations with someone who is not your spouse. A common theme in The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, is the theme of adultery. In both novels, the main women commit the sin of adultery. Hester Prynne and Edna Pontellier both cheat on their husbands. However, the way this affects them is very different.

A sin doesn’t always identify its committer. A symbol of scorn can be turned into something else with the right amount of determination. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the scarlet letter is meant to be a symbol of shame to Hester; however, it becomes a powerful symbol of identity for her. The scarlet letter represents her individualism, her strength to overcome the image her peers tried to enforce upon her, as well as her willingness to aid others.

In The Scarlet Letter Hypocrisy is evident everywhere. The characters of Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and the very society that the characters lived in, were steeped in hypocrisy. Hawthorne was not subtle in his portrayal of the terrible sin of hypocrisy; he made sure it was easy to see the sin at work , at the same time however, parallels can be drawn between the characters of The Scarlet Letter and of today’s society.

Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a character who garners praise and criticism alike, but literary critic D.H. Lawrence, in particular, denounces Hawthorne’s portrayal of this character in his critique, “On the Scarlet Letter.” Contrasting with Hawthorne’s positive take on Hester as a heroine, Lawrence contends that she is a character of sin and is deserving of condemnation. In his essay, “On The Scarlet Letter,” Lawrence critiques the way Hester Prynne is depicted through terse syntax, scriptural allusions, and satirical tone.

She refuses to speak the name of her “fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer” (Hawthorne 77), thus asserting her power and integrity over the religious and politically powerful men who expect her to compromise and spread the blame. Hester has even accepted her crime early on in her reply, ““It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I endure his agony, as well as mine!”” (78) Hester assimilates her fate into her character, even going so far as embroidering the letter.

In the novel The Scarlet Letter I learned that Hester Pryne is accused of infidelity, in other words to be known as the action of being unfaithful to a spouse or other sexual partner considered an horrendous sin New England in the late 19th century. For a short period of time she is convicted to prison, while she is in prison she gives birth to her daughter. the baby crowns the glaring symbol of her misstep. The decision was made by the town and chief priest to painfully increase the consequences of her sin to the public and make sure everyone saw, also to teach lessons on many thing like morality. After all of this happens they force her to make an appearance in front of the public and is criticized to wear the Scarlet Letter “A” on her chest

Chapter 2-3: Hester Prynne is a young woman who was put in jail for the crime of adultery. In the first introduction Hester is perceived as someone who does not care what other people think of her and will stare down the barrel of a gun. The author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, compares Hester to her babe by showing how they are both shunned by the people viewing them. Hawthorne contrats them when Hester stands upon the scaffold with her head held high, while her babe cries out. As Hester walks out of her prison and stands upon the scaffold for viewing and public shame, the holier than though women gossip about Hester 's sin and shames her for her sins. The men view Hester the same way, a sinner that should be punished and shamed.

Throughout The Scarlet Letter, the theme of “guilt” is prevalent and important; it is heavy and unrelenting in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s where the story is based. None of the main characters seem exempt from it, including Hester Prynne, the main protagonist and wearer of the scarlet letter, Arthur Dimmesdale, the town’s beloved minister and, later revealed, fellow adulterer, and Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband who lives under a pseudonym as the town’s doctor. Each one of them has a cross that they bear, influenced and made worse by the strict Puritan ways of the townspeople and each other, and the sins and regrets that torment them. Even worse, not only does guilt torment one emotionally

In The Scarlet Letter, the meaning of Hester’s “A” is inescapable. The “A” initially symbolizes adultery, but later on, many people came to believe that it meant “able” or “angel”. Hester Prynne, a character from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, was made as a public example and was forced to wear the red letter “A” as punishment for committing adultery. However from todays standards, adultery is viewed in an entirely different perspective.

In On the Scarlet Letter, D.H. Lawrence comments on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s controversial character, Hester Prynne. What makes Lawrence unique from other critics is that he criticizes Hester and Dimmesdale's’ sinful act, and he asserts negative opinions about the way Hester Prynne is conventionally perceived. D.H. Lawrence presents a well written analysis that effectively castigates Hester Prynne’s characterization in the novel through biblical and literary allusions, harsh syntax, and a satirical tone. The biblical and literary allusions D.H. Lawrence includes in his critical analysis allow him to execute his criticism towards Hester Prynne.

In the beginning of the novel, the reader is presented with a physical appearance of Hester that is pleasing to the visual eye. It is Hawthorne describes his heroine of the book by