The Scarlet Letter William And Hester Relationship

The book, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is the scandalous story of Hester Prynne and how the scarlet letter ‘A’ burns on her breast. Hester has a child who is born in adultery. She is sentenced to stand on the dreaded scaffold and endure public shaming and to wear the letter of conviction for the rest of her days. Even in her suffering, Hester refuses to give the identity of the father, the highly regarded Minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. He is a cowardly man who is permits Hester to suffer alone. Even though he confesses his sins eventually, he refuses several other opportunities; therefore, he is weak and cowardly, and in no way a hero.

Hester and Dimmesdale are forgiven. Though Hester was an adulteress, she made it up to the town by doing kind acts. Therefore, Hester is forgiven. Dimmesdale however, never conceded to his acts and remained in the dark, due to this he is considered as being unforgiven.

Themes: ● Hester and Dimmesdale discuss their ghosts meeting in the afterlife. ● Hester explains the value of truth and that it could save someone’s life. ● The idea of forgiveness was discussed by Hester and Dimmesdale, while Hester was asking Dimmesdale to forgive her and Dimmesdale mentions how that Chillingworth is a worse sinner than both of them by not forgiving. ● Hester and Dimmesdale feel that there is no light about them and that they are fated to be sad under the darkness. ● Hester suggests that Dimmesdale goes out and explores the world to find what makes him happy so he can escape society and people.

A 1636 Plymouth Colony law required anyone convicted of adultery to "wear two Capital letters viz AD cut out in cloth and sowed on theire uppermost Garments on their arme or backe; and if att any time they shallbee taken without the said letters whiles they are in the Govrment soewarn to bee forthwith taken and publickly whipt."[1] Other Massachusetts colonies had their own versions of this law. In fact, "The Capitall Lawes of New-England, as they stand now in force in the Common-wealth, by the Court, in the years 1641, 1642, established within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts," proclaim that "if any person committeth adultery with a married or espoused wife, the

In the story “The Scarlet Letter” we were asked, are Hester and Dimmesdale forgiven or not? The answer to that is simple. No, they were not forgiven.

When Hester decides to tell Chillingworth to stop torturing Dimmesdale, he tells her that the townspeople are allowing her to take off her scarlet letter, but she says that she will remove it until she thinks she is worthy to do so. Hester has her own independent thoughts, she will only remove the scarlet letter on her own, and as hard as the Puritan try to define her worthiness, this statement denies that an individual’s worthiness should be defined by others. Chillingworth’s secret and seek for revenge had made him inhuman. Both him and the Puritans draw an equal sign between life and reputation, and this is what causes these people who say they are punishing sin to become sinful, and those prisoner who are referred

Throughout history, mental illness has been labeled as a defining deformity, that harnesses in its “victims,” into a box, parallel to the familiar “mime in a box” image. In a world where we glorify “normality,” a lack of illness, which by all means is a gift, the beauty of one mind takes away from the beauty of an outlier, even though, ironically people may not even recognize their differences. Hester, at a glance suffers from a literal scarlet letter, but an imprint on her brain may exist as well. Irrational actions, sudden emotional episodes, and destructive thoughts can only prevail for so long following sin; Hester’s persona has branches of self-defeating personality disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. No one of her time, however, will bring the issue to light, Hester will be left known as the mistress, a witch, or “A,” rather than to explore her “complicated” condition. As decades pass, Hester’s state will remain, as the “A,” the mark of the stigma on mental illness today. When left neglected, society rejects the possibility that under a visible coating, mental deformities may lie; those who are divergent, who require affection more, are made subordinate, marginalized with no quest for a cure.

The Scarlet Letter " If a man commits adultery with another man's wife--with the wife of his neighbor--both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. "(Leviticus 20:10)

The Scarlet Letter shows how Hester was forgiven for her sin of adultery. If Hester did not get forgiven, why would god give Hester an ethereal daughter and let her keep her or why did she not get the death penalty for her sin? Therefore, Hester, even with committing a frowned upon sin is forgiven.

First of all, the scarlet letter stands for Hester's sin. By forcing Hester to wear the letter A on her bosom, the Puritan community not only punishes this weak young woman for her adultery but labels her identity as an adulteress and immoral human being as well. "Thus the young and the pure would be taught to look at her, with the letter flaming on her chest", also "as the figure, the body and the reality of sin." And the day Hester began to wear the scarlet A on her bosom is the opening of her darkness. From that moment, people, who look at her, must notice the letter A manifest itself in the red color covering not only her bosom, but her own character. The Puritans now only see the letter A, the representation of sin, scorn and hate

Throughout my reading of The Scarlet Letter, my view of Hester Pyrnne changed significantly. In the beginning, I saw her completely in the wrong and that with the given circumstances of the time period and situation she deserved her punishment. After reading farther into the novel, I began to gain sympathy for the woman. Hester single handedly raised this child and struggled to create a new life for them in a society that shut her out with no chance of repentance or reconciliation for her doing. This society also treated her quite unfairly in more ways than that. Townswomen sneered and made comments about her as she walked past, “If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with

Hester Prynne and Johnny Depp are similar in many ways, but also very different. Hester Prynne is the main character in the novel titled The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. She committed adultery, a sin of the Puritan era, with Arthur Dimondale. Johnny Depp is like Hester, not in the sin committed, but that they were both ridiculed and publicly embarrassed for what they had done. While Hester had committed adultery, Depp had been accused of domestically abusing his wife of little over a year, Amber Heard. Both Hester Prynne and Johnny Depp were caught because of something that linked them to their accused crime. Hester got Pearl, which revealed her sin to the town, and Heard had a bruise on her cheek, which corresponded with

Imagine yourself on display in front of your whole town, being punished for cheating on your husband or wife. Today adultery is looked down on, but in reality nobody makes a huge deal out of it. Sin can affect a person in many ways, but whether it’s good or bad only time can tell. In the old days, religion and law were looked at as one, and Hester Prynne just so happened to sin, which in turn caused her to break the law. In the novel, Hester displays that how a person deals with sin has a lasting impact on the people around her, and most importantly those that are the closest to her.

Have you ever judged someone by first sight? Nathaniel Hawthorne in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, claims that the perspective on an intimate, yet prominent object can be altered through a novel. Hawthorne supports his claim by telling the audience about how Hester, the villagers, Pearl and even Hawthorne’s diverse perspective on Hester’s scarlet letter evolves throughout the novel. The author writes in a solemn tone for the audience to take the story soberly.

O’Connor also focuses on contrasting characters in her story to bring the plot along, for example the conflict in the story is between Mrs. May and Mr. Greenleaf, two almost completely opposite characters. Mrs. May is shown as a bitter character who blames others for her problems, although most are self-inflicted. Such as how she hired Mr. Greenleaf for fifteen years although she obviously hates him, or how she ends up raising bitter and cruel sons who treat her with no respect. On the other hand the Greenleaf’s is simple, although uneducated, but manages to raise two successful sons, unlike Mrs. May’s. However, Mrs. May looks down on Mr. Greenleaf because she feels he is inferior to her in social standing and intelligence. . For example when she went to O.T. and E.T.’s farm and saw their milking parlor, she decided automatically that they were paid for the Government and the boys didn’t work for it. Mrs. May says how “I would have to do it myself. I am not assisted hand and foot by the Government.” This illustrates how Mrs. May still thinks less of the Greenleafs, even if they have a better farm then her because she thinks they did not gain it themselves, that it was instead paid for by the Government. The Greenleaf boys have a better working farm then her, and therefore are a little higher than her in