The Scarlet Letter-Complete Essay On Every Topic Essay, Research Paper

To: From: Date: December 14, 1998Subject: Take-Home Test : The Scarlet Letter: CharacterizationHester Prynne Hester Prynne is one of the most ambiguous characters in all literature. As the wearer of the scarlet letter, she may be expected to possess some definitive insight available to no one else. Yet her final word on the subject is “I know not. I know not.” Hester is a magnificent woman fighting for her natural rights to love and freedom. With her flashing eyes, her rich complexion, and her abundant hair, she stands for what a real woman should be beside a crowd of tight-mouthed Puritans. But she can’t do it. One breath of fresh air, one ray of sunlight, one moment alone with her lover in the forest, and she is herself again, reaching passionately for a life of freedom and fulfillment. However, Hester Prynne, if not the out-and-out criminal the Puritans believe her to be, is still a woman who has deeply sinned. She is, after all, guilty of adultery, and Hester herself admits, she has irreparably wronged her husband. And so she bears some responsibility for the corruption of Chillingworth’s soul. She has also shattered Dimmesdale’s peace. She has lured the minister, with his full cooperation, from the straight and narrow path of orthodoxy, where it was surely in his interest to stay. Hester is, indeed, a sinner. But her sin is a cause not of evil but of good. Suffering disciplines Hester, so that she grows strong. Sorrow awakens her sympathies, so that she becomes a nurse. In fact, the best deeds of Hester’s life come about through her fall from grace. Her charity to the poor, her comfort to the broken-hearted, her unquestioned presence in times of trouble are the direct result of her search for repentance. If Hester had not sinned, she would never have discovered the true depths of tenderness within herself. Hester is neither a heroine nor a sinner, but something in between. She is a flesh-and-blood woman in tragic circumstances, trapped in a loveless marriage and in love with another man. Whichever way she moves, there is bound to be a sacrifice of some vital part of herself, either her honor or her deepest need. Arthur DimmesdaleDimmesdale is a coward and a hypocrite. Worse, he is a self-confessed coward and hypocrite. He knows what he has to do to still the voice of his conscience and make his peace with God. He simply cannot bring himself to do it. Dimmesdale is somewhat pale and weak from the first moment he appears. And he grows paler and weaker by the minute, as he lives ridden with guilt, a guilt monger by his side. By the time the minister comes to the forest, he barely has the strength to throw himself down on the leaves in the hope that he can lie there forever. He lacks the will even to wish to live or die. Were Dimmesdale just a little stronger, a little more energetic, we would say he has charisma. And probably, in his own time and place, he did. Ministers were the Puritan culture’s heroes. To some extent, Dimmesdale’s story is the story of any sensitive young man’s initiation into sexuality, especially in a society that treats sexuality with ill grace. But his problem is enormously complicated by the fact of Hester’s marriage and by his own image of himself as a clergyman devoted to higher things. Unlike other young men, Dimmesdale cannot accept his loss of innocence and go on from there. The split in the man’s nature is deepened by his situation. If he wishes to continue in his ministerial role, he must bury terminate sensuality and wrap himself up in a cloak of holiness. If the minister is a brilliant study in guilt, it is because he believes with all his soul that his sin is terrible, and that a concerned, personal God is watching every move he makes. Torn between the desire to confess and atone and the cowardice which holds him back, Dimmesdale goes a little mad. By the time the minister meets Hester in the forest, he is prepared for an invitation to leaving. Perhaps leaving was the only way out. Dimmesdale nearly buys the shining vision of a new life that Hester holds out to him in the woods. And yet, with his last ounce of strength, he rejects it. He crawls to the scaffold and confesses instead. PearlPearl is Hester’s treasure, the pearl of great price, purchased with her mother’s peace of mind and position in society. Pearl is a fascinating experiment, an attempt by Hawthorne to turn a symbol to a human being and make them live comfortably together in one body. Sometimes the experiment is successful. Sometimes it’s a flop. Pearl works particularly well in the forest scene in the chapter called “The Child at the Brook-Side.” If you look at Pearl’s actions here, they are perfectly understandable without any symbolic interpretation. She cries, she stamps her feet in the resentment any child would feel at seeing a proper and decorous mother suddenly blossom into sexuality. Little girls don’t like sexy mothers suddenly thrust upon them. Nor do they welcome brand-new and unexpected fathers. Pearl is saying what any petted, spoiled child would say under the circumstances, either you love him(that strange, sad man over there), or you love me. In the forest scene, the real child can carry the symbol, because Pearl’s narrative meaning and her symbolic meaning so neatly coincide. The child points an accusing finger at Hester, and so does fate. Pearl tells her mother to, go and pick your own letter up. And fate echoes, the scarlet letter is your burden to carry and yours alone. Pearl’s first appearance in her tunic of crimson and gold was a moving scene. She is the daughter of an outcast, a renegade. But whatever Hester is, she loves her daughter and wants to keep her. And in order to keep Pearl, Hester has to prove her conformity to the cruelest and sternest of Puritan magistrates. It is hardly proof of conformity to arrive at the Governor’s mansion, where everyone will be dressed in black, with a little girl outrageously decked out in scarlet. There is a tug-of-war going on here between Pearl’s symbolic function and the psychological demands of the story. Symbolism The Scarlet Letter is a book of much symbolism. One of the most complex and misunderstood symbols in the book is Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne. Pearl, throughout the story, develops into a dynamic symbol; one that is always changing. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester, for her sins, received a scarlet letter, “A” which she had to wear upon her chest. This was the Puritan way of treating her as a criminal, for the crime of adultery. The Puritan treatment continued, because as Hester would walk through the streets, she would be looked down upon as if she were some sort of demon from Hell, that committed a terrible crime. This would give her much mental anguish and grief. On the other hand, God s treatment of Hester for her sin was quite different than just a physical token: he gave Hester the punishment of a very unique child which she named Pearl. This punishment handed down from God was a constant mental and physical reminder to Hester of what she had done wrong, and she could not escape it. In this aspect, Pearl symbolized God s way of punishing Hester for adultery. The way Hester s life was ruined for so long was the ultimate price that Hester paid for Pearl. With Pearl, Hester s life was one almost never filled with joy, but instead a constant nagging. Pearl would harass her mother over the scarlet “A” which she wore. Pearl would also make her own “A” to wear, and sometimes she played games with her mother s, trying to hit it with rocks. When Hester would go into the town with Pearl, the other children would make fun of her, and Pearl would yell and throw dirt at them. So, in this case, Pearl symbolized the decimation of Hester s life and mental state.

Although Hester had so much trouble with Pearl, she still felt that Pearl was her treasure. Pearl was really the only thing that Hester had in life, and if Pearl wasn t in Hester s life, Hester would almost surely have committed suicide. Once and a while, Pearl would bring joy to Hester s life, and that helped her to keep on living. Pearl really symbolized a rose to her mother, at some times she could be bright and vibrant, and really love her mother, but at other times, she could be wilting. It was at these times when she was “wilting” that brought Hester the most grief. ThemeSIN AND REDEMPTION Hawthorne, as a descendant of Puritans of the deepest dye, is the heir to a strong tradition of sin. Puritan theology began with the complete conviction of sin. Hawthorne is not a Puritan. Yet, he is, morally speaking, something of a chip off the old block. As a writer, he is utterly immersed in sin, in the wages of sin, in the long odds on redeeming sin. The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. In every case, the effect is devastating. Once these characters stumble into evil, they flounder about as if in a morass. Sin changes the sinners. It darkens their vision and weakens the spirit’s defenses against further temptation. And yet, sin also pays some unexpected dividends. Sin strengthens Hester. It humanizes Dimmesdale. Hawthorne, departing from his Puritan ancestors, considers the possibility that sin may be a maturing force. If sin is an encompassing shadow in the The Scarlet Letter, redemption is, at best, a fitfully shimmering light. Chillingworth never seeks redemption at all. Hester looks for it in good works, and fails to find it. Conflict After committing the sin of adultery, Dimmesdale s physical and mental condition begins to deteriorate. When Hester asks him to run away from the situation they are in, he begins the final descent to his death. Initially, the idea lifts his spirits. Eventually he feels compelled to confess when he realizes that the act of fleeing demonstrates his own moral weakness and compounds of his sins. Hester s advice acts as a catalyst to propel him from a state of self-loathing into a state of self-destruction. This destruction also serves as his only means of moral salvation. In the initial chapters the author characterizes Dimmesdale as a “young clergyman . . . A person of very striking aspect.”. After years of covering his sin, the deception clearly takes its toll upon him. The once young minister visibly deteriorates into a “weak . . . pale . . . corpse-like” man suffering from the sin that he feels he can not confess. This deterioration in health affects not only his body but his mind and morality. On his return trip from the forest, Dimmesdale finds himself feelings evil and sinful impulses. He feels tempted to stop and teach the little ones “wicked words”, he has an impure thought about a young female member of his congregation, and he has to restrain himself from saying things about the “vile communion supper.” Dimmesdale’s acceptance of Hester’s advice demonstrates his natural tendency to sin. His sin of adultery, although evil in nature, becomes compounded by his deceit and attempts to escape punishment for his actions. By attempting to hide his sins, Dimmesdale’s troubled conscience begins to destroy him from the inside out. His moral deterioration begins the instant he accepts Hester s advice to run away from their responsibility and attempts to cover their sin. By shunning his responsibility and using deceit, Dimmesdale increases his problems. His acceptance of Hester s advice gives him temporary relief to his long suffering. Instead of facing his sin, Dimmesdale evades his responsibilities and discovers a sense of relief. This sense of relief crushes the remaining portion of his morality but strangely invigorates him. Hawthorne shows Dimmesdale’s new passion by the manner in which he writes his new sermon. Dimmesdale writes it in a mad frenzy; full of passion, logic, and brilliance that he never had before. His agreement to run away and live a “life of sin” with his lover provides him with a sense of relief. Dimmesdale realizes that running away indicates the total erosion of his morality and as a priest feels the need to confess his sins and repent. The reader could attribute Dimmesdale s confession as the act of a magnanimous, unselfish man. This sole act prevents further sin by himself and the other characters from occurring. By confessing he eliminates the need to run away and live in sin with Hester. This act prevents him from committing further sins of adultery, deceit, and abandonment of responsibility by destroying his life. It also prevents others from sinning against Hester by depriving Chillingworth of his sole motivation in life, revenge. His act of confession purifies himself and the sinners around him, while soiling the people’s perception of him. Dimmesdale commits his confession as a necessary act of repentance in order to find true relief. After delivering the horrid confession to the towns people, he falls to his death, ready to embrace his God. Setting Far and away the most important scenes in The Scarlet Letter takes place in two locations, the market-place and the forest. These are presented to us as very different places, reflecting very different human aspirations. The market-place is public. It lies at the very heart of the tiny area of civilization the Puritans have managed to carve out of the vast, untouched continent. The market-place contains both the church and the scaffold; institutions of law and religion. It is where criminals like Hester are punished, where sorrowers like Dimmesdale confess, and where men put on the faces they wear for the world. The forest, on the other hand, is dark and secret. It is where people come to let loose and be themselves. The forest track leads away from the settlement out into the wilderness where all signs of civilization vanish. The forest track is precisely the escape route from the dictates of law and religion to the promised land to the west where men can breathe free. The market-place and the forest are symbols of the choice that confronts the major characters in the novel. The choice is not as simple as it seems. For all its restraints, the market-place is safer and warmer than the forest. And you can’t get into so much trouble there. In the heart of the settlement, there is the comfort of values that are shared, of laws that are laid down and respected. Above all, there is the comfort of people who care. The open air of the forest is exhilarating, but cold. Nothing is known in the wilderness, everything is up for grabs. There is no one around to stop you from going to the devil. And when you do, he is right there waiting for you. Questions to answer when writing the essayCharacterization – Give brief character sketch of hester, dimmesdale and pearl. How does Hawthornen develop their character? What changes take place over the course of the novel? Setting – Why is the setting important to the novel? How does it affectthe themes and symbolism? Conflict – What are the internal and external conflicts in the novel? Are they resolved? Is there any revelation? Theme – What do u feel is the primary theme of the novel? Symbolism – Discuss the major symbols in the novel and their relationship to the themes and characterization