Scalet Letter
In the Novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the society of a Puritan town of Boston excludes anyone who is a nonconformist or is in any way deviant from their thoughts, laws, and standards. However, the townspeople themselves are not without fault. However, they try to conceal and contain their passions and all their faults due to their own fear of being excluded. All the characters in the book who are excluded from society are the ones who are the most "natural" and true at heart, possessing a sixth-sense perception and almost magical intuition that allows them to see through the public facade that others project in order to protect themselves. There are five main characters, throughout the novel that either obtain or this sixth-sense or have it used against them to see through their own facades. These characters are Hester Prynne; Pearl, her daughter; Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband; Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the priest that Hester committed adultery with; and finally Mistress Hibbins, the governor's sister that is a witch. Hester Prynne's separation from the townspeople is both physical and mental. The townspeople expel her from the town and lab
Another character in the story who possesses magical perception is Mistress Hibbins. She is a "venerable witch-lady"(130) and "a bitter-tempered sister (99)." "A few years later, [she] was executed as a witch." During her life, she is the woman viewed as "Satan's snare"(100), the evil to remain unnoticed by any respectable member of the society. "The crowd gave way before her, and seemed to fear the touch of her garment as if it carried a plague among its gorgeous folds (212)." However, Mistress Hibbins has the ability to see as well. She knows other people's secrets and talks to them openly about them, but she does not spread them around as gossip, unlike the townspeople who gossip. She says to Hester, about Hester's secret meeting with Dimmesdale in the woods, "Couldst thou surely tell, Hester, whether he was the same man that encountered thee on the forest-path? I know, Hester, for I behold the token (213)." Even though she is supposedly "satanic," Mistress Hibbins has no pretense or falseness in her. Pearl, who accepts only the most "natural" people and things, talks "eagerly"(213) to her, and calls her "good Mistress Hibbins (213)." Mistress Hibbins tells Hester, during Dimmesdale's last sermon, "Yonder that divine man! That saint on earth, as the people uphold him to be, and as -I must needs say-he really looks! Who, now, that saw him pass in the procession, would think how little while it is since he went forth out of his study...Couldst thou surely tell, Hester, whether he was the same man that encountered thee on the forest-path (125)!" This is saying that Mistress Hibbins, also, has the sixth-sense ability to see the sin in other sinners' souls. She probably obtained this power by selling her soul to the Black Man. Mistress Hibbins may be satanic, but she does not hide it or act in any way fake, like Dimmesdale or Chillingworth for example. el her as an adulteress. She goes to live with her illegitimate daughter, who's name is ironically Pearl, in a cottage, "not in close vicinity to any other habitation"(68). The whole town despises them, children throw stones at and chase them down the street. People do not dare to come close to Hester because they are afraid of her mark, the scarlet "A," as an outcast. To the townspeople, Hester's character is something different and uncertain from the values to which they are accustomed. "Wherever Hester stood, a small, vacant area - a sort of magic circle - had formed about her, into which none ventured, or felt disposed to intrude (206)." Hester is destined to wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest - "A" for "adulteress" - a sign of her sin, shame, and separation from the righteous people. Hawthorne shows how Hester reacts to Mistress Hibbins' remarks as being shocked at her confidence in her accusations. "Hester was surprised by the confidence by which [Mistress Hibbins] affirmed a personal connection between so many persons (herself among them) and the Evil One (213)." The passions of Roger Chillingworth are evil, and so are the raw passions of Dimmesdale, after he meets with Hester in the woods. "As a [pure and saintly maiden] drew nigh, the arch-fiend whispered [Dimmesdale] to drop into her tender bosom a germ of evil (193)." Even Hester worries about Pearl, the "devilish imp"(71): "It had appalled [Hester], nevertheless, to discern here a shadowy reflection of evil that had existed in herself (89)." All these people have secret passions; and wear their own "scarlet letter" of being deviant from the ways of the Puritanical society. All of them have some streak of evil in them. Hester's mark of sha
Some common words found in the essay are:
Roger Chillingworth, Wherever Hester, Mistress Hibbins, Raised Hester, Reverend Dimmesdale, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne's, Mother Reverend, Hester Dimmesdale's, Hester Hester's, scarlet letter, mistress hibbins, roger chillingworth, committed adultery, tell hester encountered, surely tell, encountered thee, hester encountered, tell hester, thou surely, mark shame, hester encountered thee, surely tell hester, thou surely tell, encountered thee forest-path,
Approximate Word count = 2437
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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