The Scarlett Letter
In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hester Prynne wore a red letter "A" on her breast. The symbol stood for adultery, a sin which she had been convicted of. This public humiliation of having to wear the bright crimson "A" was her punishment for becoming pregnant without being married. Despite the efforts of the church, she would not however reveal the name of the second party involved in the affair. Ironically, the father of the child happened to be the young town minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. He was a man of the cloth, a pillar of the community, and greatly admired by all. If his act of adultery was exposed, it would have a major impact on the whole town, so Hester chose to remain silent. Although Dimmesdale went without public punishment, the agony of guilt took toll on his conscience, and he became very ill. He soon invited his physician, Roger Chillingsworth, to live with him and care for his weakening condition. The young minister was so torn inside, that he finally exposed himself to his physician, who happened to be Hester Prynne's long lost husband. Chillingsworth reappears in Hester's life only to find her with a child that wasn't his. He was determined to find the child's father, and had long susp
Even though the style and technique of writing were somewhat out dated, the message that Hawthorne was trying to convey was clear; adultery was a sin punishable by law in the eighteenth century. Although I understood the central idea and plot of the story, I found it challenging to understand some of the passage. I had to re-read several parts of the novel because some of the words used by Hawthorne are not used in the English language today. Hawthorne went into great detail into the characters thoughts and feelings. Several chapters were entirely based upon the cognition's of one person. I think that some of the details could have been left out, and I would have still understood the plot. He was very thorough in his descriptions of his characters, and often times I could picture myself in the town or the scenes he was writing about. If this book were to be rewritten into today's English, I think that it would be more popular than in is today. I believe that the point of Hawthorne writing about this eighteenth century drama was to reveal to the rest of the world of the importance of religion and the impact of the church on the people who lived in the early colonies. I also believe that he knew that adultery would be a prominent and controversial issue in the years to come. I think that he was trying to show his readers just how powerful the church was then, and how much authority rested in the hands of the tr
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 960
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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