The Scarlett Letter

A detailed Summary of The Scarlett Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne, born in Salem, Massachusetts, 1804, published The Scarlet Letter in1850. Since it was first published , The Scarlet Letter has never been out of print,nor out of favor with the literary critics. It is inevitably included in listings of the five or ten greatest American novels. Considered to be the best of Nathaniel Hawthorne's writings, it may also be the most typical. The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne's masterpiece and his most profound exploration of sin, alienation, and spiritual regeneration.(1

Buckner) In form it is a nearly perfect example of the static, pictorial design that Hawthorne's dreamvision of the world demanded, given texture and solidity by the detailed representation of the Puritan-New England world of a hundred years before the

date of its writing that is the scene of the story.(2 Mizener) The novel traces the social, moral, psychological, and spiritual- of Hester Prynne's adulterous relationship with the

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale on four people: the lovers themselves, their daughter, Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband.(1) Each of these characters: Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, have different characteristics that help depict the

The minister well knew-subtle, but remorseful hypocrite that he was!-the light in which his vague confession would be viewed. He had striven to put a cheat upon himself by making the avowal of a guilty conscience, but had gained only one other sin, and a self-acknowledged shame, without the momentary relief of being self-deceived. He had spoken truth, and transformed it into the veriest falsehood. And yet, by the constitution of his nature, he loved the truth, and loathed the lie, as few men ever did. Therefore, above

Each of these characters; Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, all play a vital role in the outcome of the story. On the plane of psychology, Hester, Chillingworth,and Dimmesdale hardly lead separate lives at all: feeding off each other's mutually

sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so. (1)He represented evil and rejoiced in it. Over the time period, throughout the novel, he begins to develop devilish characteristics. (4)

We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the

Pearl was bad tempered, wild, desperate, and defiant. On the other hand she was beautiful, naturalistic, and creative. As the story progresses Pearl becomes attached to the letter, it is the first letter she learns. Thus the connection between the letter and Pearl is

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Approximate Word count = 1271
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English