Sin, Guilt And Redemption In The Scarlet Letter

Triads of Characters and Theme Author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter with a handful of characters and symbolic objects that truly influence the theme of this novel. Many important pairings and triads are involved through Chapter 8 of his novel, but perhaps the most important of the inventory of well connected triads is the one which relates to the theme of the novel. The triad of Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Pearl best helps the reader comprehend Hawthorne’s theme of sin.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is an American author. He is commonly known as an anti-transcendentalist author meaning he believes human nature is naturally evil and society balances it out. Hawthorne has a common setting around Puritanism. He became fascinated with the theme from the Salem Witch Trials, of which his great-uncle, John Hathorne, judged and shamelessly had many people killed. The Scarlet Letter, by Hawthorne, is based in a Puritan town in the 1600’s.

All men have sin on their conscience; however, sin without diffusion by mercy can grow and become a dangerous destructive entity. Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasizes this in his novel, The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne seems to be a normal Puritan citizen until the discovery of her affair with an unknown man. As penance for her crime she has to wear a Scarlet Letter ‘A’ on her bosom for the rest of her life. This Scarlet Letter reveals other more than just her sin to Hester; it reveals the secret sins of others.

The townspeople all look at Hester as an example for a sinner. Hawthorne composes, “ Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast,—at her, the child of honorable parents,—at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman, —at her, who had once been innocent, —as the figure, the body, the reality of sin” (Hawthorne 69). The little kids, and the woman will see Hester as an example as what would happen if they were to commit a sin. Seabrook addresses, “She 's forced to stand in shame before the mass of Puritan citizens, enduring their stares, their whispers and their contempt. In the self-righteous eyes of the townspeople, she is the ultimate example of sin” (Seabrook 1).

We are all sinners, no matter how hard we try to hide our faults, they always seem to come back, one way or another. Written in the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us Hester Prynne and how one sin can change her life completely. Hester Prynne changes a great deal throughout The Scarlet Letter. Through the view of the Puritans, Hester is an intense sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life committing the highest act of sin, adultery. For committing such a sinful act, Hester must wear the scarlet letter while also having to bear stares from those that gossip about her.

The Virtue of Hester Prynne In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s highly acclaimed novel, The Scarlet Letter, a Puritan town’s reaction is described after Hester Prynne raises a scandal that goes against the town’s religious views. The Puritans believe the Bible should be translated into their life and that God should be the center of it. Many of them think of Hester as a sinful woman without virtue. They treat her as an outcast and consider that she is somehow affiliated with the Devil.

Hester Prynne, the protagonist of the story, not only receives forgiveness from God, but also receives admiration from the people. Throughout the novel we view a shift form sin, a closed puritan society, and punishment to a society that accepted and gave an opportunity to the sinner, Hester. We see how Hester transforms into a confident person which adopted her sin as who she actually was and fought for her position in society. Hawthorne accurately points out throughout The Scarlet Letter that, sin can be forgiven and it can even bring transformation to someone’s

THESIS: In the literary pieces The Scarlet Letter and “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasizes the negative effects of guilt and sin through the presence of Puritan ideals, the symbolism of sin, and the motif of the nature of evil. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s experiences within the Puritan community greatly impacted his writing style. The Scarlet Letter and “The Minister’s Black Veil” each contain Puritan ideals that are used to convey the negative effects of guilt and sin. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses Puritan ideals to create a strict, judgmental community where sins are taken very seriously.

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, has three main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth who are all guilty of committing appalling sins including revenge and adultery. Of these three, Chillingworth is the greatest sinner because he coldly seeks his revenge. Unlike Hester and Dimmesdale, who acted out a sin of passion and did not hurt anyone, Chillingworth’s sin is one of obsession and vengeance had brought pain and suffering into the other characters’ lives. Hawthorne talks about the idea of sin and redemption throughout the Scarlet Letter. Hester is portrayed as the least sinful character in the story because she wears the scarlet letter and endures the judgement from the Puritan society.

Afterall, the first step to redemption is always seeking forgiveness, from yourself and from others. In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses a sinful protagonist and a harsh Puritan setting to illustrate that everyone has the power to be redeemed. Hester’s sins teach readers that no one is too far gone to be redeemed. She commits adultery

The hypocritical society is blinded by how they should punish Hester that they are not showing kindness to Hester. Hawthorne creates the book to show how an individual spirit must overcome the difficult obstacles in the society cultural

All wrongful actions have consequences, furthermore, the consequences of one mistake has the power to flip one’s life upside down and ultimately change their life forever. This is what happens to Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Hester has been found guilty for adultery, a sin punishable by death in the Bible, and is forced by the Puritan society in which she lives in face major repercussions. Hester is forced to atone for her sins through prison time, public humiliation, and the forced wearing of a scarlet letter.

In this novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolic significance of the Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth to contribute to the theme of guilt. To begin, Hawthorne uses the Scarlet Letter to portray the theme of guilt. In this scene Hester Prynne is walking onto the scaffold for the punishment of the sin she has committed. The women in the crowd are talking about how Hester deserves a worse punishment. The Scarlet Letter is the A on Hester’s bosom to tell the public she is an adulterer, bringing her judgement and guilt everyday.

“The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers” (Hawthorne 180). The lessons learned from Hester’s experience with the letter and her ongoing compassion inspired Dimmesdale to confess his guilt in the end. Hester was always there for anyone who needed her

In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne effectively conforms to the conventions of the gothic genre for the purpose of characterizing the Puritan society as oppressive, portraying the hypocrisy found within the society and highlighting the consequences for not confessing