Scarlet Letter 8
Hawthorne's novel describes the life of an adulteress, Hester Prynne, who is shunned by her judgmental community. She gave birth to her daughter Pearl out of wedlock, while her “partner of iniquity,”(Hawthorne 59) a minister named Arthur Dimmesdale, never revealed his “black secret” of their affair. Although Hester suffered public ridicule, the minister suffered no immediate consequence. However, guilt has a way of killing a person silently. In the end, Dimmesdale's black secret had a greater negative impact on him than Pearl, who was the consequence of sin, had on Hester. This is because Dimmesdale chose to hide his sin from the church but Hester had no way to ...
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and she felt that “God, as a direct consequence of the sin, had given her a child, whose place was on that same dishonored bosom.”(82) Pearl was sent from God as a reminder to Hester and the Puritan community of her sin each and every day. However, Hester chose not to tell who Pearl's father was. “Pearl was the scarlet letter in another form, the scarlet letter endowed with life.”(88) Pearl and the scarlet letter were one in the same. Both represented Hester's sin she carried with her day after day. Both brought shame to her life. “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A.” The embarrassment Hester felt could not have exceeded Dimmesdale's guilty conscience. He felt ashamed for not confessing to the church congregation that he had played a large role in the horrific sin. He had several chances to confess his black secret, but he ...
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sin he helped commit. The Puritan community was severely cruel towards Hester and Pearl. When Hester and Pearl walked into the market place, the townspeople formed a circle around Hester and Pearl and viciously mocked them. At other times, the Puritan children allowed them to pass and then ridiculed them. Hester grew to dread children because they were exactly like their parents, crude, judgmental hypocrites. A different torture was felt in the watching eyes of strangers. The strangers curiously stared at the scarlet letter upon her bosom, so that Hester could “scarcely refrain from covering the symbol with her hand.”(165) Yet, Hester never did. She allowed the scarlet ...
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Scarlet Letter 8. (2004, October 13). Retrieved April 27, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Scarlet-Letter-8/15813
"Scarlet Letter 8." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 13 Oct. 2004. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Scarlet-Letter-8/15813>
"Scarlet Letter 8." Essayworld.com. October 13, 2004. Accessed April 27, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Scarlet-Letter-8/15813.
"Scarlet Letter 8." Essayworld.com. October 13, 2004. Accessed April 27, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Scarlet-Letter-8/15813.
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