The Scarlet Letter Essay Research Paper A free essay sample

The Scarlet Letter Essay, Research Paper A Critical Analysis of Hester Prynne The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written in 1849. This fresh won him much celebrity and a good repute as a author. In composing The Scarlet Letter, Hawethorne was making a signifier of fiction he called the psychological love affair. A psychological love affair is a narrative that contains all of the conventional furnishings of a typical love affair, but profoundly portrays worlds in struggle with themselves. The Scarlet Letter won Hawthorne great critical acclamation, and even today the book remains on the best marketer list. The Scarlet Letter is so popular possibly because coevalss of readers can construe it and see elusive significances that slightly reflect their ain lives. Each of us, has goodness like Hester Prynne, cowardliness like Dimmesdale, and even a small immorality like Chillingworth. My favourite character in this book was Hester Prynne because even tough she has done incorrect, she remains happy, solid, and sane. In the undermentioned essay I plan to critically analyse the novel # 8217 ; s supporter, Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne is a immature adult female who was sent to the settlements by her hubby, who plans to fall in her later but is presumed lost at sea. She is a symbol of the aknowledged evildoer ; a individual Alexander, 2 whose wickedness has been recognized but has sought penitence. Hester is the public evildoer who shows the consequence of her penalty on her human nature. She is seen as a fallen adult female in the eyes of the small town people. Over the seven old ages of her penalty Hester # 8217 ; s internal battle with her wickedness alterations from a victim of Puritanical opinion to being a smart adult female who is in melody with human nature. When she meets Dimmesdale in the wood in Chapter 18, Hawthorne says, # 8220 ; The inclination of her destiny and lucks had been to put her free. The vermilion missive was her passport into parts where other adult females dared non tread. # 8221 ; What is most remarkeable about Hester Prynne is her strength of character. Her interior strength and honestness and her compassion to others, even 1s that have condemned her is what is brought to the reader # 8217 ; s attending throughout the novel. At the beginning of the fresh Hester is described as a beaming beauty, nevertheless seven old ages subsequently her beauty is gone and the beautiful hair that she one time had is hidden underneath a cap that she wears. In Chapter 13, she removes the cap and the missive # 8220 ; A # 8221 ; and she becomes the beautiful individual that she was before her penalty. I think that this is symbolic in that when she removes her cap and missive she taking off the rough construction of Puritan society. When Pearl demands that she put back on her cap and missive # 8220 ; her beauty, the warnth and profusion of her muliebrity, departed, like Alexander, 3 melting sunlight ; and a grey shadow seemed to fall across her. # 8221 ; While her penalty does alter her physical visual aspect, it has a deeper impact on her character. Despite the alone life that she leads Hester somehow finds an interior strength to withstand both the townsfolk and the local authorities. Hester # 8217 ; s strength is evident besides in covering with her hubby, Chillingworth and her lover, Dimmesdale. This beginning of strength comes from acknowledging her wickedness and covering with the effects. She has nil but the strength of her spirit to prolong her. This interior peace that she has is recognized by the altering attitude of the community when they begin to believe of her non as an fornicator but as an angel of goodness. Hester was besides honorable. She openly acknowledges her wickedness and does non seek to conceal the missive from the townsfolk, but wears it with self-respect. By acknowledging her wickedness she remains sane, even though her life had been hard and slightly acrimonious. Finally Hester becomes an angel of compassion and clemency who finally lives out a life as a figure of sensitiveness in the community. She becomes known for her charitable workss by assisting the hapless and enduring. Her shame in herself by the opinions of others make her respond to other victims of society and of the universe. In clip the Puritan society sees the missive non as intending criminal conversation, but as # 8220 ; angel # 8221 ; or # 8220 ; able # 8221 ; . She being a victim of the rough society in which she lived made her more sensitive Alexander, 4 to other victims of society. Her sensitiveness turns her symbolic significance from a individual whose life was originally iniquitous and of an evil nature to a adult female who is strong and sensitive with a regard for handling people kindly and with regard. In her concluding old ages # 8220 ; the vermilion missive ceased to be a stigma which attracted the universe # 8217 ; s scorn and resentment, and became a type of something the universe sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with fear too. # 8221 ; Since her character is strongly tied to the vermilion missive, Hester represents the public evildoer who changes and learns from her ain sorrow to understand the humanity of others. Often when people suffer a great loss in their lives or experiences that change their lives they become subsisters with an increased apprehension and understanding for the human losingss of others. I think that Hester is such a symbol because she triumphed over calamity. She went against society for the love of a adult male. Even though she was incorrect in perpetrating adultry the love that she had for Dimmesdale broke through the bonds of her matrimony to Chillingworth. In the terminal, Hester # 8217 ; s strength, honestness, and sensitiveness carry her down the tract of life. While Dimmesdale dies on the scaffold after his confession and Chillingworth dies of his ain bitter hatred, she lives on digesting a quiet life in Colonial Boston. The vermilion missive made her what she was and through her agony she became a stronger individual and found peace.