Tuesday, April 13, 2010

THE SCARLET LETTER SYMBOLS: Fate vs. Free Will

Post your symbol comments below.

7 comments:

  1. “On a field, sable, the letter A, gules”

    This quote is the very last thing that is said in the novel. It is a phrase that is put onto Hester's tomb. The phrase is a description for a coat arms that has a red letter (A) and a black background.

    This symbol is essentialy representing the Scarlet Letter. Except is used after Hester's life has ended, but is goes beyond that as Hawthorne is trying to tell us that are crimes never go away even after death and that we will be contined to be punished. This symbol further tells us that is not are free will to banish are our crimes and scenes but it is fate for us to be punished. For example Dimmesdale relized this and that is why he went to the scaffold in front of the people in stead of running away. Hester also relizes this after Dimmesdale act and that is why this description is on her tomb.

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  2. PART1( I had to split my comment into 2 posts)

    “None so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty; even though the bitter-hearted pauper threw back a gibe in requital of the food brought regularly to his door, or the garments wrought for him by the fingers that could have embroidered a monarch's robe. None so self-devoted as Hester, when pestilence stalked through the town. In all seasons of calamity, indeed, whether general or of individuals, the outcast of society at once found her place. She came, not as a guest, but as a rightful inmate, into the household that was darkened by trouble; as if its gloomy twilight were a medium in which she was entitled to hold intercourse with her fellow-creatures. There glimmered the embroidered letter, with comfort in its unearthly ray. Elsewhere the token of sin, it was the taper of the sick-chamber. It had even thrown its gleam, in the sufferer's hard extremity, across the verge of time. It had shown him where to set his foot, while the light of earth was fast becoming dim, and ere the light of futurity could reach him. In such emergencies, Hester's nature showed itself warm and rich; a well-spring of human tenderness, unfailing to every real demand, and inexhaustible by the largest. Her breast, with its badge of shame, was but the softer pillow for the head that needed one. She was self-ordained a Sister of Mercy; or, we may rather say, the world's heavy hand had so ordained her, when neither the world nor she looked forward to this result. The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her,--so much power to do, and power to sympathize,--that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength. …Day by day, nevertheless, their sour and rigid wrinkles were relaxing into something which, in the due course of years, might grow to be an expression of almost benevolence. Thus it was with the men of rank, on whom their eminent position imposed the guardianship of the public morals. Individuals in private life, meanwhile, had quite forgiven Hester Prynne for her frailty; nay, more, they had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as the token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since. "Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge?" they would say to strangers. "It is our Hester,--the town's own Hester,--who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!" Then, it is true, the propensity of human nature to tell the very worst of itself, when embodied in the person of another, would constrain them to whisper the black scandal of bygone years. It was none the less a fact, however, that, in the eyes of the very men who spoke thus, the scarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nun's bosom. It imparted to the wearer a kind of sacredness, which enabled her to walk securely amid all peril. Had she fallen among thieves, it would have kept her safe. It was reported, and believed by many, that an Indian had drawn his arrow against the badge, but that the missile struck it, and fell harmless to the ground. “
    CONTEXT: It is now seven years since Hester committed her adultery. Only Strong political leaders who were expected to defend the morality of society still held a grudge. Her symbol has changed from one of shame and sin to a sign of hope. It even has legendary rumors about it circulating town.

    The Scarlett letter was intended as a punishment but now inspires everyone and is a comfort to those who are deathly ill. The book says it is for Hester the “Able” and her perseverance, but what about God being “Able” to change people’s perspective? That is what I take away from this passage.

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  3. PART 2

    For how this fits overall into the book I believe that it was a religious belief of the Puritans that all powerful and that they prayed for his will to be done and shown through them. Who’s to say that the changing of the meaning of Hester’s letter wasn’t a way of God using Hester as a tool to having his will done through her. What Hawthorne might be getting at is we often blinded by our own plans that we forget to first think of Gods plan for us and what lessons he is trying to teach us. At the end of the novel puritan society is coming close to an end. What I think this means about the Scarlett letter is it showed the puritan society they were ultimately living a lie in thinking they were a perfect society when all they actually did was hide their problems well. I think the opposite of this symbol would be Chillingsworth or the devil he becomes working against God for his own selfish purpose. I think a similar symbol would be the scaffold which helped reveal the truth and allow Dimmesdale to confess. It was the one place Chillingsworth couldn’t stop him. I believe the Letter relates to Chillingsworth to show a conflict between God’s will and the Temptation, Revenge and Evilness of the devil over society. This is why I think that what Hawthorne is trying to say about the theme of fate is that it is controlled by God and that God works in odd ways we can’t always comprehend or would think to do.

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  4. “Peace, Hester, peace!” replied the old man, with gloomy sternness. “It is not granted me to pardon. I have no such power as though tallest me of. (…) Ye that have wronged me are not sinful, save in a kind of typical illusion; neither am I fiendlike, who have snatched a fiend’s office from his hands. It is our fate. Let the black flower blossom as it may. Now go thy ways, and deal as thou wilt with yonder man.”

    Chillingsworth says this to hester when he realizes how mentally deformed he has become. he says he has lost his human heart and become a fiend.

    Chillingsworth seems to say that Hester is not sinful and that he is not evil, and that it is their fate to act that way. Chillingworth seems to be talking about the appearances and illusion of sin and evil rather than the real thing. He is talking about what people think of them not who they really are. I think Hawthorne is trying to say that we can make our own fate.

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  5. "Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin?"

    Dimmesdale is talking to Hester, while she is standing on the scaffold, about how she shopuld reveal the father of her child. He says that if he should come from a higher rank, keeping it a secret would torture him inside. This symbolizes the pain Dimmesdale goes through later in the novel. He keeps his secret and it tortures him and he is of a higher rank. So this passage revealed the fate of Dimmesdale.

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  6. "On the threshold she paused,--turned partly round,--for, perchance, the idea of entering, all alone, and all so changed, the home of so intense a former life, was more dreary and desolate than even she could bear. But her hesitation was only for an instant, though long enough to display a scarlet letter on her breast."

    This text is from chapter 24. Right before this, Hawthorne tells of how Chillingworth left Pearl with much of his property. Then Hawthorne discusses Hester's return to town and how she keeps her scarlet letter on.

    After Hester is publicly shamed and forced by the people to wear the scarlet letter, her arrival back to town may seem puzzling. She is not required to stay there. If she leaves, she would be able to remove the scarlet letter and resume a normal life. Earlier in the novel, when Chillingworth tells Hester that the town fathers may let her remove the scarlet letter, she reacts with dismay. I think that Hester is behaving in such a way because she desires to determine her own identity rather than to allow others to determine it for her. She probably feels that running away or removing the letter would show society’s power over her. She would be accepting the fact that the letter is a mark of shame and something from which she wants to escape from. Instead, she stays, refiguring the scarlet letter as a symbol of herself. Her past sin is a part of who she is; to pretend that it never happened would mean denying a part of herself. Thus, Hester makes her sin a part of her life.

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  7. i did Hesters letter A that she has to wear on her chest. this is a symbol of adultry. this is a symbol of sin and guilt. Hester is very uptight about this but she relaxes more as the book goes on

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