In the book The Scarlet letter, Hester deals with sin and guilt along with her daughter pearl. Pearl was made from her mother out of sin. When Hester made that decision to commit adultery, Pearl had now been conceived as an evil child. Hester throughout the story feels guilty in the things she had done in her past, because she still deeply cares about Dimmesdale. When Pearl at the start of the book claimed that her mother picked her from the rose bush which symbolizes evil from the little child.
Towards the end of the book when Hester reappears but with out Pearl, she is still wearing her scarlet letter. I think that had she taken it off she would have felt guilty and free at the same time because the scarlet letter reminded her of her past and also reminded her of her daughter pearl that had grown up, moved on and got married to a noble. Hester would have felt free with the scarlet letter not upon her chest anymore, but everyone would have noticed it not being there and started talking about her more and more. The townspeople have already been used to seeing her wear the "A" on her chest.
“Ah,” replied Roger Chillingworth, with that quietness which, whether imposed or natural, marked all his deportment, “it is thus that a young clergyman is apt to speak. Youthful men, not having taken a deep root, give up their hold of life so easily! And saintly men, who walk with God on earth, would fain be away, to walk with him on the golden pavements of the New Jerusalem.” “Nay,” rejoined the young minister, putting his hand to his heart, with a flush of pain flitting over his brow, “were I worthier to walk there, I could be better content to toil here." “Good men ever interpret themselves too meanly,” said the physician."
This is when Chillingworth is talking to Dimmesdale about Dimmesdale's health condition. He puts his hand over his heart and grips it to stop the pain. His pain is the quilt he is feeling in his heart from the sin he committed.
Dimmesdale puts his hand over his heart to stop the pain that he is feeling. This relates to the end of the book when he is up on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl. He shows everyone the mark on his chest from feeling guilty about having an affair with Hester. This is Dimmesdale's last stand and he dies right after. A similar symbol would be how Hester is excluded from the society because of her scarlet letter. Her sin makes her wear the scarlet letter and every time she sees it, it makes her feel guilty. Hawthorne may be saying about sin and guilt is that they go hand in hand. You commit sin then you feel guilty.
"The health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail. By those best aquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotionn to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spirtual lamp... he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain."
This part in the book is when Dimmesdale begins to feel ill and looks pale and always puts his hand over his heart. When he puts his hand over his heart, it represents the pain he feels for committing adultry. He feels guilty and punishes himself for it. At the end of the novel, Dimmesdale shows everyone his chest and he has an "A" on it. It is similar to Hester's "A" but the way they were puunished was different. Dimmesdale's "A" was pain that only he knew about and could feel, while Hester's "A" was on the outside for everyone to see. Hawthorne is saying that when you committ a crime, the guilt builds up so much inside that eventually you will have to let someone know about it.
She could no longer borrow from the future, to help her through the present grief. To-morrow would bring its own trial with it; so would the next day, and so would the next; each its own trial, and yet the very same that was now so unutterably grievous to be borne. The days of the far-off future would toil onward, still with the same burden for her to take up, and bear along with her, but never to fling down; for the accumulating days, and added years, would pile up their misery upon the heap of shame. Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion. 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. And over her grave, the infamy that she must carry thither would be her only monument. chapter 5
this passage shows up when hester is leaving the jail. Basicly this represents how being beautiful and tempting is a sin. The novel ends and represents how being tempted can over come you and make you do bad things just like D did with Hester. The opposite of beauty is uglyness. this is how hester feels as she waers dull colors and the A on her chest. another symbol that relates to this is lust. Lust leads people to think that they are in love and then those people do things with each other that lead to an un monogamous relationship and thus creating sin.
The scarlet letter burned on Hester Prynne's bosom. Here was ... another ruin, the responsibility of which came partly home to her.
Th symbol represents the sin of Hester. The scarlet letter is burned onto her bosom to constantly remind her of her sin.
He is trying to communicate the sin of Hester by describing us of it burned onto her bosom.With the novel ending the way it did it shows us that sin cannot overcome us unless we let it. He is showing us that we should not let our sins overcome us and make us give in to it. Dimmesdale is an opposite symbol to the scarlet letter. He shows how the sin can overcome us and lead to death. It does the same things just everything is opposite. The scarlet letter is the ultimate symbol in this novel.
"But, before Mr. Dimmesdale had done speaking, a light gleamed far and wide over all the muffled sky. It was doubtless caused by one of those meteors, which the night-watcher may so often observe burning out to waste, in the vacant regions of the atmosphere. So powerful was its radiance, that it thoroughly illuminated the dense medium of cloud betwixt the sky and earth. The great vault brightened, like the dome of an immense lamp. It showed the familiar scene of the street, with the distinctness of mid-day, but also with the awfulness that is always imparted to familiar objects by an unaccustomed light. The wooden houses, with their jutting stories and quaint gable-peaks; the doorsteps and thresholds, with the early grass springing up about them; the garden-plots, black with freshly turned earth; the wheel-track, little worn, and, even in the market-place, margined with green on either side;--all were visible, but with a singularity of aspect that seemed to give another moral interpretation to the things of this world than they had ever borne before. And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendor, as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another....'And, since Satan saw fit to steal it, your reverence must needs handle him without gloves, henceforward," remarked the old sexton, grimly smiling. "But did your reverence hear of the portent that was seen last night? a great red letter in the sky,--the letter A,--which we interpret to stand for Angel. For, as our good Governor Winthrop was made an angel this past night, it was doubtless held fit that there should be some notice thereof!'"
This is the scene where Dimmesdale is on the scaffold holding his vigil. The meteor forms an A in the sky and Dimmesdale interprets it to mean he should wear his sin like Hester does with her scarlet letter. The townspeople take it to mean that Governor Winthrop, who had died that night, had move on to Heaven and become an angel.
This meteor is a symbol of both Dimmesdale's inner struggle with his sin and the townspeople's need to make everything in their life related to God and his greatness. This is similar to the A that Dimmesdale shows on his chest right before dieing according to some witnesses. It also corresponds to the fact that the townspeople never really discuss the fact that their beloved preacher was an adulterer even after they are aware. The meteor is a symbol for the false lives that the characters in the novel live and how it affects the society.
"We have wronged each other," answered he. "Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay. Therefore, as a man who has not thought and philosophised in vain, I seek no vengeance, plot no evil against thee. Between thee and me, the scale hangs fairly balanced. But, Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he?"
"Ask me not?" replied Hester Prynne, looking firmly into his face. "That thou shalt never know!"
"Never, sayest thou?" rejoined he, with a smile of dark and self-relying intelligence. "Never know him! Believe me, Hester, there are few things whether in the outward world, or, to a certain depth, in the invisible sphere of thought--few things hidden from the man who devotes himself earnestly and unreservedly to the solution of a mystery. Thou mayest cover up thy secret from the prying multitude. Thou mayest conceal it, too, from the ministers and magistrates, even as thou didst this day, when they sought to wrench the name out of thy heart, and give thee a partner on thy pedestal. But, as for me, I come to the inquest with other senses than they possess. I shall seek this man, as I have sought truth in books: as I have sought gold in alchemy. There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine." Chapter 4 Page 68-69
This passage, when Hester and Chillingworth are sitting in the jail, is how even when they have both been hurt by Hester's actions Chillingworth feels a part of the reason is himself and how he will stop at nothing to get the man who had the affair with his wife. This passage is a symbol of how a crime against someone changes them.
This symbol fits into the greater purpose of the book because it is a precursor to all of Chillingworth's actions throughout the book. Hawthorne is trying to say that by committing oneself to uncovering the truth it can change a person into something that they are truly not. The ending of the novel shows that the only solution to the change in a person is the separation of them from that crime, like how when Dimmesdale confesses his sin it separates Chillingworth from him and turns him back into something of his original self. A similar symbol in the book is the Scarlet Letter because it changes Hester into a new person that is radically different from her old self. These two symbols relate because they change the person affected by them. Hawthorne is trying to say that people who are affected by life changing events become different people from their former selves.
"Hester looked, by way of humoring the child; and she saw that, owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlett letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it." pg.94
This quote from the text is a symbol of how much the Scarlett letter burdens Hester and how much it takes over her whole being. Hester represents this scarlett letter because of the crime she commited.This symbol shows that the sin Hester carries around with her controls her and takes over everything she does.
It shows that sin is a big part of who Hester is now. Hawthorne is trying to tell us how big the burden is in which Hester carries around all day, and everyday. The way the novel ends, by Hester coming back still wearing the scarlett letter, shows us how important it was in Hesters life. The counterpart would be that even though the letter represents sin, it teaches and reminds Hester to do good and be an active part in society any way she can. Hawthorne is trying say that Hesters sin has taken over her life and it is how people see her.
"That, good Sir, is but a fantasy of yours," replied the minister. "There can be, if I forbode aright, no power, short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart. The heart, making itself guilty of such secrets, must perforce hold them, until the day when all hidden things shall be revealed. Nor have I so read or interpreted Holy Writ, as to understand that the disclosure of human thoughts and deeds, then to be made, is intended as a part of the retribution. That, surely, were a shallow view of it. No; these revelations, unless I greatly err, are meant merely to promote the intellectual satisfaction of all intelligent beings, who will stand waiting, on that day, to see the dark problem of this life made plain. A knowledge of men's hearts will be needful to the completest solution of that problem. And I conceive, moreover, that the hearts holding such miserable secrets as you speak of will yield them up, at that last day, not with reluctance, but with a joy unutterable."
This is the part right after Dimmsdale questions Chillingworth about the black weed that Chillingworth found on the unknown man’s grave. Dimmsdale says that only the divine can expose sin and nothing else can FORCE it to come out. Chillingworth thinks opposite and that natured can force the hidden sin/black weed to appear. This weed represents the hidden sin. This symbol is one on the major ones in the book because of the hidden sin that Dimmsdale has until the end of the book. Hawthorne is trying to express to us that hidden sin is a twisted black terrible thing that can or cannot be exposed in due time. The novel ends saying that Chillingworth was right that hidden sin is always finds its way out.
At the beginning of the novel, Hester has to stand on the scaffold with the child that her sin created, in front of the whole town. Hesters sin is available for the whole world to know, while Dimmesdales is still hidden in his heart. The only person that knows is Hester. Yes, Hester is being basically tortured by the townspeople, but in some ways that is better than holding it inside like Dimmesdale. Throughout the book, society makes Dimmesdale seem like an angel even when he tells them he is a sinner, which makes his guilt worse. On page 126 it says: "He had told his hearers that he was altogether vile, a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners, an abomination.... and the only wonder was, that they did not see his wretched body shriveled up before their eyes. Dimmesdale starts to torture himself because he can not escape his guilt. On page 126, it says: "...he loathed his miserable self! His inward trouble drove him to practices, more in accordance with the old, corrupted faith of Rome, than with the better light of the church in which he has been born and bred. In Mr. Dimmesdales secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge. Often times he mpiled it on his own shoulders, laughing at himself bitterly..." Dimmesdale can not deal with his guilt. He would rather be like Hester, and be publicly ridiculed. Hester is not going through this terrible guilt. Yes she feels degraded from the townspeople, but at least her sins are confessed. Hesters guilt makes her feel bad, but since her sin is confessed the guilt is not as strong. Whereas Dimmesdale is tortured daily by the sin locked in his heart. I think that Hawthorne is trying to convey the message that confessing your sins is always the better choice. When you keep something bottled up, even if you forget about it for a while, it will never go away. You will carry that sin around with you for the rest of your life. If you confess and pay for you sin, you can forget about it. Maybe not forgive yourself, but you will feel relieved. The novel ends with Dimmesdale confessing. He was planning on sailing off to England without telling the townspeople, but I think he knew that no matter where he went, his sin would follow him. He decided to tell so he could die without that sin, or weed growing on his grave. I think that this sin goes hand in hand with love and passion in the book. Love and passion between Hester and Dimmesdale is what leads them to their sin and guilt throughout the novel.
"Hester Prynne did not now occupy precisely the same position in which we beheld her during the earlier periods of her ignominy. Years had come, and gone. Pearl was now seven years old. Her mother, with the scarlet letter on her breast, glittering in its fantastic embroidery, had long been a familiar object to the townspeople. As is apt to be the case when a person stands out in any prominence before the community, and, at the same time, interferes neither with public nor individual interests and convenience, a species of general regard had ultimately grown up in reference to Hester Prynne. It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility. In this matter of Hester Prynne, there was neither irritation nor irksomeness. She never battled with the public, but submitted uncomplainingly to its worst usage; she made no claim upon it, in requital for what she suffered; she did not weigh upon its sympathies. Then, also, the blameless purity of her life, during all these years in which she had been set apart to infamy, was reckoned largely in her favor. With nothing now to lose, in the sight of mankind, and with no hope, and seemingly no wish, of gaining any thing, it could only be a genuine regard for virtue that had brought back the poor wanderer to its paths."
This passage comes from the appropriately titled 13th chapter, Another View of Hester. It has now been seven years since the birth of Pearl, and Hester A which was supposed to suppress her and punish her for her wrongdoing, is taking on a different role. Hawthorne mentions how hate can be transformed to love similar to how the Adulterer was transformed to the Able. He talks about how nothing was expected of her and that somehow led her back to the right path.
She had committed a sin, but did not feel guilt. She did not let her alienation keep her from doing good for society. She is not a bad person, she just broke a sacred law. While the sin was placed on Hester, she placed the guilt on Chillingworth.
In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread
Hester knows what she did was wrong and she accepts the punishment for it. She just tries to make the best of her situation. Dimmesdale, however, is waiting for the right time to confess and all the while his guilt is eating him alive. Sin began the story, and guilt ended the story.
Thus, we seem to see that, as regarded Hester Prynne, the whole seven years of outlaw and ignominy had been little other than a preparation for this very hour. But Arthur Dimmesdale! Were such a man once more to fall, what plea could be urged in extenuation of his crime? None; unless it avail him somewhat, that he was broken down by long and exquisite suffering; that his mind was darkened and confused by the very remorse which harrowed it; that, between fleeing as an avowed criminal, and remaining as a hypocrite, conscience might find it hard to strike the balance; that it was human to avoid the peril of death and infamy, and the inscrutable machinations of an enemy; that, finally, to this poor pilgrim, on his dreary and desert path, faint, sick, miserable, there appeared a glimpse of human affection and sympathy, a new life, and a true one, in exchange for the heavy doom which he was now expiating. And be the stern and sad truth spoken, that the breach which guilt has once made into the human soul is never, in this mortal state, repaired. It may be watched and guarded; so that the enemy shall not force his way again into the citadel, and might even, in his subsequent assaults, select some other avenue, in preference to that where he had formerly succeeded. But there is still the ruined wall, and, near it, the stealthy tread of the foe that would win over again his unforgotten triumph. (pg. 175)
This passage is written after Dimmsdale and Hester meet in the forest and is used as a thorough looking into the character, state, and personality of the two sinners.
The symbol in this passage, represented by a wall and preceded by what it spiritually represents, the human soul. The wall represents a soul that has been breached by sin and is used to metaphorically display the state of the spirit of one who commits a great sin by describing it as a wall that cannot be repaired.
The symbol fits into a theme that is repeated throughout this book, the guilt and consequence of committing sin. This displays what will occur if one is to dismiss and ignore their sin and the effect the guilt will have on the sinner in question. Hawthorne is trying to say that once a sin is committed, that there is no true repair for the damage that is left, there will always be a breach that evil can travel through and ultimately plague you for your physical existence. The novel's ending proves the symbol's stance on the effect sin can have on your physical state, that it can consume and manipulate, until you deem the torture to be enough, and you finally shout to the world the news and basis of the sin that has tortured you for the time. This symbol relates to the Scarlet Letter, in a way, that seem to pair each other as tools of the soul, the breach in the wall (sin and guilt) and the Letter, which seems to be a building block that attempts to fill the hole, but ultimately just covers up the sin. Hawthorne is truly trying to say that guilt will always pair with sin, and sin is ultimately invincible when it controls the human soul.
"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."
This quote is from when Hester is actually using the scarlet letter for the better and people start to say that the A stands for angel.
The scarlet letter is supposed to make Hester feel guilty and sinful. Hester turns her situation around and becomes a great person and impresses all the people in the town even though she is an adulterer. They start to say that the A stand for angel instead of adulterer. I think Hawthorne is trying to communicate that even when we have done something wrong and their seems no way out we can still turn it around for the better.
"Then why not reveal it here?" asked Roger Chillingworth, glancing quietly aside at the minister. "Why should not the guilty ones sooner avail themselves of this unutterable solace?"
"They mostly do," said the clergyman, griping hard at his breast, as if afflicted with an importunate throb of pain. "Many, many a poor soul hath given its confidence to me, not only on the death-bed, but while strong in life, and fair in reputation. And ever, after such an outpouring, oh, what a relief have I witnessed in those sinful brethren! even as in one who at last draws free air, after a long stifling with his own polluted breath. How can it be otherwise? Why should a wretched man--guilty, we will say, of murder--prefer to keep the dead corpse buried in his own heart, rather than fling it forth at once, and let the universe take care of it!"
During this scene, Chillingworth is talking to Dimmesdale about why people do not reveal their sins. Also, Chillingsworht is trying to get Dimmesdale to reveal his secret.
The symbol in this scene is Dimmesdale grasping his heart. The symbol represents him commiting adultry.
This symbol is talked about through out the whole book, because Hester is the woman who Dimmesdale slept with and she has to live in shame with it while no one knows that Dimmesdale is the father of the child. With no one in the town knowing this, Dimmesdale feels guilty for his sin, and feels guilty Hester being hated and not him. Hester has to wear a scarlet letter on her chest showing that she committed adultry. Dimmesdale doesnt have to wear a scarlet letter, but it is noticeable in the book that Dimmesdale might have carved an A into his chest to say he committed it also. Whenever people bring up Hester or Pearl he he gets a suddon pain on his chest where the A would be.
At the end of the book, Dimmesdale comes out and tells the town that he is the father of Pearl. The then reveals his chest to the town showing his scar. Revealing his sin kills him in the end because living with the guilt for 7 years made him very sick.
"In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread"
Hester accepts what she did was wrong. She knows the fact that commiting Adultuary was a terrible thing too do. Dimmesdale is waiting til the end too confess the truth about him and Hester and that they concived Pearl. He is waiting for the right perfect moment and he can't stand it, it's eating him alive. Sin is the main theme of this book. Hester is the main "sinner".
"And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendor, as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another....'And, since Satan saw fit to steal it, your reverence must needs handle him without gloves, henceforward," remarked the old sexton, grimly smiling. "But did your reverence hear of the portent that was seen last night? a great red letter in the sky,--the letter A,--which we interpret to stand for Angel. For, as our good Governor Winthrop was made an angel this past night, it was doubtless held fit that there should be some notice thereof!'"
In this scene, Dimmesdale is holding a vigil on the scaffold where Hester was put to shame. During this, a meteor comes and forms a giant A in the sky. The townspeople think that this means that Governor Winthrop, who had just passed away, was an angel in Heaven. Dimmesdale thinks God is trying to tell him to wear his sin on his chest like Hester.
This meteor represents the turmoil that Dimmesdale faces because of his sin. This symbol is somewhat tied to the A that Dimmesdale has on his chest that he reveals at the end of the novel.
"this badge hath taught me,-it daily teaches me,- it is teaching me at this moment,-lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better, albeit they can profit noting to myself."
You see Hawthorn letting us know that Hester admits to the sin she has been convicted of. she is not hiding from what has taken place nor is she trying to belittle it. Which majority of people today go around and try to make up excuses and belittle what we have done. Unless what we have done is good. But the thing is you would believe that because she is admitting to her sin she would feel guilt for what she has done.But sin and guilt are two very different things. Sin is when you break a law and your punishment comes from the people in society. But guilt is where it counts. If you dont have guilt then you believe what you have done is ok. Because only you can decide what is wrong or right. Society can help you or try to lead you to believe what is right and wrong or what is accetible or not. So in Hester's eyes she knows accorrding to society she is wrong and should be punished. But that punishment wont mean a thing to her because she believes what she has done is not bad.And without guilt any punishment society puts on you will do you no harm.
"And he will alwaus keep his hand over his heart?" inquired Pearl. "Foolish child, what a question is that!" exclaimed her mother. "Come and ask his blessing!" The minister-painfully embarrassed, byt hoping taht a kiss might prove a talisman to admit him into the child's kindlier regards-bent forward, and impressed one on her brow. Hereupon, Pearl broke away from her mother, and, running tothe brook, stooped over it and batherd her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss was quite washed off and diffused through a long lapse of the gliding water.
This shows that Dimmesdale feels guilty that he is not able to love and be loved by his daughter that had to figure out on her own who he really is. Because of his sin, he has to pay the price of not being a father for his girl.
Hawthorne is trying to show us how Dimmesdale feels about his sin and the guilt he has been hiding for so many years. He also shows that Pearl could care less about Dimmesdale. This passage is alike many other meetings with Pearl and Dimmesdale when he was giving his sermon and Pearl left to go play. It was Dimmesdales honor of giving the sermon and Pearl wasnt there.
“Pearl,” said he, with great solemnity, “thou must take heed to instruction, that so, in due season, thou mayest wear in thy bosom the pearl of great price. Canst thou tell me, my child, who made thee?” 16 Now Pearl knew well enough who made her; for Hester Prynne, the daughter of a pious home, very soon after her talk with the child about her Heavenly Father, had begun to inform her of those truths which the human spirit, at whatever stage of immaturity, imbibes with such eager interest. Pearl, therefore, so large were the attainments of her three years’ lifetime, could have borne a fair examination in the New England Primer, or the first column of the Westminster Catechism, although unacquainted with the outward form of either of those celebrated works. But that perversity, which all children have more or less of, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold portion, now, at the most inopportune moment, took thorough possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss. After putting her finger in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson’s question, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door.
In this scene, Hester is talking to Governor about Pearl considered to be taken away from her. Hester says that she can educate the child right way. Governor tests it by asking Pearl a question; who made you? Pearl answers that she was plucked off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door. Governor says that it is an awful answer.
Pearl said that she was plucked off the wild rose bush by the prison door. This shows that beautiful things might come out of evil and sinful places. Pearl was made by sin, prison, and she was a beautiful flower. Hawthorne foreshadows that Pearl is an angelic figure even though she was made by sin.
"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. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore..." This quote is the authors description of the scarlet letter in chapter 2 when Hester stands on the scaffolding for the first time.
The scarlet letter is this novels best representation of sin and guilt. Not only is it the books namesake, but it is constantly used to show Hester's shame.
By being such a prevalent symbol, it ties into the book in almost every instance. Hawthorne is trying to communicate the puritan societies one-sided view of punishment without repentance. When the novel ends, the scarlet letter loses almost all it's original meaning, having gone from adulteress, to able, to basically meaningless. A good similar symbol is Pearl. As with the scarlet letter, Pearl is a constant reminder of Hester's sin. Hawthorne is trying to show us that we shouldn't be so abrupt with what we believe is sin. We should take a step back and ask ourselves what is sin?
“Ah,” replied Roger Chillingworth, with that quietness which, whether imposed or natural, marked all his deportment, “it is thus that a young clergyman is apt to speak. Youthful men, not having taken a deep root, give up their hold of life so easily! And saintly men, who walk with God on earth, would fain be away, to walk with him on the golden pavements of the New Jerusalem.” “Nay,” rejoined the young minister, putting his hand to his heart, with a flush of pain flitting over his brow, “were I worthier to walk there, I could be better content to toil here." “Good men ever interpret themselves too meanly,” said the physician."
this is when chillingsworth is starting to relize that there is something wrong with dimmesdale. he is just not sure what. thsi is when i think he is starting to get the hint that he has comitted a crime but he can not come to conclusion yet. he teys to hint around and get dimmesdale to go ahead and come out with it but he just wont bugge. this is how crime and sin are involved on dimmesdales part. and gult being pushed on him by chillingsworth!
In the Scarlet letter Hester gets to live her life going trough her sin and feeling guilty. In the beggining of the book she has been rejected by the puritan society because of her sin of audultry. They have tryed to humilate hester by placing the scarlet letter on her chest, and she is isolated living only with Pearl. Also everyday she is reminded of her seen because of pearl, she is the outcome of her sin. And Hester also carries this guilt every were because people think pearl is evil and she is just reminded every day of her mistake. But then by the end of the book hester finally forgets about her sin and guilt and just lets it go. she took of her scarlet letter and threw it into the brook and jus let it go away. but then pearl reminds her again that she is the scarlet letter so she gets upset that she has let it go. this brings on the guilt again. But the whole idea of hesters sin and guilt she just learned to except it. and she would look at it and take it in a positive way not even worrying about the puritan town.
In the book, the theme of sin and guilt play a major role. Hester was branded by the Puritan socitey with the "A" on her chest in a scarlet letter. That "A" stood for adultor, which the sin she committed was adultry. The result of Hester and Dimmesdale sin was Pearl, their daughter. Pearl, being the offspring of a known sinner was immeadiately viewed as evil, even though she was an actually blessing to her mother. Through Pearl and the scarlet letter, Hester was able to learn from her mistakes and mother her child to not make the same ones she did. Guilt came forth from Dimmesdale by him keeping his secret hidden for so long. He was guilty of the sin just as Hester, but he wasnt labeled with an "A" because he didn't come forth, and it was easier for him to hide it since men can't get pregnant. The guilt and sin eventually built up on Dimmesdale and he folded and confessed of his sin.
"this badge hath taught me,-it daily teaches me,- it is teaching me at this moment,-lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better, albeit they can profit noting to myself."
"The health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail. By those best aquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotionn to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spirtual lamp... he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain."
This is the part of the book where the toll of Dimmesdales sin (Adultery) is finally catching up to him. This causes his health to constantly diminish and also causes him to put his hand over his heart. Dimmesdale inflicts self punishment to a degree that may be more extreme then the way Hester is punished. Hesters scarlett letter is with her the entire book but Dimmesdale only acquires it at the very end and his electoral day speech. This shows that hiding a sin from society is often more painful then coming clean, which leads back to the black weeds part
"I can teach my little Pearl what I have learned from this!" answered Hester Prynne, laying her finger on the red token. "Woman, it is thy badge of shame!" replied the stern magistrate. "It is because of the stain which that letter indicates, that we would transfer thy child to other hands." "Nevertheless," said the mother calmly, though growing more pale, "this badge hath taught me,--it daily teaches me,--it is teaching me at this moment,--lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better, albeit they can profit nothing to myself." This passage is found in Ch.8. It represents the sin and guilt she has to deal with everyday. Pearl is a result of her sin so every time she looks at Pearl she gets a feeling of sin and guilt. At the same time though, she is being taught by the scarlet letter. She will use the scarlet letter to teach Pearl not to make the same mistakes she made. The scarlet letter A will remain on her clothes forever, she has been given the opportunity later on in the book to have it taken off but she uses it as a learning tool to help her teach Pearl, but also is a reminder of her sin so she will not do the same thing over again. Other people in the book look at her sin in another way. They see her sin as Pearl. They think she is evil,elfish,demonic, etc. which makes Hester think about the guilt she has brought on herself and on Pearl. Hawthorne is trying to say that the Puritains have a one sided view on society they see Hesters scarlet letter and Pearl as an act of shame, but Hester uses it for another purpose. At the end of the book the scarlet letter and Pearl have totally different meanings than they were first presented as.
"Even in the grave-yard, here at hand," answered the physician, continuing his employment. "They are new to me. I found them growing on a grave, which bore no tombstone, no other memorial of the dead man, save these ugly weeds that have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance. They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime." Before this,Dimmesdale was looking out of his window at the graveyard. Chillingworth then comes in and shows him this weed that he had gotten off of some unknown man's grave. He had never seen them before.The weeds represent Dimmesdale. The man that had died with his hidden sin was just like Dimmesdale at the time. These weeds are like a constent reminder to Dimmesdale of his hidden sin because he doesn't want to die with his sin. Hawthorne is trying to communicate to us that we should confess and not hold it in us and live with guilt. When the book ends, it shows us that Dimmesdale wasn't going to have weeds of hidden sin on his grave. The scarlet letter is like the weeds. They are always there to stir up the guilt in Hester and Dimmesdale.
So speaking, she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves. The mystic token alighted on the hither verge of the stream. With a hand's breadth farther flight it would have fallen into the water, and have given the little brook another woe to carry onward, besides the unintelligible tale which it still kept murmuring about. But there lay the embroidered letter, glittering like a lost jewel, which some ill-fated wanderer might pick up, and thenceforth be haunted by strange phantoms of guilt, sinkings of the heart, and unaccountable misfortune. But Pearl, not a whit startled at her mother's threats, any more than mollified by her entreaties, now suddenly burst into a fit of passion, gesticulating violently, and throwing her small figure into the most extravagant contortions. She accompanied this wild outbreak with piercing shrieks, which the woods reverberated on all sides; so that, alone as she was in her childish and unreasonable wrath, it seemed as if a hidden multitude were lending her their sympathy and encouragement. Seen in the brook, once more, was the shadowy wrath of Pearl's image, crowned and girdled with flowers, but stamping its foot, wildly gesticulating, and, in the midst of all, still pointing its small forefinger at Hester's bosom!
"I see what ails the child," whispered Hester to the clergyman, and turning pale in spite of a strong effort to conceal her trouble and annoyance. "Children will not abide any, the slightest, change in the accustomed aspect of things that are daily before their eyes. Pearl misses something which she has always seen me wear!"
THis scene is where Hester is talking to Dimmesdale in the woods about running away to New England to escape the negativity to the reaction of their sin. Hester gets so excited she throws the scarlet letter to let another wanderer pick up the burden of the letter. Hester calls Pearl over to talk to Dimmedale and Pearl freaks out because she doesn't see the letter on her mom.
These quotes express guilt and sin by expressing that Hester felt bad for taking the letter off, so she put it back on, and that Hester had forgiven her sin.
These symbols fit into the book because everyone in this book has sinned and feels guilty, but instead of correcting themselves they put the blame Hester. Hawthorne is trying to say that the people in this book think its easier to look at someone elses faults instead of their own. The way the book ends effects this because if Hester wouldn't have been okay with her sin, Dimmesdale would have kept it a secret. The opposite symbol is the love expressed in this book. Hester is in love with Dimmesdale, Hester loves Pearl, and Chillingworth loves Hester. The similar symbol is Dimmesdale abusing himself for the sin he committed, when it wasn't necessary. These symbols tie in with society and what it feels is just punishment for sins.I think that Hawthorne is ultimately trying to say that with all sins, there is guilt that comes with it.
“Pearl,” said he, with great solemnity, “thou must take heed to instruction, that so, in due season, thou mayest wear in thy bosom the pearl of great price. Canst thou tell me, my child, who made thee?” 16 Now Pearl knew well enough who made her; for Hester Prynne, the daughter of a pious home, very soon after her talk with the child about her Heavenly Father, had begun to inform her of those truths which the human spirit, at whatever stage of immaturity, imbibes with such eager interest. Pearl, therefore, so large were the attainments of her three years’ lifetime, could have borne a fair examination in the New England Primer, or the first column of the Westminster Catechism, although unacquainted with the outward form of either of those celebrated works. But that perversity, which all children have more or less of, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold portion, now, at the most inopportune moment, took thorough possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss. After putting her finger in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson’s question, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door.
Hester had now gone to the governor to talk about Pearl. The governor said that maybe they should take Pearl away from Hester because it would benefit both of them. Yet Hester wants to prove to the him that she can educate her and bring her up right because of whats she has been through-the scarlet letter. She could teach her all bout it and teach Pearl not to make the same mistake as Hester. The governor then askes the question "who made you." Pearl responds that she was plucked off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door. She refused to believe that God had created her.
I think that this means that Pearl was born in a sinful way because of Hester. I think that beacsue Hester has siined it all went to Pearl when she was born and that is why she acts the way she does. She dances on graves and acts like a with because of Hesters sin. When she said that she was born by the prison door then that means that all the sin and evil in that prison door is how she came up and will be with her forever.
"And be the stern and sad truth spoken, that the breach which quilt has once made into the human soul is never, in this mortal state, repaired." 175
This quote is suppose to represent that while even though the sin was of passion, the quilt that came along with it was irreversible. Hester and DImmesdale both felt the guilt of the sin. Mr. Dimmesdale felt more guilty that Hester did. This guilt would lead him to do things that a sane human normally wouldn't do. He cut or burned an "A" onto his chest. This was intended to be his punishment. Though no one could see this "A" it was still prevalent. The guilt from sin would lead him to do things such as fast and beat himself. He would not be relieved of this guilt until he repented upon the scaffold. His awful sin caused guilt that affected every aspect of his life.
Brent Reaves said… "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 sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!" (P. 170) This passage from The Scarlet Letter symbolizes that there are always worse sins out in this world. Even though Dimmesdale and Hester had conceived a child with one another out of wedlock, to violate someone’s heart is even worse. The constant questioning as well as suspiciousness Roger Chillingworth has toward the secret that Dimmesdale has been holding for quite some time, is starting to eat away at him. This gives Dimmesdale a steady reminder of the sin that he committed, and it tears him apart. You can see that for the rest of the book, Dimmesdale hates him for this and rightfully so. In the end of the book he admits to the townspeople of his sin with Hester in order to escape the revenge of Roger Chillingworth. Hawthorne seems to be trying to communicate that what Hester and Dimmesdale did was bad, but you can always do worse things.
"Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street, was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pig-weed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison." In The Scarlet Letter, symbols of sin and guilt occur throughout the book. This first sinful symbol happens in the very beginning of the book when Hawthorne is describing the prison. The "black flower of civilization" represents sin because people are not perfect and sin shows up in every persons life. It is as if you are sucked into the sins of life and have no way to escape them. The Scarlet Letter is about sin and how everyone is a sinner. He is trying to say that even the prettiest "flowers of civiilization" can soon become the "black flower of civilization". The novel ends with Hester putting on the scarlet letter, reliving her sin again. Sin is everywhere in the book. The counterpart of the black flower is the "wild rose-bush" that is blooming outside of the prison. A similar symbol would be the scarlet letter. This symbol relates to most of the other symbols in the book because it is regarding human imperfections. Sin is a human imperfection and everyone can be a sinner.
"We impute it, therefore, solely to the disease in his own eye and heart, that the minister, looking upward to the zenith, beheld there the appearance of an immense letter,--the letter A,--marked out in lines of dull red light. Not but the meteor may have shown itself at that point, burning duskily through a veil of cloud; but with no such shape as his guilty imagination gave it; or, at least, with so little definiteness, that another's guilt might have seen another symbol in it." This miraculous event happens when Dimmesdale is standing on the scaffold after he has yelled to the entire town. Pearl and Hester will soon join him and they will hold hands as a family in the night. This symbol represents Dimmesdale's own personal sin. It shows his guilt by revealing an "A" in the sky and him automatically thinking it was a scarlet letter. Hester has been accused of adultery and Dimmesdale knows he was part of it. This letter shows the conflict between telling and keeping his secret and how much it is eating at him. Dimmesdale dies after he tells his sin because all of the weight is lifted off of his shoulders. His sin is out in the open. A counterpart would be that the townspeople thought that the "A" meant "angel" because Governor Winthrop had died that night; they thought it was him descending into heaven. A similar symbol is the letter "A" Hester wears, although the difference is that hers is placed where everyone can see it. This symbol relates to other symbols in the book because it shows guilt because of an awful sin. Dimmesdale has felt guilty for seven years and is still fighting with whether or not his sin should be revealed. Hawthorne is trying to demonstrate Dimmesdale's struggle.
"The health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail. By those best aquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotionn to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spirtual lamp."
This quote shows just how much sin in any shape can put you in a terrible guilt until you admit whatever the sin is. Some people just try to keep it to themselves like Dimmesdale is attempting to do, but it only makes your mind and your sould weaker. His physical features are slowly breaking down because of the guilt for his sin inside of him. Not only does Dimmesdale deal with much guilt in this book, but so does Hester. The difference between thw two is, one has come clean about it and the other hasn't. Not coming clean about something everyone around you is wondering about will eat you ailve.
"The health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail. By those best aquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotionn to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spirtual lamp... he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain."
This passage talks about how Dimmesdale uses self-inflicted punishment to compensate for his guilt from the adultery. In this scene, we see the symbols adultery and also the scarlet letter, albeit not the main letter. Adultery here represents passion. Because Dimmesdale whips himself and punishes himself, he shows passion and guilt for the actions he has taken. This guilt comes from him commiting adultery. The Scarlet letter came from Dimmesdale branding it upon himself. He branded himself in order to have a reminder for his sin that he commited and to try to relieve some of his guilt. This has a similar affect on him as it does Hester, except instead of freedom, Dimmesdale has extreme amounts remorse and guilt.
I believe that Hawthorne is trying to show us through Dimmesdale's and Hester's adultery that everybody sins, and if you don't reveal your sin, you will have extreme amounts of guilt. Sometime guilt can lead to self-inflicted punishments like his scarlet letter, and when the sin is revealed, it can lead to relief, like Hester's scarlet letter gave her. Dimmesdale's scarlet letter and sin ultimately drove him to his death while Hester's set her free and relieved her guilt.
In the book The Scarlet letter, Hester deals with sin and guilt along with her daughter pearl. Pearl was made from her mother out of sin. When Hester made that decision to commit adultery, Pearl had now been conceived as an evil child. Hester throughout the story feels guilty in the things she had done in her past, because she still deeply cares about Dimmesdale. When Pearl at the start of the book claimed that her mother picked her from the rose bush which symbolizes evil from the little child.
ReplyDeleteTowards the end of the book when Hester reappears but with out Pearl, she is still wearing her scarlet letter. I think that had she taken it off she would have felt guilty and free at the same time because the scarlet letter reminded her of her past and also reminded her of her daughter pearl that had grown up, moved on and got married to a noble. Hester would have felt free with the scarlet letter not upon her chest anymore, but everyone would have noticed it not being there and started talking about her more and more. The townspeople have already been used to seeing her wear the "A" on her chest.
“Ah,” replied Roger Chillingworth, with that quietness which, whether imposed or natural, marked all his deportment, “it is thus that a young clergyman is apt to speak. Youthful men, not having taken a deep root, give up their hold of life so easily! And saintly men, who walk with God on earth, would fain be away, to walk with him on the golden pavements of the New Jerusalem.”
ReplyDelete“Nay,” rejoined the young minister, putting his hand to his heart, with a flush of pain flitting over his brow, “were I worthier to walk there, I could be better content to toil here."
“Good men ever interpret themselves too meanly,” said the physician."
This is when Chillingworth is talking to Dimmesdale about Dimmesdale's health condition. He puts his hand over his heart and grips it to stop the pain. His pain is the quilt he is feeling in his heart from the sin he committed.
Dimmesdale puts his hand over his heart to stop the pain that he is feeling. This relates to the end of the book when he is up on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl. He shows everyone the mark on his chest from feeling guilty about having an affair with Hester. This is Dimmesdale's last stand and he dies right after. A similar symbol would be how Hester is excluded from the society because of her scarlet letter. Her sin makes her wear the scarlet letter and every time she sees it, it makes her feel guilty. Hawthorne may be saying about sin and guilt is that they go hand in hand. You commit sin then you feel guilty.
"The health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail. By those best aquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotionn to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spirtual lamp... he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain."
ReplyDeleteThis part in the book is when Dimmesdale begins to feel ill and looks pale and always puts his hand over his heart. When he puts his hand over his heart, it represents the pain he feels for committing adultry. He feels guilty and punishes himself for it. At the end of the novel, Dimmesdale shows everyone his chest and he has an "A" on it. It is similar to Hester's "A" but the way they were puunished was different. Dimmesdale's "A" was pain that only he knew about and could feel, while Hester's "A" was on the outside for everyone to see. Hawthorne is saying that when you committ a crime, the guilt builds up so much inside that eventually you will have to let someone know about it.
She could no longer borrow from the future, to help her through the present grief. To-morrow would bring its own trial with it; so would the next day, and so would the next; each its own trial, and yet the very same that was now so unutterably grievous to be borne. The days of the far-off future would toil onward, still with the same burden for her to take up, and bear along with her, but never to fling down; for the accumulating days, and added years, would pile up their misery upon the heap of shame. Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion. 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. And over her grave, the infamy that she must carry thither would be her only monument. chapter 5
ReplyDeletethis passage shows up when hester is leaving the jail. Basicly this represents how being beautiful and tempting is a sin. The novel ends and represents how being tempted can over come you and make you do bad things just like D did with Hester. The opposite of beauty is uglyness. this is how hester feels as she waers dull colors and the A on her chest. another symbol that relates to this is lust. Lust leads people to think that they are in love and then those people do things with each other that lead to an un monogamous relationship and thus creating sin.
Austin Ward said...
ReplyDeleteThe scarlet letter burned on Hester Prynne's bosom. Here was ... another ruin, the responsibility of which came partly home to her.
Th symbol represents the sin of Hester. The scarlet letter is burned onto her bosom to constantly remind her of her sin.
He is trying to communicate the sin of Hester by describing us of it burned onto her bosom.With the novel ending the way it did it shows us that sin cannot overcome us unless we let it. He is showing us that we should not let our sins overcome us and make us give in to it. Dimmesdale is an opposite symbol to the scarlet letter. He shows how the sin can overcome us and lead to death. It does the same things just everything is opposite. The scarlet letter is the ultimate symbol in this novel.
"But, before Mr. Dimmesdale had done speaking, a light gleamed far and wide over all the muffled sky. It was doubtless caused by one of those meteors, which the night-watcher may so often observe burning out to waste, in the vacant regions of the atmosphere. So powerful was its radiance, that it thoroughly illuminated the dense medium of cloud betwixt the sky and earth. The great vault brightened, like the dome of an immense lamp. It showed the familiar scene of the street, with the distinctness of mid-day, but also with the awfulness that is always imparted to familiar objects by an unaccustomed light. The wooden houses, with their jutting stories and quaint gable-peaks; the doorsteps and thresholds, with the early grass springing up about them; the garden-plots, black with freshly turned earth; the wheel-track, little worn, and, even in the market-place, margined with green on either side;--all were visible, but with a singularity of aspect that seemed to give another moral interpretation to the things of this world than they had ever borne before. And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendor, as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another....'And, since Satan saw fit to steal it, your reverence must needs handle him without gloves, henceforward," remarked the old sexton, grimly smiling. "But did your reverence hear of the portent that was seen last night? a great red letter in the sky,--the letter A,--which we interpret to stand for Angel. For, as our good Governor Winthrop was made an angel this past night, it was doubtless held fit that there should be some notice thereof!'"
ReplyDeleteThis is the scene where Dimmesdale is on the scaffold holding his vigil. The meteor forms an A in the sky and Dimmesdale interprets it to mean he should wear his sin like Hester does with her scarlet letter. The townspeople take it to mean that Governor Winthrop, who had died that night, had move on to Heaven and become an angel.
This meteor is a symbol of both Dimmesdale's inner struggle with his sin and the townspeople's need to make everything in their life related to God and his greatness. This is similar to the A that Dimmesdale shows on his chest right before dieing according to some witnesses. It also corresponds to the fact that the townspeople never really discuss the fact that their beloved preacher was an adulterer even after they are aware. The meteor is a symbol for the false lives that the characters in the novel live and how it affects the society.
"We have wronged each other," answered he. "Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay. Therefore, as a man who has not thought and philosophised in vain, I seek no vengeance, plot no evil against thee. Between thee and me, the scale hangs fairly balanced. But, Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he?"
ReplyDelete"Ask me not?" replied Hester Prynne, looking firmly into his face. "That thou shalt never know!"
"Never, sayest thou?" rejoined he, with a smile of dark and self-relying intelligence. "Never know him! Believe me, Hester, there are few things whether in the outward world, or, to a certain depth, in the invisible sphere of thought--few things hidden from the man who devotes himself earnestly and unreservedly to the solution of a mystery. Thou mayest cover up thy secret from the prying multitude. Thou mayest conceal it, too, from the ministers and magistrates, even as thou didst this day, when they sought to wrench the name out of thy heart, and give thee a partner on thy pedestal. But, as for me, I come to the inquest with other senses than they possess. I shall seek this man, as I have sought truth in books: as I have sought gold in alchemy. There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine." Chapter 4 Page 68-69
This passage, when Hester and Chillingworth are sitting in the jail, is how even when they have both been hurt by Hester's actions Chillingworth feels a part of the reason is himself and how he will stop at nothing to get the man who had the affair with his wife. This passage is a symbol of how a crime against someone changes them.
This symbol fits into the greater purpose of the book because it is a precursor to all of Chillingworth's actions throughout the book. Hawthorne is trying to say that by committing oneself to uncovering the truth it can change a person into something that they are truly not. The ending of the novel shows that the only solution to the change in a person is the separation of them from that crime, like how when Dimmesdale confesses his sin it separates Chillingworth from him and turns him back into something of his original self. A similar symbol in the book is the Scarlet Letter because it changes Hester into a new person that is radically different from her old self. These two symbols relate because they change the person affected by them. Hawthorne is trying to say that people who are affected by life changing events become different people from their former selves.
"Hester looked, by way of humoring the child; and she saw that, owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlett letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it." pg.94
ReplyDeleteThis quote from the text is a symbol of how much the Scarlett letter burdens Hester and how much it takes over her whole being. Hester represents this scarlett letter because of the crime she commited.This symbol shows that the sin Hester carries around with her controls her and takes over everything she does.
It shows that sin is a big part of who Hester is now. Hawthorne is trying to tell us how big the burden is in which Hester carries around all day, and everyday. The way the novel ends, by Hester coming back still wearing the scarlett letter, shows us how important it was in Hesters life. The counterpart would be that even though the letter represents sin, it teaches and reminds Hester to do good and be an active part in society any way she can. Hawthorne is trying say that Hesters sin has taken over her life and it is how people see her.
"That, good Sir, is but a fantasy of yours," replied the minister. "There can be, if I forbode aright, no power, short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart. The heart, making itself guilty of such secrets, must perforce hold them, until the day when all hidden things shall be revealed. Nor have I so read or interpreted Holy Writ, as to understand that the disclosure of human thoughts and deeds, then to be made, is intended as a part of the retribution. That, surely, were a shallow view of it. No; these revelations, unless I greatly err, are meant merely to promote the intellectual satisfaction of all intelligent beings, who will stand waiting, on that day, to see the dark problem of this life made plain. A knowledge of men's hearts will be needful to the completest solution of that problem. And I conceive, moreover, that the hearts holding such miserable secrets as you speak of will yield them up, at that last day, not with reluctance, but with a joy unutterable."
ReplyDeleteThis is the part right after Dimmsdale questions Chillingworth about the black weed that Chillingworth found on the unknown man’s grave. Dimmsdale says that only the divine can expose sin and nothing else can FORCE it to come out. Chillingworth thinks opposite and that natured can force the hidden sin/black weed to appear. This weed represents the hidden sin.
This symbol is one on the major ones in the book because of the hidden sin that Dimmsdale has until the end of the book. Hawthorne is trying to express to us that hidden sin is a twisted black terrible thing that can or cannot be exposed in due time. The novel ends saying that Chillingworth was right that hidden sin is always finds its way out.
At the beginning of the novel, Hester has to stand on the scaffold with the child that her sin created, in front of the whole town. Hesters sin is available for the whole world to know, while Dimmesdales is still hidden in his heart. The only person that knows is Hester. Yes, Hester is being basically tortured by the townspeople, but in some ways that is better than holding it inside like Dimmesdale. Throughout the book, society makes Dimmesdale seem like an angel even when he tells them he is a sinner, which makes his guilt worse. On page 126 it says: "He had told his hearers that he was altogether vile, a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners, an abomination.... and the only wonder was, that they did not see his wretched body shriveled up before their eyes. Dimmesdale starts to torture himself because he can not escape his guilt. On page 126, it says: "...he loathed his miserable self! His inward trouble drove him to practices, more in accordance with the old, corrupted faith of Rome, than with the better light of the church in which he has been born and bred. In Mr. Dimmesdales secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge. Often times he mpiled it on his own shoulders, laughing at himself bitterly..." Dimmesdale can not deal with his guilt. He would rather be like Hester, and be publicly ridiculed. Hester is not going through this terrible guilt. Yes she feels degraded from the townspeople, but at least her sins are confessed. Hesters guilt makes her feel bad, but since her sin is confessed the guilt is not as strong. Whereas Dimmesdale is tortured daily by the sin locked in his heart. I think that Hawthorne is trying to convey the message that confessing your sins is always the better choice. When you keep something bottled up, even if you forget about it for a while, it will never go away. You will carry that sin around with you for the rest of your life. If you confess and pay for you sin, you can forget about it. Maybe not forgive yourself, but you will feel relieved. The novel ends with Dimmesdale confessing. He was planning on sailing off to England without telling the townspeople, but I think he knew that no matter where he went, his sin would follow him. He decided to tell so he could die without that sin, or weed growing on his grave. I think that this sin goes hand in hand with love and passion in the book. Love and passion between Hester and Dimmesdale is what leads them to their sin and guilt throughout the novel.
ReplyDeletegfddasfsd
ReplyDelete"Hester Prynne did not now occupy precisely the same position in which we beheld her during the earlier periods of her ignominy. Years had come, and gone. Pearl was now seven years old. Her mother, with the scarlet letter on her breast, glittering in its fantastic embroidery, had long been a familiar object to the townspeople. As is apt to be the case when a person stands out in any prominence before the community, and, at the same time, interferes neither with public nor individual interests and convenience, a species of general regard had ultimately grown up in reference to Hester Prynne. It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility. In this matter of Hester Prynne, there was neither irritation nor irksomeness. She never battled with the public, but submitted uncomplainingly to its worst usage; she made no claim upon it, in requital for what she suffered; she did not weigh upon its sympathies. Then, also, the blameless purity of her life, during all these years in which she had been set apart to infamy, was reckoned largely in her favor. With nothing now to lose, in the sight of mankind, and with no hope, and seemingly no wish, of gaining any thing, it could only be a genuine regard for virtue that had brought back the poor wanderer to its paths."
ReplyDeleteThis passage comes from the appropriately titled 13th chapter, Another View of Hester. It has now been seven years since the birth of Pearl, and Hester A which was supposed to suppress her and punish her for her wrongdoing, is taking on a different role. Hawthorne mentions how hate can be transformed to love similar to how the Adulterer was transformed to the Able. He talks about how nothing was expected of her and that somehow led her back to the right path.
She had committed a sin, but did not feel guilt. She did not let her alienation keep her from doing good for society. She is not a bad person, she just broke a sacred law. While the sin was placed on Hester, she placed the guilt on Chillingworth.
In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread
ReplyDeleteHester knows what she did was wrong and she accepts the punishment for it. She just tries to make the best of her situation. Dimmesdale, however, is waiting for the right time to confess and all the while his guilt is eating him alive. Sin began the story, and guilt ended the story.
Thus, we seem to see that, as regarded Hester Prynne, the whole seven years of outlaw and ignominy had been little other than a preparation for this very hour. But Arthur Dimmesdale! Were such a man once more to fall, what plea could be urged in extenuation of his crime? None; unless it avail him somewhat, that he was broken down by long and exquisite suffering; that his mind was darkened and confused by the very remorse which harrowed it; that, between fleeing as an avowed criminal, and remaining as a hypocrite, conscience might find it hard to strike the balance; that it was human to avoid the peril of death and infamy, and the inscrutable machinations of an enemy; that, finally, to this poor pilgrim, on his dreary and desert path, faint, sick, miserable, there appeared a glimpse of human affection and sympathy, a new life, and a true one, in exchange for the heavy doom which he was now expiating. And be the stern and sad truth spoken, that the breach which guilt has once made into the human soul is never, in this mortal state, repaired. It may be watched and guarded; so that the enemy shall not force his way again into the citadel, and might even, in his subsequent assaults, select some other avenue, in preference to that where he had formerly succeeded. But there is still the ruined wall, and, near it, the stealthy tread of the foe that would win over again his unforgotten triumph. (pg. 175)
ReplyDeleteThis passage is written after Dimmsdale and Hester meet in the forest and is used as a thorough looking into the character, state, and personality of the two sinners.
The symbol in this passage, represented by a wall and preceded by what it spiritually represents, the human soul. The wall represents a soul that has been breached by sin and is used to metaphorically display the state of the spirit of one who commits a great sin by describing it as a wall that cannot be repaired.
The symbol fits into a theme that is repeated throughout this book, the guilt and consequence of committing sin. This displays what will occur if one is to dismiss and ignore their sin and the effect the guilt will have on the sinner in question. Hawthorne is trying to say that once a sin is committed, that there is no true repair for the damage that is left, there will always be a breach that evil can travel through and ultimately plague you for your physical existence. The novel's ending proves the symbol's stance on the effect sin can have on your physical state, that it can consume and manipulate, until you deem the torture to be enough, and you finally shout to the world the news and basis of the sin that has tortured you for the time. This symbol relates to the Scarlet Letter, in a way, that seem to pair each other as tools of the soul, the breach in the wall (sin and guilt) and the Letter, which seems to be a building block that attempts to fill the hole, but ultimately just covers up the sin. Hawthorne is truly trying to say that guilt will always pair with sin, and sin is ultimately invincible when it controls the human soul.
"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."
ReplyDeleteThis quote is from when Hester is actually using the scarlet letter for the better and people start to say that the A stands for angel.
The scarlet letter is supposed to make Hester feel guilty and sinful. Hester turns her situation around and becomes a great person and impresses all the people in the town even though she is an adulterer. They start to say that the A stand for angel instead of adulterer. I think Hawthorne is trying to communicate that even when we have done something wrong and their seems no way out we can still turn it around for the better.
"Then why not reveal it here?" asked Roger Chillingworth, glancing quietly aside at the minister. "Why should not the guilty ones sooner avail themselves of this unutterable solace?"
ReplyDelete"They mostly do," said the clergyman, griping hard at his breast, as if afflicted with an importunate throb of pain. "Many, many a poor soul hath given its confidence to me, not only on the death-bed, but while strong in life, and fair in reputation. And ever, after such an outpouring, oh, what a relief have I witnessed in those sinful brethren! even as in one who at last draws free air, after a long stifling with his own polluted breath. How can it be otherwise? Why should a wretched man--guilty, we will say, of murder--prefer to keep the dead corpse buried in his own heart, rather than fling it forth at once, and let the universe take care of it!"
During this scene, Chillingworth is talking to Dimmesdale about why people do not reveal their sins. Also, Chillingsworht is trying to get Dimmesdale to reveal his secret.
The symbol in this scene is Dimmesdale grasping his heart. The symbol represents him commiting adultry.
This symbol is talked about through out the whole book, because Hester is the woman who Dimmesdale slept with and she has to live in shame with it while no one knows that Dimmesdale is the father of the child. With no one in the town knowing this, Dimmesdale feels guilty for his sin, and feels guilty Hester being hated and not him. Hester has to wear a scarlet letter on her chest showing that she committed adultry. Dimmesdale doesnt have to wear a scarlet letter, but it is noticeable in the book that Dimmesdale might have carved an A into his chest to say he committed it also. Whenever people bring up Hester or Pearl he he gets a suddon pain on his chest where the A would be.
At the end of the book, Dimmesdale comes out and tells the town that he is the father of Pearl. The then reveals his chest to the town showing his scar. Revealing his sin kills him in the end because living with the guilt for 7 years made him very sick.
"In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread"
ReplyDeleteHester accepts what she did was wrong. She knows the fact that commiting Adultuary was a terrible thing too do. Dimmesdale is waiting til the end too confess the truth about him and Hester and that they concived Pearl. He is waiting for the right perfect moment and he can't stand it, it's eating him alive.
Sin is the main theme of this book. Hester is the main "sinner".
"And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendor, as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another....'And, since Satan saw fit to steal it, your reverence must needs handle him without gloves, henceforward," remarked the old sexton, grimly smiling. "But did your reverence hear of the portent that was seen last night? a great red letter in the sky,--the letter A,--which we interpret to stand for Angel. For, as our good Governor Winthrop was made an angel this past night, it was doubtless held fit that there should be some notice thereof!'"
ReplyDeleteIn this scene, Dimmesdale is holding a vigil on the scaffold where Hester was put to shame. During this, a meteor comes and forms a giant A in the sky. The townspeople think that this means that Governor Winthrop, who had just passed away, was an angel in Heaven. Dimmesdale thinks God is trying to tell him to wear his sin on his chest like Hester.
This meteor represents the turmoil that Dimmesdale faces because of his sin. This symbol is somewhat tied to the A that Dimmesdale has on his chest that he reveals at the end of the novel.
Kasey Hagen...
ReplyDelete"this badge hath taught me,-it daily teaches me,- it is teaching me at this moment,-lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better, albeit they can profit noting to myself."
You see Hawthorn letting us know that Hester admits to the sin she has been convicted of. she is not hiding from what has taken place nor is she trying to belittle it. Which majority of people today go around and try to make up excuses and belittle what we have done. Unless what we have done is good. But the thing is you would believe that because she is admitting to her sin she would feel guilt for what she has done.But sin and guilt are two very different things. Sin is when you break a law and your punishment comes from the people in society. But guilt is where it counts. If you dont have guilt then you believe what you have done is ok. Because only you can decide what is wrong or right. Society can help you or try to lead you to believe what is right and wrong or what is accetible or not. So in Hester's eyes she knows accorrding to society she is wrong and should be punished. But that punishment wont mean a thing to her because she believes what she has done is not bad.And without guilt any punishment society puts on you will do you no harm.
"And he will alwaus keep his hand over his heart?" inquired Pearl. "Foolish child, what a question is that!" exclaimed her mother. "Come and ask his blessing!" The minister-painfully embarrassed, byt hoping taht a kiss might prove a talisman to admit him into the child's kindlier regards-bent forward, and impressed one on her brow. Hereupon, Pearl broke away from her mother, and, running tothe brook, stooped over it and batherd her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss was quite washed off and diffused through a long lapse of the gliding water.
ReplyDeleteThis shows that Dimmesdale feels guilty that he is not able to love and be loved by his daughter that had to figure out on her own who he really is. Because of his sin, he has to pay the price of not being a father for his girl.
Hawthorne is trying to show us how Dimmesdale feels about his sin and the guilt he has been hiding for so many years. He also shows that Pearl could care less about Dimmesdale. This passage is alike many other meetings with Pearl and Dimmesdale when he was giving his sermon and Pearl left to go play. It was Dimmesdales honor of giving the sermon and Pearl wasnt there.
“Pearl,” said he, with great solemnity, “thou must take heed to instruction, that so, in due season, thou mayest wear in thy bosom the pearl of great price. Canst thou tell me, my child, who made thee?” 16
ReplyDeleteNow Pearl knew well enough who made her; for Hester Prynne, the daughter of a pious home, very soon after her talk with the child about her Heavenly Father, had begun to inform her of those truths which the human spirit, at whatever stage of immaturity, imbibes with such eager interest. Pearl, therefore, so large were the attainments of her three years’ lifetime, could have borne a fair examination in the New England Primer, or the first column of the Westminster Catechism, although unacquainted with the outward form of either of those celebrated works. But that perversity, which all children have more or less of, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold portion, now, at the most inopportune moment, took thorough possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss. After putting her finger in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson’s question, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door.
In this scene, Hester is talking to Governor about Pearl considered to be taken away from her. Hester says that she can educate the child right way. Governor tests it by asking Pearl a question; who made you? Pearl answers that she was plucked off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door. Governor says that it is an awful answer.
Pearl said that she was plucked off the wild rose bush by the prison door. This shows that beautiful things might come out of evil and sinful places. Pearl was made by sin, prison, and she was a beautiful flower. Hawthorne foreshadows that Pearl is an angelic figure even though she was made by sin.
"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. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore..." This quote is the authors description of the scarlet letter in chapter 2 when Hester stands on the scaffolding for the first time.
ReplyDeleteThe scarlet letter is this novels best representation of sin and guilt. Not only is it the books namesake, but it is constantly used to show Hester's shame.
By being such a prevalent symbol, it ties into the book in almost every instance. Hawthorne is trying to communicate the puritan societies one-sided view of punishment without repentance. When the novel ends, the scarlet letter loses almost all it's original meaning, having gone from adulteress, to able, to basically meaningless. A good similar symbol is Pearl. As with the scarlet letter, Pearl is a constant reminder of Hester's sin. Hawthorne is trying to show us that we shouldn't be so abrupt with what we believe is sin. We should take a step back and ask ourselves what is sin?
“Ah,” replied Roger Chillingworth, with that quietness which, whether imposed or natural, marked all his deportment, “it is thus that a young clergyman is apt to speak. Youthful men, not having taken a deep root, give up their hold of life so easily! And saintly men, who walk with God on earth, would fain be away, to walk with him on the golden pavements of the New Jerusalem.”
ReplyDelete“Nay,” rejoined the young minister, putting his hand to his heart, with a flush of pain flitting over his brow, “were I worthier to walk there, I could be better content to toil here."
“Good men ever interpret themselves too meanly,” said the physician."
this is when chillingsworth is starting to relize that there is something wrong with dimmesdale. he is just not sure what. thsi is when i think he is starting to get the hint that he has comitted a crime but he can not come to conclusion yet. he teys to hint around and get dimmesdale to go ahead and come out with it but he just wont bugge. this is how crime and sin are involved on dimmesdales part. and gult being pushed on him by chillingsworth!
In the Scarlet letter Hester gets to live her life going trough her sin and feeling guilty. In the beggining of the book she has been rejected by the puritan society because of her sin of audultry. They have tryed to humilate hester by placing the scarlet letter on her chest, and she is isolated living only with Pearl. Also everyday she is reminded of her seen because of pearl, she is the outcome of her sin. And Hester also carries this guilt every were because people think pearl is evil and she is just reminded every day of her mistake. But then by the end of the book hester finally forgets about her sin and guilt and just lets it go. she took of her scarlet letter and threw it into the brook and jus let it go away. but then pearl reminds her again that she is the scarlet letter so she gets upset that she has let it go. this brings on the guilt again. But the whole idea of hesters sin and guilt she just learned to except it. and she would look at it and take it in a positive way not even worrying about the puritan town.
ReplyDeleteIn the book, the theme of sin and guilt play a major role. Hester was branded by the Puritan socitey with the "A" on her chest in a scarlet letter. That "A" stood for adultor, which the sin she committed was adultry. The result of Hester and Dimmesdale sin was Pearl, their daughter. Pearl, being the offspring of a known sinner was immeadiately viewed as evil, even though she was an actually blessing to her mother. Through Pearl and the scarlet letter, Hester was able to learn from her mistakes and mother her child to not make the same ones she did. Guilt came forth from Dimmesdale by him keeping his secret hidden for so long. He was guilty of the sin just as Hester, but he wasnt labeled with an "A" because he didn't come forth, and it was easier for him to hide it since men can't get pregnant. The guilt and sin eventually built up on Dimmesdale and he folded and confessed of his sin.
ReplyDelete"this badge hath taught me,-it daily teaches me,- it is teaching me at this moment,-lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better, albeit they can profit noting to myself."
Trent Yates
"The health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail. By those best aquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotionn to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spirtual lamp... he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain."
ReplyDeleteThis is the part of the book where the toll of Dimmesdales sin (Adultery) is finally catching up to him. This causes his health to constantly diminish and also causes him to put his hand over his heart. Dimmesdale inflicts self punishment to a degree that may be more extreme then the way Hester is punished. Hesters scarlett letter is with her the entire book but Dimmesdale only acquires it at the very end and his electoral day speech. This shows that hiding a sin from society is often more painful then coming clean, which leads back to the black weeds part
"I can teach my little Pearl what I have learned from this!" answered Hester Prynne, laying her finger on the red token.
ReplyDelete"Woman, it is thy badge of shame!" replied the stern magistrate. "It is because of the stain which that letter indicates, that we would transfer thy child to other hands."
"Nevertheless," said the mother calmly, though growing more pale, "this badge hath taught me,--it daily teaches me,--it is teaching me at this moment,--lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better, albeit they can profit nothing to myself."
This passage is found in Ch.8. It represents the sin and guilt she has to deal with everyday. Pearl is a result of her sin so every time she looks at Pearl she gets a feeling of sin and guilt. At the same time though, she is being taught by the scarlet letter. She will use the scarlet letter to teach Pearl not to make the same mistakes she made. The scarlet letter A will remain on her clothes forever, she has been given the opportunity later on in the book to have it taken off but she uses it as a learning tool to help her teach Pearl, but also is a reminder of her sin so she will not do the same thing over again. Other people in the book look at her sin in another way. They see her sin as Pearl. They think she is evil,elfish,demonic, etc. which makes Hester think about the guilt she has brought on herself and on Pearl. Hawthorne is trying to say that the Puritains have a one sided view on society they see Hesters scarlet letter and Pearl as an act of shame, but Hester uses it for another purpose. At the end of the book the scarlet letter and Pearl have totally different meanings than they were first presented as.
"Even in the grave-yard, here at hand," answered the physician, continuing his employment. "They are new to me. I found them growing on a grave, which bore no tombstone, no other memorial of the dead man, save these ugly weeds that have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance. They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime." Before this,Dimmesdale was looking out of his window at the graveyard. Chillingworth then comes in and shows him this weed that he had gotten off of some unknown man's grave. He had never seen them before.The weeds represent Dimmesdale. The man that had died with his hidden sin was just like Dimmesdale at the time. These weeds are like a constent reminder to Dimmesdale of his hidden sin because he doesn't want to die with his sin. Hawthorne is trying to communicate to us that we should confess and not hold it in us and live with guilt. When the book ends, it shows us that Dimmesdale wasn't going to have weeds of hidden sin on his grave. The scarlet letter is like the weeds. They are always there to stir up the guilt in Hester and Dimmesdale.
ReplyDeleteSo speaking, she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves. The mystic token alighted on the hither verge of the stream. With a hand's breadth farther flight it would have fallen into the water, and have given the little brook another woe to carry onward, besides the unintelligible tale which it still kept murmuring about. But there lay the embroidered letter, glittering like a lost jewel, which some ill-fated wanderer might pick up, and thenceforth be haunted by strange phantoms of guilt, sinkings of the heart, and unaccountable misfortune.
ReplyDeleteBut Pearl, not a whit startled at her mother's threats, any more than mollified by her entreaties, now suddenly burst into a fit of passion, gesticulating violently, and throwing her small figure into the most extravagant contortions. She accompanied this wild outbreak with piercing shrieks, which the woods reverberated on all sides; so that, alone as she was in her childish and unreasonable wrath, it seemed as if a hidden multitude were lending her their sympathy and encouragement. Seen in the brook, once more, was the shadowy wrath of Pearl's image, crowned and girdled with flowers, but stamping its foot, wildly gesticulating, and, in the midst of all, still pointing its small forefinger at Hester's bosom!
"I see what ails the child," whispered Hester to the clergyman, and turning pale in spite of a strong effort to conceal her trouble and annoyance. "Children will not abide any, the slightest, change in the accustomed aspect of things that are daily before their eyes. Pearl misses something which she has always seen me wear!"
THis scene is where Hester is talking to Dimmesdale in the woods about running away to New England to escape the negativity to the reaction of their sin. Hester gets so excited she throws the scarlet letter to let another wanderer pick up the burden of the letter. Hester calls Pearl over to talk to Dimmedale and Pearl freaks out because she doesn't see the letter on her mom.
These quotes express guilt and sin by expressing that Hester felt bad for taking the letter off, so she put it back on, and that Hester had forgiven her sin.
These symbols fit into the book because everyone in this book has sinned and feels guilty, but instead of correcting themselves they put the blame Hester. Hawthorne is trying to say that the people in this book think its easier to look at someone elses faults instead of their own. The way the book ends effects this because if Hester wouldn't have been okay with her sin, Dimmesdale would have kept it a secret. The opposite symbol is the love expressed in this book. Hester is in love with Dimmesdale, Hester loves Pearl, and Chillingworth loves Hester. The similar symbol is Dimmesdale abusing himself for the sin he committed, when it wasn't necessary. These symbols tie in with society and what it feels is just punishment for sins.I think that Hawthorne is ultimately trying to say that with all sins, there is guilt that comes with it.
“Pearl,” said he, with great solemnity, “thou must take heed to instruction, that so, in due season, thou mayest wear in thy bosom the pearl of great price. Canst thou tell me, my child, who made thee?” 16
ReplyDeleteNow Pearl knew well enough who made her; for Hester Prynne, the daughter of a pious home, very soon after her talk with the child about her Heavenly Father, had begun to inform her of those truths which the human spirit, at whatever stage of immaturity, imbibes with such eager interest. Pearl, therefore, so large were the attainments of her three years’ lifetime, could have borne a fair examination in the New England Primer, or the first column of the Westminster Catechism, although unacquainted with the outward form of either of those celebrated works. But that perversity, which all children have more or less of, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold portion, now, at the most inopportune moment, took thorough possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss. After putting her finger in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson’s question, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses,
that grew by the prison-door.
Hester had now gone to the governor to talk about Pearl. The governor said that maybe they should take Pearl away from Hester because it would benefit both of them. Yet Hester wants to prove to the him that she can educate her and bring her up right because of whats she has been through-the scarlet letter. She could teach her all bout it and teach Pearl not to make the same mistake as Hester. The governor then askes the question "who made you." Pearl responds that she was plucked off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door. She refused to believe that God had created her.
I think that this means that Pearl was born in a sinful way because of Hester. I think that beacsue Hester has siined it all went to Pearl when she was born and that is why she acts the way she does. She dances on graves and acts like a with because of Hesters sin. When she said that she was born by the prison door then that means that all the sin and evil in that prison door is how she came up and will be with her forever.
Jack Bryan said...
ReplyDelete"And be the stern and sad truth spoken, that the breach which quilt has once made into the human soul is never, in this mortal state, repaired." 175
This quote is suppose to represent that while even though the sin was of passion, the quilt that came along with it was irreversible. Hester and DImmesdale both felt the guilt of the sin. Mr. Dimmesdale felt more guilty that Hester did. This guilt would lead him to do things that a sane human normally wouldn't do. He cut or burned an "A" onto his chest. This was intended to be his punishment. Though no one could see this "A" it was still prevalent. The guilt from sin would lead him to do things such as fast and beat himself. He would not be relieved of this guilt until he repented upon the scaffold. His awful sin caused guilt that affected every aspect of his life.
Brent Reaves said…
ReplyDelete"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 sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!" (P. 170)
This passage from The Scarlet Letter symbolizes that there are always worse sins out in this world. Even though Dimmesdale and Hester had conceived a child with one another out of wedlock, to violate someone’s heart is even worse. The constant questioning as well as suspiciousness Roger Chillingworth has toward the secret that Dimmesdale has been holding for quite some time, is starting to eat away at him. This gives Dimmesdale a steady reminder of the sin that he committed, and it tears him apart. You can see that for the rest of the book, Dimmesdale hates him for this and rightfully so. In the end of the book he admits to the townspeople of his sin with Hester in order to escape the revenge of Roger Chillingworth. Hawthorne seems to be trying to communicate that what Hester and Dimmesdale did was bad, but you can always do worse things.
"Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street, was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pig-weed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison."
ReplyDeleteIn The Scarlet Letter, symbols of sin and guilt occur throughout the book. This first sinful symbol happens in the very beginning of the book when Hawthorne is describing the prison.
The "black flower of civilization" represents sin because people are not perfect and sin shows up in every persons life. It is as if you are sucked into the sins of life and have no way to escape them. The Scarlet Letter is about sin and how everyone is a sinner. He is trying to say that even the prettiest "flowers of civiilization" can soon become the "black flower of civilization". The novel ends with Hester putting on the scarlet letter, reliving her sin again. Sin is everywhere in the book. The counterpart of the black flower is the "wild rose-bush" that is blooming outside of the prison. A similar symbol would be the scarlet letter. This symbol relates to most of the other symbols in the book because it is regarding human imperfections. Sin is a human imperfection and everyone can be a sinner.
"We impute it, therefore, solely to the disease in his own eye and heart, that the minister, looking upward to the zenith, beheld there the appearance of an immense letter,--the letter A,--marked out in lines of dull red light. Not but the meteor may have shown itself at that point, burning duskily through a veil of cloud; but with no such shape as his guilty imagination gave it; or, at least, with so little definiteness, that another's guilt might have seen another symbol in it."
This miraculous event happens when Dimmesdale is standing on the scaffold after he has yelled to the entire town. Pearl and Hester will soon join him and they will hold hands as a family in the night. This symbol represents Dimmesdale's own personal sin. It shows his guilt by revealing an "A" in the sky and him automatically thinking it was a scarlet letter. Hester has been accused of adultery and Dimmesdale knows he was part of it. This letter shows the conflict between telling and keeping his secret and how much it is eating at him. Dimmesdale dies after he tells his sin because all of the weight is lifted off of his shoulders. His sin is out in the open. A counterpart would be that the townspeople thought that the "A" meant "angel" because Governor Winthrop had died that night; they thought it was him descending into heaven. A similar symbol is the letter "A" Hester wears, although the difference is that hers is placed where everyone can see it. This symbol relates to other symbols in the book because it shows guilt because of an awful sin. Dimmesdale has felt guilty for seven years and is still fighting with whether or not his sin should be revealed. Hawthorne is trying to demonstrate Dimmesdale's struggle.
"The health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail. By those best aquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotionn to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spirtual lamp."
ReplyDeleteThis quote shows just how much sin in any shape can put you in a terrible guilt until you admit whatever the sin is. Some people just try to keep it to themselves like Dimmesdale is attempting to do, but it only makes your mind and your sould weaker. His physical features are slowly breaking down because of the guilt for his sin inside of him. Not only does Dimmesdale deal with much guilt in this book, but so does Hester. The difference between thw two is, one has come clean about it and the other hasn't. Not coming clean about something everyone around you is wondering about will eat you ailve.
"The health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail. By those best aquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotionn to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spirtual lamp... he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain."
ReplyDeleteThis passage talks about how Dimmesdale uses self-inflicted punishment to compensate for his guilt from the adultery. In this scene, we see the symbols adultery and also the scarlet letter, albeit not the main letter. Adultery here represents passion. Because Dimmesdale whips himself and punishes himself, he shows passion and guilt for the actions he has taken. This guilt comes from him commiting adultery. The Scarlet letter came from Dimmesdale branding it upon himself. He branded himself in order to have a reminder for his sin that he commited and to try to relieve some of his guilt. This has a similar affect on him as it does Hester, except instead of freedom, Dimmesdale has extreme amounts remorse and guilt.
I believe that Hawthorne is trying to show us through Dimmesdale's and Hester's adultery that everybody sins, and if you don't reveal your sin, you will have extreme amounts of guilt. Sometime guilt can lead to self-inflicted punishments like his scarlet letter, and when the sin is revealed, it can lead to relief, like Hester's scarlet letter gave her. Dimmesdale's scarlet letter and sin ultimately drove him to his death while Hester's set her free and relieved her guilt.