The Scarlet Letter Themes

Revenge

Nathaniel Hawthorne presents revenge as an act against nature, which twists the soul of man into something wro

Gravestone in Boston, October 2005
Image by katybird via Flickr

ng. Not only change in a person’s basic personality, but does not respond. In the religious world view presented in The Scarlet Letter, vengeance belongs to God alone. Hester Prynne alludes to this when he asks for forgiveness not reveals Dimmesdale Chillingworth as his enemy. As soon as he shows his reluctance to let go of this fraud, he repeated his ask for forgiveness and says: “Let God punish you forgive me!” (17, 28).

The issue of women and femininity

The Scarlet Letter follows several strong women at a time when women could be subordinate to their male counterparts. Hester Prynne is ready to take his own shame and at the same time protect the man she loves for him to public condemnation. She keeps her secret faithfully for seven long years. Even when she could have been able to ask, she did not get it. Alternatively, the two men in Hester’s life, her husband and her lover, are cowards and hypocrites do not want to show their true identity. Women, even the “weaker sex” in this very religious society, are incredibly strong in this novel.

Sin, Knowledge, and the Human Condition

Sin and know-how of knowledge joined in the Judeo-Christian history. Somebody takes place with the tale of Adam and Eve, who removed from the Lawn of Eden for having from the hardwood of know-how of great and nasty. Due to their know-how, Adam and Eve designed conscious of their humanness, that which distinguishes them from the heavenly and from other critters. Once removed from the Lawn of Eden, they required to work and to procreate—two “labors” that seem to explain the people situation. The ability of Hester and Dimmesdale product recalls the tale of Adam and Eve because, in both situations, sin success in expulsion and enduring. But it also success in knowledge—specifically, in know-how of what would be people. For Hester, the scarlet page features as “her ticket into areas where other women dared not tread,” major her to “speculate” about her world and herself more “boldly” than anyone else in New Britain. As for Dimmesdale, the “burden” of his sin gives him “sympathies so particular with the sinful brotherhood of human beings, so that his center vibrate[s] together with theirs.” His elegant and effective sermons get from this feeling of consideration. Hester and Dimmesdale consider their own sinfulness on a regular groundwork and try to overcome it with their resided activities. The Puritan folks, however, demand on seeing earthly ability as merely an obstruction on the course to paradise. Thus, they perspective sin as a chance to the area that could be tried and under control. Their respond to Hester’s sin is to ostracize her. Yet, Puritan world is old, while Hester and Dimmesdale’s expertise reveals that sinfulness can head to particular expansion, concern, and comprehension of others. Paradoxically, these features are found to be incompatible with a situation of love.

The Nature of Evil

The people in the novel regularly issue the personality of the “Black Man,” the embodiment of nasty. Over the course of the novel, the “Black Man” is associated with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Mistress Hibbins and little Pill believed by some to be the Devil’s kid. The people also try to real out the causes of evil: did Chillingworth’s envy in getting married to Hester power her to the “evil” she devoted in Dimmesdale’s arms? Is Hester and Dimmesdale’s action liable for Chillingworth’s change into a malevolent being? This frustration over the characteristics and causes of nasty shows the issues with the Puritan understanding of sin. The publication claims that real nasty comes up from the shut marriage between dislike and like. As the narrator items out in the novel are deciding part, both feelings rely on “a great amount of closeness and heart-knowledge; each makes one person centered . . . upon another.” Evil is not identified in Hester and Dimmesdale’s erectile, or even in the terrible understanding of the Puritan men. Evil, in its most deadly variety, identified in the properly plotted and specifically directed vengeance of Chillingworth, whose like has been perverted. Perhaps Pill is not entirely incorrect when she believes Dimmesdale is the “Black Man,” because her dad, too, has perverted his like. Dimmesdale, who should like Pill, will not even widely accept her. His terrible refusal of like to his own kid may be seen as further perpetrating nasty.

Thought and Forgiveness

In Christianity, endorsement and forgiveness are often in contrast to the law. A legalistic confidence (such as the Puritan one) indicates that distribution to a challenging set of laws is the most much religious practice you are competent of doing, in this area and in the afterword. The more wonderful you do and fewer sins you create, the more likely you are to go to heaven. Acceptance (or forgiveness), however, is the method that you recognized for your sins through confidence.

The Puritan area in The Scarlet Website reveals an array of both legalism and endorsement. The narrator reveals the area as properly legalism, with its persons following challenging much needs and public costs. Hester’s procedure is a type of legalism. She has sinned and divided from the rest of the series to keep her from contaminating them. The narrator, however, often functions the point of view that area, especially a religious area like this one, should be established by endorsement. At the end of the novel, Hester has been recognized by the challenging area that once tried her.

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