Nathaniel Hawthorne’s dramatic novel, The Scarlet Letter, exposes the hypocrisy of a seventeenth-century Puritan society through the lives of two sinners, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. Both have committed a sin that ultimately strengthens them. Although Dimmesdale conceals his sin from public scrutiny during.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a rich novel in terms of its ideas, and that x27;s why Although the Puritans consider all sins to be equally bad, the Scarlett Letter introduces a different point of view, and its plot opens with Hester being shamed for The Scarlet Letter Suggested Essay Topics - Essays and criticism on Nathaniel Hawthorne x27;s The Scarlet Letter - Suggested Essay.
The Puritans were ruthless and cruel in their treatment of crimes, believing that it was their religious right to enact these punishments (Cox). Hawthorne, by choosing the Puritan time period as the background for The Scarlet Letter, provided an interesting look into that time and how different they handled sins.
Puritan Society in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne In The Scarlet Letter, life is centered around a rigid Puritan society, where one is unable to express his or her innermost thoughts and feelings. Everyone needs the opportunity to express how they truly feel; otherwise the emotions stay bottled up until they become explosive.
In “The Scarlet Letter”, Hawthorne uses nature as a romantic source for critiquing Puritan life: the harshness of its society, the unjust laws of the Puritan theocracy, and the corruption of the Puritan humanity.Hawthorne uses a strongly romantic view of nature to emphasize the Puritans’ harshness and lack of compassion.
The scarlet letter itself stands for many different things to different people who see it. To Hester, it is a symbol of grace and dignity. The narrator describes the scarlet letter as “fine red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread” with “gorgeous luxuriance of fancy” (50).
Through The Scarlet Letter’s syntax and diction and the portrayal of its characters, the novelist successfully incorporates Puritanism and Romanticism into his famous book. In the story, Hester Prynne and Pearl are the emblematic of Romanticism while the male protagonist, Arthur Dimmesdale, is the representation of Puritanism.