Critical essay over the scarlet letter

Analyzing Secrets in The Scarlet Letter Whether intentional or not, keeping secrets is part of human nature. Be it a small and embarrassing habit, or even a brief moment of breaking the law, some things find it best to leave personal acts that they deem deviant out of day to day conversation. For some, keeping these secrets may be no problem, but for others it can be agonizing.

It may also be the most typical of his work, the strongest statement of his recurrent themes, and an excellent example of his craftsmanship.

It is difficult for readers from later times to comprehend the grave importance that seventeenth century New Englanders placed on transgression of the moral code.

Like Tillich, Hawthorne saw sin not as an act but as a state—what existentialists refer to as alienation and what Tillich describes as a threefold separation from God, other humans, and self. Such alienation needs no fire and brimstone as consequence; it is in itself a hell.

There is a certain irony in the way in which this concept is worked out in The Scarlet Letter.

Dimmesdale as a beloved pastor, Chillingworth as a respected physician. His is the unpardonable sin—unpardonable not because God will not pardon, but because his own nature has become so depraved that he cannot repent or accept forgiveness.

Hawthorne clearly distinguishes between sins of passion and those of principle. Even Dimmesdale, traditional Puritan though he is, finally becomes aware of the difference. We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest!

He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so. Hester, whose guilt is openly known, grows through her suffering into an extraordinarily compassionate and understanding woman, a complete person who is able to come to terms with all of life, including sin.

Dimmesdale, who yearns for the relief of confession but hides his guilt to safeguard his role as pastor, is devoured internally. Again like Freud, Hawthorne recognized that spiritual turmoil may produce physical distress.

Dimmesdale bears similarities to Young Goodman Brown who, having once glimpsed the darker nature of humankind, must forevermore view humanity as corrupt and hypocritical. Chillingworth shows resemblances to Ethan Brandthe limeburner who finds the unpardonable sin in his own heart: The structure is carefully unified, with three crucial scenes—at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the action—taking place on the scaffold.

Hawthorne often anticipates later developments with hints or forewarnings: The four main characters themselves serve as central symbols in this, the greatest allegory of a master allegorist.The Scarlet Letter Homework Help Questions.

In The Scarlet Letter, why is Pearl often compared to an elf?

The Scarlet Letter Critical Evaluation - Essay - regardbouddhiste.com

An important part of Pearl's character is the way that she is developed as being somehow. Several years later, Hester returns to Boston, resumes wearing the scarlet letter, and becomes a person to whom other women turn for solace.

When she dies, she is buried near the grave of Dimmesdale, and they share a simple slate tombstone with the inscription "On a field, sable, the letter A gules.". The Scarlet Letter's first chapter ends with an admonition to "relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow" with "some sweet moral blossom." These opposites are found throughout the novel and often set the tone and define which side of good and evil envelop the characters.

The Scarlet Letter: Critical Analysis Essay Sample The Scarlet Letter, written in by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is about a Puritan society in Massachusetts.

The theme of this novel is largely sin, and how the guilty parties were not equally treated for the same sin or . Scarlet Letter Literary Technique Essay Per.6 Leona Barnes 9/7/12 Some of the most beautiful things that humans are capable of making are bridges.

Bridges connect us with others of our kind mentally and physically and showcase the need for humans to contact each other and connect. Since its publication in , The Scarlet Letter has never been out of print, nor indeed out of favor with literary critics.

It is inevitably included in listings of the five or ten greatest.