The various turning points in nathaniel hawthornes novel the scarlet letter

Ossa Certified Educator Point of view refers to the perspective that the narrator will use to tell the story.

The various turning points in nathaniel hawthornes novel the scarlet letter

This distinction, in his mind, was important.

SparkNotes: The Scarlet Letter: Key Facts

Where a novel, as he put it, "aims at a very minute fidelity, not merely to the possible, but to the probable and ordinary course of man's experience", a romance expressed "the truth of the human heart". Here, in short, is the prototype of the psychological novel, a brilliant and groundbreaking example of a new genre within 19th-century fiction.

Hawthorne's tale has a stark simplicity. In the 17th-century town of Boston, a young woman, Hester Prynne, is publicly disgraced for committing adultery and giving birth to an illegitimate child, a girl named Pearl.

Forced to wear a scarlet "A", Hester slowly redeems herself in the eyes of Puritan society.

After she is released from prison, Hester remains in Boston because

Over many years, she challenges the two men in her life — her husband and her lover — with the dark truth of their emotional responsibilities and failures, while at the same time wrestling with her own sinful nature. After seven long years of painful rehabilitation, she emerges as a strong, inspiring woman, while the pastor, Arthur Dimmesdale, who seduced her dies of shame.

Hester, too, eventually dies and is buried near Dimmesdale under a tombstone marked with a simple "A". Such a bare summary does few favours to an extraordinary work of the imagination that burns from page to page with the fierce simplicity of scripture and an almost cinematic clarity of vision.

The Scarlet Letter is an astounding book full of intense symbolism, as strange and haunting as anything by Edgar Allan Poe No 10 in this seriesa writer whom we know Hawthorne much admired. The process of Hester Prynne's acquisition of self-knowledge, the recognition of her sin and her ultimate restoration in a sequence of enthralling scenes, punctuated by moments of confrontation with Dimmesdale, is utterly compelling and, at times, deeply moving.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's understanding of the emotional transactions of the sexes is profound and modern, too. And very interesting about the price paid for the loss of love. Hester's reflections on her relationship with Dimmesdale "How deeply had they known each other then!

And was this the man? She hardly knew him now" could be found in many modern novels. The most memorable and original aspect of The Scarlet Letter lies in Hawthorne's portrait of Hester Prynne, who has been described as "the first true heroine of American fiction", a woman whose experience evokes the biblical fate of Eve.

Hawthorne's achievement is to make her passion noble, her defiance heartbreaking and her frailty inspiring. She becomes the archetype of the free-thinking American woman grappling with herself and her sexuality in a cold, patriarchal society.

There is also something emblematic of the newly settled American society about The Scarlet Letter, the belief that the public individual, subjected to a merciless democratic scrutiny, is owed the human right of ultimate restoration, if he or she deserves it.

Hester Prynne is more than just a mother with a baby, she is an outcast woman who will ultimately be welcomed back into American life, purged and cleansed of her sin.

The Scarlet Letter The novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, had many various turning points. The most interesting to me were the ³scaffold scenes.² Each had its own exciting moments. It kept the story moving. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the ³scenes² as major turning points. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter, love and hate appear numerous times. Love appears as being good, hate is considered evil. Hawthorne shows that humans have the choice to choose between loving and hating another person. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Shame - The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne the foundation has been based upon two main points, humility and the impact of secrets on an individual character. The scarlet letter “A” in the Scarlet Letter has many different meanings throughout the book. The “A” serves as a symbol.

Readers of The Scarlet Letter during, for instance, the Monica Lewinsky scandal of the scould not fail to miss the resonance of Hawthorne's "romance" with that bizarre political drama.The Scarlet Letter is an astounding book full of intense symbolism, as strange and haunting as anything by Edgar Allan Poe (No 10 in this series), a writer whom we know Hawthorne much admired.

climax · There are at least two points in The Scarlet Letter that could be identified as the book’s “climax.” The first is in Chapter 12, at the exact center of the book. The first is . In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter, love and hate appear numerous times.

Love appears as being good, hate is considered evil.

The various turning points in nathaniel hawthornes novel the scarlet letter

Hawthorne shows that humans have the choice to choose between loving and hating another person. In this lesson, we'll discusses point of view in 'The Scarlet Letter' by Nathaniel Hawthorne. We'll review the different points of view used in literature and discuss how one in particular worked.

So strongly is the scarlet letter rooted in every chapter and almost every sentence of the book that bears its name.

Expert Answers

And yet it would probably have incommoded the average novelist. The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne Words | 6 Pages. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, the main character, Hester Prynne, is a true contemporary of the modern era, being cast into 17th century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts.

SparkNotes: The Scarlet Letter: Symbols