The Scarlet Letter Essays

Scarlet Letter: Revenge

The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter are very similar in many distinct perspectives, but both pieces of writing have the same theme: revenge. For example, the two stories take place in the same time frame, approximately around the mid 1700 's to early 1800 's. During this time period, many...

1 286 words

The Real Travesty Of The Scarlet Letter

“The real sin of this ‘Scarlet Letter’ [film] is that it doesn’t respect the concept of sin” (Ansen). Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter delves deeper into the explicitness of sin, shame, and guilt. Set in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during Puritan...

1 384 words

Puritans and the Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne was not a Puritan, but he had deep bonds back to this religion, and had ancestors that were in charge of the Salem Witch Trials, a fact that Hawthorne always felt remorse for. In choosing this time period as the setting for The Scarlet Letter, a classic story of love, betrayal...

929 words

Symbolism Of Forest And The Scarlet Letter

In the Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne discusses the hurdles Hester Prynne, the protagonist, goes through due to her sinful nature with her child, the mocking Puritans, and the past always creeping up on her. Often these obstacles appear when she is in the forest, making it a very critical...

1 085 words

The Gender Of The Scarlet Letter

Throughout the history of the last few centuries, an ongoing conflict in society has been the roles of the public and private spheres. The first of these has been mainly represented by men, taking on the positions of power and dominance, working outside of the home. The latter however was...

909 words

Analysis of the Scarlet Letter 1

Meredith Byram Mrs. Allinder English 9 A4 23 February 2009 “It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human fatality and sorrow,” (Hawthorne 44). In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter...

1 123 words

Analysis of the Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is a story that illustrates intricate pieces of the Puritan lifestyle. Centered first on a sin committed by Hester Prynne and her secret lover before the story ever begins, the novel details how sin affects the lives of the people involved. For Hester, the sin forces her into...

561 words

Analysis of the Scarlet Letter Chapter 1-2

Analysis—Chapters 1–2 These chapters introduce the reader to Hester Prynne and begin to explore the theme of sin, along with its connection to knowledge and social order. The chapters’ use of symbols, as well as their depiction of the political reality of Hester Prynne’s world, testify to the...

897 words

Analysis of The Scarlet Letter Scaffolding Scenes

AP English 9 September, 2012 Analysis of the Three Scaffold scenes In Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, there are three detailed scaffold scenes, each of which embody significant descriptive elements and ultimately unite the book as a whole. The three eminent elements found amongst these...

3 417 words

Analytical Essay on the Scarlet Letter

In his book, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells of a story where a young woman has had an adulterous relationship with a respected priest in a Puritan community. Typical of Hawthorne's writings is the use of imagery and symbolism. In Chapter 12, The Minister's Vigil, there are several...

2 008 words

Anti-Transcendentalism in the Scarlet Letter

Anti-transcendentalism is focused on the limitation and the potential destructiveness of the human spirit rather than the possibilities of the human spirit. It acknowledges the presence of evil in humanity. The anti-transcendentalist writings are known for being full of symbols...

412 words

Cause and Effect: the Scarlet Letter

Cause and Effect: The Scarlet Letter Set in Boston, in the Puritan times of the 1940’s, the book, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is about a young girl named Hester Prynne who commits adultery with the town’s minister, Arthur Dimmensdale. Hester is married to a man named Roger...

1 255 words

Central Theme in the Scarlett Letter

Good Vs. Evil Throughout history, many references have been made to the battle that rages on between good and evil. In the bible we are shown good in the form of God and evil in the form of the devil. In everyday life we are shown examples of good in people such as Martin Luther King Jr. , Mahatma...

777 words

Characteristics of People in the Scarlet Letter

These chapters return the reader to the romance world of preternaturally aware children and enchanted forests. Pearl has cleverly discerned the relationship between her mother’s mark of shame and the minister’s ailment, which share one obvious characteristic—their physical location upon the body...

760 words

CLOSE read The Scarlet Letter

Arcena 1 Ricci Arcena Ms. Wildman English Pre-AP 11/05/14 The Scarlet Letter Close Read chapter 12 (pages 138-147) In The Scarlet Letter, the second scaffold scene is accustomed to tell the readers about how the audience view things differently from others. Hawthorne uses literary devices and...

649 words

Comparing the Crucible and the Scarlet Letter

The Puritans had a heavily important part in the formation of early America, as well as a religion that influenced our early American society. This society has been the target which many authors have picked to set their novels in. The topic of Puritan life contains a broad list of aspects that can...

1 114 words

Comparing "The Scarlet Letter" and "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Natasha Tan 2T07 “I am! Yet what I am none cares or know, My friends forsake me like a memory lost…” Compare the ways in which isolation or alienation from society are presented in any two of the texts you have studied. We witness cases of alienation in the texts The Scarlet Letter and A Streetcar...

1 850 words

Comparing the Scarlet Letter & the Crucible

Throughout the history of American Literature, there have been several stories that have had their share of controversy. Although I'm fairly certain that most people had to read both books that I'm going to be discussing in high school, there are few people who have had a chance to sit down and...

1 214 words

Comparison of Crucible and the Scarlet Letter

Sofia Kaufman E-Block 12/15/99 Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Arthur Miller's The Crucible are both distinctly different narratives of the Salem Witch trials. The Scarlet Letter is a novel and The Crucible is a play. While The Scarlet Letter deals mainly with the sin of adultery, The...

620 words

Conflict in Nathaniel Hawthorne's the Scarlet Letter

conflict in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter Conflict can take on many forms in one’s life, such as conflict with self, with society, with religion and with others. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, develops the theme of conflict through the moral sin of Hester Prynne. Conflict is...

976 words

Conflict in the Scarlet Letter

conflict in The Scarlet Letter Human nature, while impressively complex, also has various poor qualities. Often these imperfections result in conflicts which are in turn depicted in works of literature. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, set in an old Puritan community, is centered on...

1 236 words

“T“the Scarlet Ibis” by James Hursthe Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst

“The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst 1 It was in the clove of seasons, summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born, that the ibis lit in the bleeding tree. The flower garden was stained with rotting brown magnolia petals and ironweeds grew rank amid the purple phlox. The five o'clocks by the...

3 317 words

1 07 the Scarlet Letter

1. 07 The Scarlet Letter and Anne Bradstreet Part I: Short Answer 1. Anne Bradstreet uses birds as a metaphor for her children. She goes on to say, “Four Cocks were there, and Hens the rest. ” This means that four were boys and the others were girls. She also says, “Till at the last they felt...

540 words

Abhijnanasakuntalam and the Scarlet Letter

Abhijnanasakuntalam and The Scarlet Letter : A critical analysis ENG 434 Term paper Submitted by: D. Vamsi Krishna (Y5173) Instructor In-charge: Dr. Neelankantan G. Introduction: Abhijnanasakuntalam is a well known Sanskrit play written by Kalidasa. It means “token-recognised- Sakuntala”...

1 389 words

An Analysis of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Most people believe that there exists at least one person in the world who matches their personality exactly. Others believe that for every person there is an exact opposite or an evil twin so to speak. In the case of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, they fall somewhere in between these two...

677 words

Feminism in the Scarlet Letter

At first, it may seem that The Scarlet Letter has nothing to do with feminism and the fight for equal rights between males and females. The book was written in 1850 when the society was dominated by men who completely overruled women. No one could even think of such a thing as gender equality. The...

519 words