Theme Of Guilt In The Scarlet Letter

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Nathaniel Hawthorne lived during the 1800s and was obsessed with Puritan times. During the Puritan times in the 1600s, Hawthorne had a great great grandfather, John Hathorne, who was a relentless judge during the Salem witch trials. Hawthorne’s obsession with his great great grandfather and Puritanism drove him to write The Scarlet Letter. In this novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of the scarlet letter, Pearl, and Dimmesdale to contribute to the overall theme of guilt.
To begin, Hawthorne uses the scarlet letter to contribute to the theme of guilt. Hester Prynne, the protagonist of the story, committed adultery and has to wear a scarlet letter on her bosom forever. This isolates her from the townspeople. The A stands for adultery while the color scarlet stands for sex and love, and the A stands for adultery. Hawthorne explains “... that Scarlet Letter… had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.” (Hawthorne 52). This quote describes the guilt Hester feels. The guilt that her sin is constantly displayed on her bosom. As a result, she feels isolated from the townspeople. Everyone in the town sees this symbol and has a clear understanding of what it means. A young wife …show more content…
Hester’s scarlet letter embodied her sin so everyone could see it and know what it means. Pearl appeared to feed off of her mother’s guilt and make her feel more and more guilty, by calling attention to her letter. Dimmesdale would always put his hand over his heart to try to cover his guilt, but it only brought more attention to it. Some people argue that the overall theme is imperfection, and imperfections commonly lead to guilt. The more imperfections Hester and Dimmesdale were forced to confront, the more guilty they

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Pride, Guilt, And Isolation In The Scarlet Letter

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Hester Prynne Punishment In Scarlet Letter

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1. The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the late 1850s. The genre of this novel is classified as a romance and a historical fiction. Hawthorne is seen as important to the world of literature because he was the most famous writer for the anti-transcendentalist which can best be described as a realist, he wrote over 46 stories and impacted America by showing the bad instead of the good in society. Unlike most fiction writers of his time, he was not primarily interested in stirring…

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Theme Of Forgiveness In The Crucible

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Symbolism In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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