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. In my opinion, Hester Prynne is a very round character. ...is a "living hieroglyphic." Chillingworth was originally named, Roger Prynne but later in the story he changed his name to Roger Chillingworth. ", said he; "is it thou? The women of the town did not like her because they were jealous of her beauty. Her complexion is rich, her eyes are dark and deep, and her regular features give her a beautiful face. Hester Prynne is the main protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. The Puritans really did make people wear letters for adultery. Although she has sinned, she does not dwell in the past. So brief a journey would bring thee from a world where thou hast been most wretched, to one where thou mayest still be happy! Nathaniel Hawthorne establishes the plot, setting, and characters all within the span of the beginning four chapters. Seven years have now passed since Pearl's birth. In this first scene, Dimmesdale implores her to name the father of the baby and her penance may be lightened. He disappears and is assumed to have died at sea. While this declaration relieves Dimmesdale and he praises her under his breath, it also shows Hester's determination to stand alone despite the opinion of society. In the end, Hester's strength, honesty, and compassion carry her through a life she had not imagined. She could no longer borrow from the future to help her through the present." Although she has sinned, she does not dwell in the past. Hawthorne's most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter is the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman who commits adulteryand is forced to live with the consequences in the Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts. "Not so, my child. The scarlet letter made her what she became, and, in the end, she grew stronger and more at peace through her suffering. The way the content is organized, The protagonist of the novel, Hester is married to. . I will not give her up!" She kept her word in carrying her husband's secret identity, and she tells the minister the truth only after she is released from her pledge. She wears an elaborately embroidered scarlet letter A — standing for "adultery" — on her breast, and she carries a three-month-old infant in her arms. This was no accident in using this reference it makes a lot of sense when more deeply analyzed. 'Nor ever will, my child, I hope,' said Hester. Finally, Hester becomes an angel of mercy who eventually lives out her life as a figure of compassion in the community. “Wilt thou go with us tonight? He disappears and is assumed to have died at sea. On the scaffold, she displays a sense of irony and contempt. Hester Prynne Timeline and Summary. And, that thou mayst live, take off this draught.”. She grows stronger as a person from the cruelty of the townspeople and the shame they place on Hester. "It is too mighty for me to struggle with! In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne Prynne redefines herself despite being shunned by the Puritan community. Roger Chillingworth and Hester Prynne Relationship in Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter ' ... Hester notices the deterioration of Dimmesdale's health, and she thinks that her faithfulness, in keeping Chillingworth's identity a secret, is to blame. Hester, as illustrated by Hawthorne, uses her ability of bravery and strength to surpass other people’s negative thoughts of her and overcome her past. Chillingworth suspects instead that Dimmesdale talked with. BACK; NEXT ; Hester appears at the prison door with her 3-month-old baby in hand, wearing an elaborate letter A on her chest, like, way to show off, Hester. Whither leads yonder forest track? Her development of natural strength and personality is a clear choice by Hawthorne throughout the novel. “You will go!” said Hester calmly, as he looked her in the eyes. "Hester! This is partly due to the fact that the novel is set in the 1640s, over 200 years before its publication. When she removes the letter and takes off her cap in Chapter 13, she once again becomes the radiant beauty of seven years earlier. Officially, she is a widow. Deeper it goes, and deeper, into the wilderness, less plainly to be seen at every step! Towards her mother, too, Pearl's errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled. "Doth he love us?" Despite her lonely existence, Hester somehow finds an inner strength to defy both the townspeople and the local government. He noticed her involuntary gesture, and smiled. Somewhere during this period of time, their solace becomes passion and results in the birth of Pearl. Much of Hester Prynne 's past in The Scarlet Letter is revealed through glimpses into the past that either she, or the character of Roger Chillingworth, bring up as the narrative progresses. Hester is physically described in the first scaffold scene as a tall young woman with a "figure of perfect elegance on a large scale." What does the flashback reveal about Hester's past? Yet she continues to lack adult companionship throughout her life. Symbolically, when Hester removes the letter and takes off the cap, she is, in effect, removing the harsh, stark, unbending Puritan social and moral structure. In fact, so physically stunning is she that "her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped.". She pleads with. When pressed further with assurances of Pearl's good care, Hester defiantly pleads with him, "God gave her into my keeping. ...ever before. Hester Prynne as Heroine Amy Wesson 11th Grade In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne Prynne redefines herself despite being shunned by the Puritan community. Hester defies Chillingworth when he demands to know the name of her lover. Hester Prynne is greatly frowned upon by the townspeople in the beginning of the story. and any corresponding bookmarks? They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. “Thou wilt go!” said Hester calmly, as he met her glance. That thou shalt never know!" Chillingworth admits that he's become a "fiend." HESTER: Hester Prynne is committing hypocrisy by not revealing the true identity of her lover, Dimmesdale, and her husband Chillingworth. She endures a loveless marriage to Roger Chillingworth and was first introduced when she is led out of the local prison with her infant child and standing on the scaffold. Here Hester turns to Dimmesdale for help, the one time in the novel where she does not stand alone. No friend, no companion, no foot crossed the threshold of her cottage. "Even so." In the forest scene, even Dimmesdale acknowledges that she has the strength he lacks. ", "Be it sin or no," said Hester Prynne bitterly, as she still gazed after him, "I hate the man! She grows stronger as a person from the cruelty of … Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. . Hester's self-reliance and inner strength are further revealed in her defiance of the law and in her iron will during her confrontation with the governor of the colony. Never afterwards did it quit her bosom. The Transformation of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne committed a crime so severe that it changed her life into coils of torment and defeat. Hester goes to the forest meet Dimmesdale, and comes out completely transformed and has forgiven herself for her past. She wears an elaborately embroidered scarlet letter A — standing for "adultery" — on her breast, and she carries a three-month-old infant in her arms. Dimmesdale, in the story was referred to as Reverend Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 90). Hester Prynne could possibly be compared to Thomas Jefferson in that they both are living paradoxes: Hester, as aforementioned, is both a sinner and a martyr, and Jefferson as preaching that all men are created equal and freedom for all men while owning slaves himself. ... wants to run away and hide from his past. I am but a child. Teachers and parents! Hester Prynne! For the first time her mother gives her an answer. Hester Prynne could never have hidden her crime, since the resulting child was a constant reminder of it. In the beginning ... birth to a new Hester who is ready to face the consequences of her past. Hester, proud and beautiful, emerges from the prison. Having a baby as the result of an extramarital affair in seventeenth-century New England and refusing to name her partner in crime brought hard-hearted, merciless condemnation from the legal and religious authorities and the society at large. Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast,—at her, the child of honorable parents,—at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman, —at her, who had once been innocent, —as the figure, the body, the reality of sin. Hester Prynne is the heroine of The Scarlet Letter and a very strong woman, despite her circumstances. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Hawthorne attributes this transformation to her lonely position in the world and her suffering. Much of Hester Prynne 's past in The Scarlet Letter is revealed through glimpses into the past that either she, or the character of Roger Chillingworth, bring up as the narrative progresses. The Scarlet Letter, written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne, might seem archaic to modern readers. ...says living under Chillingworth's control is worse than death, but he sees no way out. What is most remarkable about Hester Prynne is her strength of character. ", “Mother," said [Pearl], “was that the same minister that kissed me by the brook?". Within chapter 6, titled Pearl, Nathaniel Hawthorne makes an allusion to the bible by using Hester Prynne’s daughter, Pearl. ...commander of the vessel bound for England. asked Pearl, stopping short, just at the beginning of her race. The reader first meets the incredibly strong Hester on the scaffold with Pearl in her arms, beginning her punishment. “Thou wilt go!” said Hester calmly, as he met her glance. Stretching for the official staff in his left hand, he laid his right upon the shoulder of a young woman, whom he thus drew forward; until, on the threshold of the prison door, she repelled him, by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character, and stepped into the open air, as if by her own free will. She has to be prepared to endure a life where she will always be punished for her transgression. bookmarked pages associated with this title. (including. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. The commander leaves his side and walks by. Hester Prynne as Heroine Amy Wesson 11th Grade. Art thou in life?" As The Scarlet Letter begins, we see Hester escorted from the Puritan prison into the view of the waiting crowds; there she is said to have "natural dignity and force… Next She feels that if here is the scene of her sin, then it "She came, not as a guest, but as a rightful inmate, into the household that was darkened by trouble." While she might be feeling agony as if "her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon," her face reveals no such thought, and her demeanor is described as "haughty." Hester Prynne has been called "among the first and most important female protagonists in American literature". © 2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. While Hawthorne does not give a great deal of information about her life before the book opens, he does show her remarkable character, revealed through her public humiliation and subsequent, isolated life in Puritan society. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A. Summary The Puritan women waiting outside the prison self-righteously and viciously discuss Hester Prynne and her sin. She spent time in jail for what she had done, and was stood on a platform in front of the whole town to shame her and to show the public what the penalty was for such an act. A spell was broken. Her inner strength, her defiance of convention, her honesty, and her compassion may have been in her character all along, but the scarlet letter brings them to our attention. Although she has sinned, she does not dwell in the past. The minister calls on her to give him strength to overcome his indecisiveness twice in the forest and again as he faces his confession on Election Day. With the scarlet letter and her hair back in place, "her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine; and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her." ", “'Mother,' said litter Pearl, 'the sunshine does not love you. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it ... was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony. The decision once made, a glow of strange enjoyment threw its flickering brightness over the trouble of his breast. Hester Prynne was a strong woman who accepted the consequences of her weak moment with quiet dignity. She is the wife of Roger Chillingworth , the love interest of Arthur Dimmesdale , and the mother of Pearl . She is, in the end, a survivor. The affair produces a daughter, Pearl. until, some few miles hence, the yellow leaves will show no vestige of the white man’s tread. It's inauguration day for the new governor. Nathaniel Hawthorne is an American novelist who writes romantic stories because he was a part of the Romanticism Movement. she answered. He gave her in requital of all things else, which he had taken from me . In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne Prynne redefines herself despite being shunned by the Puritan community. The protagonist of the novel, Hester is married to Roger Chillingworth and has an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. And thou, Arthur Dimmesdale, dost thou yet live?" There thou art free! "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." Contrast this with her appearance after seven years of punishment for her sin. Brook Thomas Early in The Scarlet Letter (1850), as Hester Prynne faces public discipline, the narrator halts to comment, "In fact, this scaffold constituted a portion of a penal machine, which now, for two or three generations past, has been merely historical and traditionary among us, but was held, in the old time, to be as effectual an agent in the promotion of good citizenship, as ever was the guillotine … In the story, Hester is the main character of the story and was called Mistress Prynne (Hawthorne 70). Yet Hester's presence is taken for granted, and those that she helps do not acknowledge her on the street. Pearl kissed his lips. She has to openly bear the sin of her adultery, while Dimmesdale does not publicly display his own acts of sin. The Transformation of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne committed a crime so severe that it changed her life into coils of torment and defeat. “Live, therefore, and bear about thy doom with thee, in the eyes of men and women—in the eyes of him thou didst call thy husband—in the eyes of yonder child! Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence. answered the minister; for, with the new energy of the moment, all the dread of public exposure, that had so long been the anguish of his life, had returned upon him; and he was already trembling at the conjunction in which—with a strange joy, nevertheless—he now found himself. In her solitude, she had a great deal of time to think. Instant downloads of all 1434 LitChart PDFs Hester Prynne, the anti-puritan rejects all the codes of conduct set up by the puritans. 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