The Scarlet Letter Group at eNotes

Scarlet Letter Chapter 22, the suggestion is that both Dimmesdale and...

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 16:13:13 PST

Scarlet Letter Chapter 22, the suggestion is that both Dimmesdale and Hester share the same scorching brand of shame. What do you think this means?

what value does hester prynne place upon her life?

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 15:46:52 PST

what value does hester prynne place upon her life?

got it!

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 15:00:07 PST

got it!

Arthur Dimmesdale is the venerated minister in the Boston village where...

Sat, 7 Nov 2009 07:49:56 PST

Arthur Dimmesdale is the venerated minister in the Boston village where the action of Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter takes place. He belongs to the Puritan community and has a clean image in the place as a dutiful, eloquent and morally upright person. Ironically enough, he is the person who has committed adultery with Hester and Pearl is their child. This is a secret, the burden of which, along with that of Hester's sacrificial silence...

Why does Hawthorne characterize Dimmesdale the way he does? What is he...

Sat, 7 Nov 2009 00:25:18 PST

Why does Hawthorne characterize Dimmesdale the way he does? What is he trying to say through Dimmesdale's character?

The word "Nature" has a Romantic double-edge to it in Nathaniel...

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 10:14:06 PST

The word "Nature" has a Romantic double-edge to it in Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous novel The Scarlet Letter. It refers to the nature outside as well as human nature or the nature within. The two complement each other throughout the novel quite beautifully. The flower and the prison-house, the gardens of the minister's house, the jungle and the river where Hester and Arthur meet are all instances of a quasi-pastoral discourse of country-nature....

The character of Pearle is a complex one though at first that may be...

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 14:05:00 PST

The character of Pearle is a complex one though at first that may be hard to see through the turmoil and suffering Hawthorne surrounds her with. And, indeed, one of her main functions is to embody the turmoil and suffering that results from the twin evils of adultery and the extraordinary punishment incited by adultery. Pearle's function in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is to illuminate the psychological aspects of the novel and to underscore...

In Chapter 3, Chillingworth gestures to Hester that she should not...

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 19:20:18 PST

In Chapter 3, Chillingworth gestures to Hester that she should not reveal his identity and remarks to a stranger in the crowd that Hester’s husband must have been foolish to think he could keep a young wife happy. Chillingworth’s willingness to take some of the blame for Hester’s “fall” seems almost noble. He admits that he was not the right husband for Hester and that he was remiss in not joining up with her sooner (even though he...

When Roger Chillingworth came into Boston after spending years in the...

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 19:16:44 PST

When Roger Chillingworth came into Boston after spending years in the wilderness, he found his wife standing on the scaffold holding her infant. Roger knew immediately that Hester had committed adultery in his absence. His obsession to find Hester's partner in sin began at that moment. Chillingworth wanted no further relationship with Hester. Theirs had not been a marriage based on love to begin with. Hester had not loved him when they maried...

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester feels tremendous guilt for having kept the...

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 16:53:41 PST

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester feels tremendous guilt for having kept the identity of Roger Chillingworth secret. For, she feels that she has been the "bane and ruin" of the man she loves. In Chapter XVII, Hawthorne narrates, Hester felt that the sacrifice of the clergyman's good name, and death itself, as she had already told Roger Chillingworth, would have been infinitely preferable to the alternative which she had taken upon herself to...

Chapter 9

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 16:52:56 PST

Why doesn't Chillingworth assert his rights as Hester's husband?

In Chapter 15, it states that the worst crime she feels she had...

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 14:55:45 PST

In Chapter 15, it states that the worst crime she feels she had committed is simply having accepted the advances of Roger Chillingsworth and having ever reciprocated him. She feels that because of this, she was an agent of transformation and made him also a bad person. It was her sin what made him bad, she thought. She was fully aware of the consequences that her cheating caused, but she was also willing to accept that these decisions...

What does Hester feel is the worst crime she has committed in...

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 11:45:41 PST

What does Hester feel is the worst crime she has committed in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter? Why?

When I first read the previous poster's comment, I was relunctant to...

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 10:03:53 PST

When I first read the previous poster's comment, I was relunctant to agree. To be honest, I often don't find moralizing in novels all that appealing, and as a reader I suppose I try to see their secret love affair not as a sin in itself but rather as something that is punished by society as a sin. While I think that I don't have to abandon my perspective entirely, I also have to agree with the previous poster's comments. Here are some details...

Throughout the conversation between Dimmesdale and Hester, Pearl is...

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 08:06:24 PST

Throughout the conversation between Dimmesdale and Hester, Pearl is playing by the brook that runs through the forest. While this action seems insignificant, it reinforces several ideas from Romantic philosophy. Pearl embodies the youthful, innocent, and imaginative hero that is typical of the time period. She plays by the brook, in the rays of light that come through the forest, reinforcing her as an innocent child. The light is also used as...

How does Pearl occupy herself while Hester speaks with Dimmesdale?

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 07:28:43 PST

How does Pearl occupy herself while Hester speaks with Dimmesdale?

Ah yes, with the focus on Chapter 20, the "wicked impulses" you mention...

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 19:49:38 PST

Ah yes, with the focus on Chapter 20, the "wicked impulses" you mention in your question are some of my favorite passages to teach from Hawthorne's novel! Most importantly, you should realize that there are precisely three temptations: blasphemy, lies (in regards to the mortality of the soul), and impure thoughts. Dimmesdale resists these temptations, effectively making him a graphic Christ Figure in The Scarlet Letter. Just as Christ...

Describe the minister's wicked impulses as he returns to town in The...

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 18:02:31 PST

Describe the minister's wicked impulses as he returns to town in The Scarlet Letter.

I just finished listening to this novel (as a book-on-CD) during my long...

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 16:40:32 PST

I just finished listening to this novel (as a book-on-CD) during my long commute to work. Listening to it, I was struck by how there is such a divide in the novel between the town (especially the marketplace, where nearly everything seems to happen in the story) and the woods. The woods are thought by many of the town's residents to be the residence of the devil, and the woods are certainly the place where Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale...

What is the role of nature in the book The Scarlet Letter? Is it human...

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 15:36:15 PST

What is the role of nature in the book The Scarlet Letter? Is it human nature to sin?