The Scarlet Letter
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The Scarlet Letter is a romantic novel, mainly because it is a long, fictitious tale of heroes and extraordinary events. Unfolding over a seven year period, we are treated to the heroism of Hester Prynne and her adulterous beloved, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and the mysterious actions and behavior of their love child, Pearl, and the witch, Mistress Hibbins. The story is set against the background of Puritan, New England, a stern, authoritarian, colony founded by a group of religious reformers. Before the novel begins, Hester is guilty of an affair which produced Pearl while her husband was abroad. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, comes to America just as Hester is being pilloried. He determines to remain in Boston in disguise in order to discover the man with whom she had the affair. Chillingworth soon uncovers the identity of Pearl’s father, the young and emotionally captivating pastor. He proceeds to torment Dimmesdale’s soul, eventually foiling the escape of the pastor, Hester, and Pearl. At the end of the novel, Hester and Dimmesdale mount the pillory with Pearl together, where he reveals that he, too, has a scarlet “A” etched on his chest from remorse. However, this act of public repentance allows him to be free of the Satanic clutches of Chillingworth. Pearl, too, a child that barely seems human to others in the novel, reclaims her humanity by giving her real father a kiss and crying for the first time in the sto
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the devoutly religious people in the story, and, more importantly, her transgression against the communal values is depicted by Hawthorne as being part and parcel of a real human being. Unlike Brodhead, Porte (Gross et al. 377) recognizes that no one who has a spirit can be expected to act as coldly, inhumanely, and judgmentally as those who would judge her. Thus, her romantic individualism, i.e. following her passions, makes her seem freer, happier, and more human than the most religious characters in the story:
Her intellect and her heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. For years past she had looked from this estranged point of view at human institutions, and whatever priests or legislators had established; criticizing all with hardly more reverence than the Indian would feel for the clerical band, the judicial robe, the pillory, the gallows, the fireside, or the church. The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free.
(Porte 377)
Thus, anyone who had to live in such a puritanical environment is forced to reject the communal values if they are a free spirit who wishes to experience their passions without constant pillorying.
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1911
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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