The Scarlet Letter tells a tale of how a young woman has to endure solitude because society labeled her actions as wrong and shameful. The father to Pearl, Dimmesdale, is a coward throughout the whole book and doesn’t confess until the final pages. What they shared in common, however, was their shame and guilt over Pearl’s birth. Hester wears an A on her chest to symbolize this shame she must endure, and Dimmesdale has on engraved in his chest as well. During chapter 12 of the book, the two stand on the stage in the middle of the night just to see a comet shaped like an ‘A’ in the sky. So why is the symbol meant to be shameful if it appears in the sky like a holy message?
Reasons why the ‘A’ is shameful differ, but the one said in the book directly was because it stood for adultery. Like the word suggests, Hester had an affair with Reverend Dimmesdale and had a baby that was a disgrace to the society. Even though the book says this directly, I think it stands for the position of the letter A in the alphabet, which is in the beginning, and it means that the ‘A’ should begin the punishment, but at some point it has to come to an end like all things in this world. The use of this as a symbol of guilt in my opinion is a horrible thing to be used for. Besides the use of the A, another thing that brought this book to its end was the character of Rodger Chillingworth.
Chillingworth was a character of hate and revenge. All he wanted to do was keep Hester miserable, get Dimmesdale to suffer as much as Hester, if not more, and to keep Pearl alive to complete his first two schemes. A character who focuses only on his revenge his whole life is a character who I wouldn’t want to get close to. Although his plan to torment Dimmesdale was a success, it backfired sort of because he admitted in front of the whole colony and got to be with Hester in the end. This turn of events caused him to abandon his life again to start anew…again where he dies because no one wants to see their least favorite character live, kind of like Dimmesdale.
Like I have ranted before, Dimmesdale was a coward who deserved to die. Throughout the book, time and time again, he would sob to himself about how bad the pain felt. Well boo-hoo to you Dimmesdale because there are things worse than your stupid little heart breaking man. Getting back on track, he feared his daughter in public because he always thought someone would be watching and discover his secret, and because of this he died.
Hester was a true inspiration. Even when the world was against her and the A would consume her, she bared it and lived on. In my view, an A stands for the beginning and can start anything over. This A is the embodiment of Hester’s resolve, and in turn Hester is the embodiment of the A’s true color. With every end, there is a beginning, at least in this story.
-Marcel Rodriguez
O.O
Reasons why the ‘A’ is shameful differ, but the one said in the book directly was because it stood for adultery. Like the word suggests, Hester had an affair with Reverend Dimmesdale and had a baby that was a disgrace to the society. Even though the book says this directly, I think it stands for the position of the letter A in the alphabet, which is in the beginning, and it means that the ‘A’ should begin the punishment, but at some point it has to come to an end like all things in this world. The use of this as a symbol of guilt in my opinion is a horrible thing to be used for. Besides the use of the A, another thing that brought this book to its end was the character of Rodger Chillingworth.
Chillingworth was a character of hate and revenge. All he wanted to do was keep Hester miserable, get Dimmesdale to suffer as much as Hester, if not more, and to keep Pearl alive to complete his first two schemes. A character who focuses only on his revenge his whole life is a character who I wouldn’t want to get close to. Although his plan to torment Dimmesdale was a success, it backfired sort of because he admitted in front of the whole colony and got to be with Hester in the end. This turn of events caused him to abandon his life again to start anew…again where he dies because no one wants to see their least favorite character live, kind of like Dimmesdale.
Like I have ranted before, Dimmesdale was a coward who deserved to die. Throughout the book, time and time again, he would sob to himself about how bad the pain felt. Well boo-hoo to you Dimmesdale because there are things worse than your stupid little heart breaking man. Getting back on track, he feared his daughter in public because he always thought someone would be watching and discover his secret, and because of this he died.
Hester was a true inspiration. Even when the world was against her and the A would consume her, she bared it and lived on. In my view, an A stands for the beginning and can start anything over. This A is the embodiment of Hester’s resolve, and in turn Hester is the embodiment of the A’s true color. With every end, there is a beginning, at least in this story.
-Marcel Rodriguez
O.O
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