Chapter summary the scarlet letter. Chapter 19 2023-01-02
Chapter summary the scarlet letter Rating:
6,8/10
1225
reviews
The Scarlet Letter is a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne that tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman who is forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her chest as punishment for committing adultery. The novel is set in Puritan New England, and follows Hester as she navigates the challenges of living as an outcast in a society that values piety and righteousness above all else.
In the first chapter of The Scarlet Letter, we are introduced to Hester Prynne as she stands on a scaffold in the town square, being publicly shamed for her sin. Hester is described as a beautiful, proud woman who is deeply ashamed of her actions and the punishment that has been inflicted upon her. Despite her shame, Hester remains strong and resilient, and she refuses to reveal the identity of the man with whom she committed adultery.
As the novel progresses, we learn more about Hester's past and the circumstances that led to her being ostracized by her community. We also learn about the other characters in the novel, including the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the man with whom Hester had the affair, and Roger Chillingworth, the husband whom Hester had believed to be dead.
As Hester struggles to find her place in a society that has rejected her, she becomes a source of strength and support for those around her. She becomes a trusted confidant to the Reverend Dimmesdale, who is tormented by guilt over his affair with Hester, and she becomes a caring and nurturing mother to her daughter, Pearl.
Despite the challenges that Hester faces, she ultimately finds redemption through her love for Pearl and her willingness to forgive those who have wronged her. The novel ends with Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl leaving Boston and starting a new life together, free from the constraints of their pasts.
Overall, The Scarlet Letter is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that explores themes of sin, forgiveness, and redemption. Through the character of Hester Prynne, Hawthorne challenges readers to consider the consequences of their actions and the power of love and forgiveness to heal even the deepest wounds.
Chapter 17
What Led to Chapter Two? Previously, we have seen Dimmesdale's conscious mind attempting to reason through the problem of his concealed guilt. Hawthorne, perhaps, leans toward the latter idea when he views her as a seer of a future age where "a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness. He has been transformed from the weak and dying man who went into the forest. In fact, they are both ghosts of their former selves, and their chill hands and hesitant words reveal the strangeness of this meeting. As is his fashion, Hawthorne lends his customary ambiguity and vagueness to many of the questions by citing various points of view or options related to incidences without anointing any one of them as true. Realizing the mockery of his being able to stand there now, safe and unseen, where he should have stood seven years ago before the townspeople, Dimmesdale is overcome by a self-hatred so terrible that it causes him to cry aloud into the night.
Even in death Dimmesdale and Hester are not allowed to mingle their dust. Chillingworth remarks that Hester is not a woman who lives with buried sin—she wears her sin openly on her breast. The women viewing her walk discuss her sin, one wondering how ashamed Reverend Dimmesdale Hester's minister must be that someone from his congregation has committed such a heinous sin, and others believing she should be executed for her sin and the punishment was too lenient. Hawthorne ironically notes that her rise in wealth certainly elevated her and Hester in the eyes of the colony that once spurned them. While alive, she gives hope and comfort to those who feel sorrow and pain, and, accordingly, the scarlet letter becomes a symbol of help.
She thinks about her childhood and young adulthood in England where she grew up poor but loved. Ann Turner an alleged witch who supposedly helped in the poisoning in the previously mentioned Overbury case. Amongst the crowd are several town officials and Governor Bellingham, who in real life was an actual governor of Massachusetts during the colonial period but is fictionalized in the novel as a judge and governor. His references to Hester and to buried sin are designed to remind Dimmesdale of his guilt. So, too, does the figure of Hester offer various options for interpretation. Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred! This is true of the citizens of Boston, who built their prison some twenty years earlier.
Summary Hester decides the time has come for Dimmesdale to meet Pearl. A crowd of men and women assembles near a dilapidated wooden prison. Hawthorne shows the relative strengths of his characters in this argument. While Hester tries to console the minister and persuade him that he has repented and left his sin behind, Dimmesdale knows that he can go no place without carrying his hidden guilt along. Finally, Hester becomes a symbol of comfort and compassion, and upon her death, she is buried in the cemetery near the prison door where she first was incarcerated. Most people say they saw a scarlet A imprinted on Dimmesdale's chest, but there is conjecture as to its origin. In chapter one, The Prison Door, Hawthorne describes the setting for the story in both historical and physical terms.
First, he no longer has Dimmesdale to torment, and second, he receives Dimmesdale's blessing. While exposing sin is meant to help the sinner and provide an example for others, such exposure does more than merely protect the community. Hawthorne hints that her life elsewhere is much happier than it would have been had she married in the New World. Again, Hawthorne gathers all of his major characters in one place — this time in a chapter so foreboding, so convincing in its psychology, and so rich in its symbolism that it is unquestionably one of the most powerful in the novel. The man says that the child's father remains a mystery and suggests that Hester's husband come from Europe to investigate the matter himself. This torture has led to insanity and "that eternal alienation from the Good and True, of which madness is perhaps the earthly type. But Hawthorne also adds mercy to Chillingworth's death: He explains in a lengthy paragraph that love and hate have a lot in common, and perhaps in the next life, both the spurned husband and the minister will rest in peace.
Summary Dimmesdale leaves the forest first, almost believing what has transpired has been a dream. Although Hester helps him to the scaffold where she was punished seven years before, she cannot help him make his peace with God. Here, anything that covers like a cope, a canopy over, or the sky. Hester has not only been found guilty of adultery, but her very appearance is an affront to Puritan standards and religious laws. Instead of plain and simple, the 'A' that Hester has embroidered on her dress is elaborate and vibrant, something the women viewing her punishment find shameful. Dimmesdale fears Chillingworth's course now that he, no doubt, knows "her purpose to reveal his true character," and he asks Hester to give him courage.
Their graves are slightly apart but with a single gravestone bearing the inscription: "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules. Let me now do the will which He hath made plain before my sight. Dimmesdale, obviously dying now, tells Hester farewell. Summary After leaving the house, Dimmesdale walks to the scaffold where, seven years earlier, Hester Prynne stood, wearing her sign of shame and holding Pearl. Several people attempt to help him, but the minister repels them until he comes to the scaffold where Hester stands holding Pearl by the hand. And whose place is it to provide redemption and forgiveness? When the minister says he cannot do this alone, she tells him she will go with him. Chillingworth loses his victory in two ways.
While he falters, Hester encourages him, claiming that he can lead a powerful life for good and still fulfill his mission on earth. While Hester believes they can outrun "these iron men" with their rules, guilt, and punishment, Dimmesdale is not so sure. Similarly, whereas the two men deeply respect their forebears, Pearl has no such respect for inherited history. He presents several possible versions of the spectators at the scaffold that day including that some saw no letter on Dimmesdale's chest. She has born a child of this liaison and is in prison with the baby, something horrifying by today's standards.
