FREE ESSAY ON THE SCARLET LETTER

THE SCARLET LETTER

THE BOOK LOG ON:
The Scarlet Letter
Period 4 Adv. English 11
November 2, 1999
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn begins by dealing with Hester Prynne's crime and
sentence. She shows herself to be a proud woman in how she embroiders her bright red "A"
with golden thread to be displayed to her community. She is a skilled seamstress and she
doesn't seem, despite her disgrace, to be afraid to show that about herself. When she
walked down the street from the prison to the scaffold, the narrator talks about her
realization of how foolish and cowardly she would be if she were to try to hide her mark
with the product of her sin, her baby girl. She carries off her initial sentence of being
showcased on the scaffold with as much dignity as possible for anyone in such a
situation. The reactions of the people were interesting to me; their strong feelings
against Hester being permitted to live startled me. I realized what a sort of culture and
religion ruled in those times. Also, I couldn't quite imagine being in Hester's position
with the kind of disgrace she was faced with. The narrator describes Hester as totally
losing her womanly appeal and beauty over the seven years of condemnation.
Roger Chillingworth confused me greatly until near the conclusion of the book. When he
visited Hester I was surprised that he wanted to treat her instead of trying to harm her,
but then later realized his motives. He wanted no one in the community to learn that
there was any relationship between Hester and himself at all; harming her would have
raised suspicions. This was vital to his plan of revenge on Mr. Dimmesdale. At first I
thought that Chillingworth might have tried to seek revenge against Hester, but then came
to the conclusion that he viewed her public disgrace as more punishment than he could
ever have managed. Chillingworth's revenge was very clever. Everyone in the town knew and
respected him and this helped him gain "friendship" with Dimmesdale. Although I didn't
understand at first that Chillingworth was actually poisoning Dimmesdale while he was
supposed to be treating him, this aspect of his revenge made more sense, as I got further
into the book. The cruelty of it was terrible, but it accomplished his goal of torturing
him while he should have taken his rightful punishment for the crime he committed from
the beginning.
My opinion of Arthur Dimmesdale changed quite a bit from when I was first introduced to
him until the end of the book. At first I thought that he was a cold heartless, cowardly
man for not taking his part of the blame in the two-sided crime of adultery. His actions
forced Hester to take all of the disgrace on herself. I believe that her disgrace was
increased because there was no second person to take some of it. The townspeople looked
at her as though she had committed the crime all by herself. The amount of guilt that
Dimmesdale carried with him for not confessing right away was phenomenal. The longer he
waited, the harder it became for him to confess, the more his guilt built up, and the
easier it was for Chillingworth to torture him. The fact that he became physically sick
with guilt amazed me, especially since I didn't realize that part of his sickness was
credited to Chillingworth until later. His vigil and meeting with Hester and Pearl in the
wee hours of the morning on the scaffold was the turning point of my impression of him. 
Pearl's role in the story, I felt, was the scarlet letter come to life. This is shown in
several ways. She is a product of what Hester's red "A" represents and is usually dressed
in shades of scarlet. She is described as having elfish qualities about her. Elves are
most commonly thought to be mischievous and evil, which are both characteristics of the
adultery the scarlet letter represents. In my opinion, the most interesting aspect of
Pearl's character is her reaction to seeing her mother without her brand and cap when she
meets with Mr. Dimmesdale in the forest. She acted almost as if she didn't consider
Hester her mother without the scarlet "A" on her dress, like she loved the "A" more than
Hester.
The conclusion of the story began with Hester's decision to reveal Roger Chillingworth's
identity to Mr. Dimmesdale. This decision is arrived at after Hester tries to convince
Chillingworth to end his revenge on Dimmesdale. His refusal to do so convinces Hester of
what she needs to do. She plans to meet Dimmesdale in the forest after he returns from a
visit with the Apostle Eliot. When he arrives, she sends Pearl to go play and sits down
to a conversation with him. The removal of her letter and cap are symbols of comfort and
love felt by her while she is with him alone. Their discussion between the two of
Dimmesdale confessing to his crime on the Election Day and running away together was
unexpected. I didn't pick up on their feelings toward each other earlier in my reading.
Pearl's obvious contempt for Dimmesdale is also shocking because in their previous
meetings, she had not been so hostile. Mr. Dimmesdale's confession was bittersweet with
his relief and happiness at the knowledge that he didn't have to carry his guilt to his
grave, and his almost immediate death afterwards. The ending to The Scarlet Letter sends
a message of how great the power of confession and unburdening the soul is. 
Through reading this book I gained insight into the world of condemned people living in
the Puritan world of early America. I had not realized how seriously those people took
the Ten Commandments. I learned how effectively revenge can be taken against a vulnerable
person and what sort of effect that revenge can have on a person. Most of all I learned
was sort of destruction a person who is a social out cast is succumbed to. Like the
disgrace she encountered whenever someone saw her for the first time, how she lost her
lovely appearance, and her utter patience with her punishment. 
Bibliography
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorn