Hester and the Scarlet Letter: Unobtainable Simplicity The achievement of simplicity in life never occurs because things are not simple, but manifold, being viewed differently, and speaking more than one purpose. Nathaniel Hawthorne journeys to seventeenth century Boston and introduces Hester Prynne as he makes his awareness of this idea evident. Through The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne presents the complexity of life?s components whether they appear as simple as an embroidered letter or as intricate as a life changing circumstance. The focus on sin and the consequences and atonement that follow exemplify Hawthorne?s tragic moral vision. A moral vision dealing directly with human nature through Hawthorne’s own creation of Hester Prynne provokes this idea, this problematic truth. A woman publicly acknowledged for what her society held as a grave sin stands before them. She begins her journey, a journey that will forever change the views of not only her fellow characters, but also those to whom Hawthorne tries to reach through his writing. In this journey, meet a woman who?s weakness became her strength, who was looked upon in ways as changing as the seasons. Hester Prynne and the scarlet letter, standing not only as character and prop, but also as universal defendants of the idea of multiple views, are tools for the exploration of this truth.
Through just three different perspectives, Hester and her scarlet letter can sustain the ideology presented by Hawthorne and contribute to its acceptance. They do so as regarded by the townspeople, Hawthorne, and Hester she. The citizens of Boston deem two manifest opinions of Hester and the letter: that notion from the opening scene, which differs greatly that by mid-novel. It was hard Talk overmuch of myself and my affairs at the fireside, and to my personal friends-an autobiographical impulse should twice in my life have taken possession of me, in addressing the public. The first time was three or four years since, when I favored the reader inexcusably, and for no earthly reason that either the indulgent reader or the intrusive author could imagine with a description of my way of life in the deep quietude of an old manse. And now-because, beyond my desert, I was happy enough to find a listener or two on the former occasion-I again seize the public by the button, and talk of my three years? experience in a Custom House. The example of the famous ?P.P, Clerk of this Parish? was never more faithfully followed. The truth seems to be however, that, when he casts his leaves forth upon the wind.
The Essay on Hesters Letter Hester Hawthorne Scarlet
ThereHester's Letter Hester's Letter There are numerous characters in The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, that play noteworthy roles. The character that stands out the most is Hester Prynne. Hester changes significantly during the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel she is conceived as an extreme sinner through the eyes of the Puritans; she has gone against Puritan ways, ...
Not the many who will fling aside his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understand him, better than most of his schoolmates of lifemates. I my native town of Salem, at the head of what, half a century ago, in the days of old King Derby, was a bustling wharf-but which is now burdened with decayed wooden warehouses, and exhibits few or no symptoms of commercial life; except, perhaps, a bark or brig, halfway down its, melancholy length, discharging hides; or, nearer at hand, a Nova Scotia schooner, pitching out her cargo of fire wood-at the head. The pavement round about the above describe the edifice which we as well name as the custom house of the port-has grass enough growing in its chinks to show that it has not, of the late days, been worn by the multitudinous resort of business. In some months of the year, however, there often chances of the forenoon when affairs move onward with a livelier treads. Such occasions might remind the elderly citizens of the period before the war with England. When Salem was a port by itself; not scorn, as she is now, by her own merchants and ship owners, who permits her aharbes to crumble to ruin, while there go to swell, needlessly and perceptibly, the might flood of commerce at the New York or Boston.
The Essay on Salem People Witch Town
The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Time of Fear and Confusion Imagine, just for a minute, living in a time and place where you are not free to practice your own religious or spiritual beliefs and you are forced to live in fear because of persecution by the church and everyone around you. Persecution back in 1692 in Salem Massachusetts was a very real, very serious thing. Those persecuted were hanged, ...
On some such morning when three or four vessels happen to have arrived at once-usually from Africa or South America-are to be on there verge of departure thitherward, there is a sound of frequent feet, passing up and down the granite steps here, before his own wife has greeted him, you may greet the sea-flushed shipmaster, just in the port, with his vessels papers under his arm, in a tarnished tin box. Here, too, comes his owner, cheerful or sombre, gracious or in the sulks, accordingly as his scheme of the now accomplish voyage has been realized in merchandise that will readily to be turned to gold, likewise the gem of the wrinkle-browed, grisly bearded careworn merchant-we have a smart young clerk, who gets the taste of traffic as a wolf cub dose of blood, and already sends adventures in his master?s ships, when he had better be sailing upon a millpond. Another figure in the scene is a outward bound sailor in quest of a protection; are the recently arrived one, pale and feeble, seeking a passport to the hospital, nor must we forget the captains of the rust little schooners that bring fire wood from the British provinces; a rough-looking set of tarpaulins, without the alertness of the Yankee aspect, but contributing an item of no sight importance to our decaying trade.
Cluster all these individuals together, as they some-times were, with other miscellaneous ones to diversify the group, and, for the time being, it made the Custom House a stirring scene. More frequently, however, on ascending the steps, you would discern-in the entry, if wintry or the inclement weather-a row of venerable figures, sitting in old fashioned chairs, which were tipped on their hind legs back against the wall. This old town of Salem-my native place, through I have dwelt much away from it, both in boyhood and mature years-possesses, of did posses, a hold on my affections, the force of which I have never realized during my seasons of actual residence here. Indeed, so far as its physical aspect is concerned, with its flat unvaried surface covered chiefly with wooden houses, few or none of which pretend to architectural beauty-its irregularity, which is neither picturesque nor quaint but only tame-its long lazy street, lounging wearisomely through the whole extent of the peninsula, with Gallows Hill and New Guinea at one end, and a view of the alms-house at the other-such the features of my native town it would be quite as reasonable to form a sentimental attachment to a disarranged checkerboard .
The Essay on Customer Service Customers Points Client
Definition: Customer service is an organization's ability to supply their customers' wants and needs. In essence, "excellent customer service (is) the ability of an organization to constantly and consistently exceed the customer's expectations." This definition suggests that we have to expand our thinking about customer service. If we " re going to consistently exceed customers' expectations, we ...
And yet, though invariably happiest elsewhere, there is within me a feeling for old Salem, which, in lack of a better phase, I must be content to call affection. The sentiment is probably assignable to the deep and aged roots, which my family has struck into the soil. It is now nearly two centuries and a quarter since the original Briton , the earliest emigrant of my name, made his appearance in the wild and forest-bordered settle-met which has since become a city. And here his descendants have been born died, and have mingled their earthy substance with the soil; until no small portion of it must necessarily be akin to the mortal frame wherewith, for a little while, I walk the streets. In part, therefore, the attachment, which I speak, is the mere sensuous sympathy of dust for dust. Few of my countrymen can know what it is; nor, as frequent transplantation is perhaps better for the stock, need they consider it to desirable to know. Nevertheless, this very sentiment is an evidence the connection, which has become an UN-healthy one, at last be severed. Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted for too long a series of generations in the same worn-out soil.
On emerging from the Old Manse, it was chiefly this strange, indolent, unjoyous attachment for my native town, that brought Mr. to fill a place in Uncle Sam?s brick edifice, when I might as well, or better, have gone somewhere else. My doom was upon me. It was neither the first time nor the second that I had gone away. Pages 15-25 The father of the custom house the patriarch, not only of this little squad of officials, but, I am bold to say, of the respectable body of tide-waiters all over the United States, was a certain permanent Inspector. He might be truly be termed a legitimate son of the revenue system, dyed in the wool, or rather, born in the purple; since is sire a Revolutionary colonel, and formerly collector of the port. I used to watch and study this patriarchal personage with, I think, liveliercuriosity, than any other form of humanity there presented to my notice. He was in truth a rare phenomenon; so perfect, in one point of view; so shallow, so delusive, so impalpable, such an absolute nonentity, in every other. My conclusion was that he had no soul no heart no mind nothing as I have already said, but instincts and yet withal so cunningly had the few materials of his character been put together that there was no painful perception of deficiency, but, on my part an entire contentment with what I found in him.
The Homework on Teenage Mother Hester Mothers Letter
The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter, a story of the difficulties faced by Hester Prynne in committing adultery, is pertinent to today's teenage mothers in particular. The Scarlet Letter teaches one to face the responsibilities and consequences of his or her decisions. It shows the perspective of the commonly misunderstood people. The novel shows that the hardships and capability of teenage ...
One point, in which he had vastly the advantage over his four-footed brethren, was is ability to recollect the good dinners which it had made no small portion of the happiness of is life to eat. There were flavors on his palate, that had lingered there not less then sixty or seventy years, and were still apparently as fresh as that of the mutton chop which he had just devoured for his breakfast. The chief tragic event of the old mans life, so far as I could judge, was his mishap with a certain goose, which lived ad died some twenty years ago. A goose of the most promising figure, but which, at table proved so inveterately tough that the carving knife would make no impression on its carcass, and it could only be divided with an axe and handsaw. All merely graceful attributes are usually the most evanescent nor does nature adorn the human ruin with blossoms of new beauty, that have their roots and proper nutriment only in the chinks and crevices of decay, as she sows wall flowers over the ruined fortress of Ticonderoga. Still, even in respect of grace and beauty, there were points well worth noting. An old soldier might be supposed to prize only the lonely laurel on is brow, but here was one, who seemed to have a young girl?s appreciation of a floral tribe.
There was one thing that might aided him in renewing and re-creating the stalwart soldier of the Niagara frontier the man of the true and simple energy. It contributes greatly towards a man?s moral and intellectual health to be brought into habits of companionship, with individuals unlike him. Pages 25-35 No longer seeking nor caring that his name should be blazoned aboard on title pages, I smiled to think that it had now another kind of vogue. The Custom House marker imprinted it with a stencil and black paint, on pepper bags, and baskets of anatto, cigar boxes, and bales of all kinds of dutiable merchandise, in testimony that these commodities had paid the impost, and gone regularly through the office. Borne on such queer vehicle of fame, knowledge of his existence, so far as a name conyes it was carried where it had never been before, and, he hoped will never go again. But the past was not dead. Once in a great while, the thoughts, that had seemed so vital and so active, yet had been put to rest so quietly, revived again. One of the most remarkable occasions, when the habit of by gone days awoke in him. Custom house had so old history to it as well Salem might be discovered, and memorials of her princely merchants old King Derby, old Billy Gray, old Simon Forrester, and many others.
The Essay on Hester And Hawthorne Scarlet Letter
They both receive jail time and are marked with something that would constantly remind people of what they had done. For Hester it was the eloquent scarlet letter on her bosom; while sex offenders and rapists have to constantly remind the people around them what they had done. Whenever they move to a new place, the people in the community are notified of what that person had done. Both the letter ...
Prior to the Revolution, there is a dearth of records, the earlier documents and archives of the Custom House having, probably, been carried off to Halifax when all Kings official accompanied the British army in its fight from Boston. He mostly feels regret for going back, perhaps to the days of the Protectorate, those papers must have contained many references to forgotten or remembered men, and to antique customs, which would have affected him with the same pleasure as when he used to pick up used arrow heads in the field near Old Manse. Change nor very readily decipherable on their mossy tombstone, glancing at such matters with the saddened, weary, half-reluctant interest which we bestow on the corpse of dead activity and exerting my fancy sluggish with little use to raise up from these dry bones an image of the old towns brighter aspect when India was a new region and only Salem knew the way thither. I chanced to lay my hand on a small package, carefully done up in a piece of ancient yellow parchment. This envelope had the air of an official record of some period long past, when clerks engrossed their stiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials than at present.
Unbending the rigid folds of the parchment cover, he found it to be a commission, under the hand and seal of Governor Shirley, in favor of one Jonathan Pue, as Surveyor of his Majesty?s Custom for the port of Salem, in Province of Massachusetts Bay. A notice of the decease of Mr. Surveyor Pue about fourscore years ago and likewise in a newspaper of recent times an account of the digging up of his remains in the little graveyard of St. Peter?s Church during the renewal of that edifice. But on the examinee the papers which the papers parchment commission served to envelop, he found more traces of Mr. Pue`s mental part, and the internal operation of his head, than the fizzled wig had contained of the venerable skull itself. They were documents, in short, not official, but of a private nature, or at least written in his private capacity, and apparently with his own hand. He could account for their being included in the heap of Custom House lumber only by the fact that Mr. Pue`s death had happened, and that these papers, which he probably kept in his official desk, had never come to knowledge of his heirs, or were supposed to relate to the business of the revenue. On the transfer of the archives to Halifax, this package proving to be of no public concern was left behind, and had remained ever since unopened.
The Term Paper on Hawthorne Scarlet Letter
... Hutchinson ("the sainted Ann Hutchinson" Hawthorne calls her in The Scarlet Letter) and Roger Williams against the ... the wealthy, powerful, and respectable. His sympathetic characters are, like Huckleberry Finn, from the bottom ... is made by Dimmesdale, of The Scarlet Letter. His sin and Hester's he says is not so ... stood too much between individual men and women and their God, an Establishment that had ...
The ancient Surveyor-being little molested, I suppose, at that early day, with business pertaining to his office-seems to have devoted some of his many leisure?s hours to research as a local aquarium, and inquisitions of similar nature. These supplied material for pretty activity to a mind that would otherwise have been eaten up with rust. A portion of his facts, by article entitled ?Main Street,? included in the present volume. The remainder may perhaps be applied purpose equality valuable, here attar; or not impossibly may be worked up, so far as they go, into a regular history of Salem, should my veneration for the natal soil ever impel me to so pious a task. Meanwhile, the shall be at the command of any gentleman, inclined and competent, to take the unprofitable labor off my hands. As a final disposition, I contemplate deposition them depositing them with the Essex Historical Society. As Hester walks out into the marketplace for the satisfaction of the townspeople, they immediately evince their cold and unsparing attitude toward this woman. The letter A was to be worn as a punishment, to be worn in shame, to be worn as ?adulteress.? The Puritan community was a dark, strict society, feeling indifferent to the humanness of the woman standing before them on the scaffold, with her infant daughter against her chest.
The beautifully sewn letter does not glow in the eyes of the people. The letter shapes the way they look at Hester and the way they treat her. They isolate Hester socially and geographically, which ultimately causes her own emotional isolation. However, that attitude does change. The very townspeople who once condemned her now believed her scarlet A to stand for her ability to create her beautiful needlework and for her unselfish assistance to the poor and sick. They now saw it as a ?symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her- so much power to do and power to sympathize-that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification,? and now believed it to represent the concept of ?able.? At this point, many the townspeople realized what a high quality character Hester possessed. They would call to each other; ?Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge? It is our town?s Hester?? The changing attitudes in her society did eventually see the brave, strong woman Hester always had been. However, they never would know what it was like to be the person who bore that scarlet letter. Hester knew the?s significance in her own life to be much different from what was viewed by others.
Only Hester herself felt the letter on her chest. Only Hester felt the change that came over her in those seven years. Walking out to the scaffold that first day, Hester behaved as the brave, integrity-filled woman that she knew she was all along. She did not attempt to conceal the symbol that she wore, for she knew there was nothing to hide. Although Hester is clearly not a Puritan, she does show respect for the Puritan code. She fully acknowledges her sin and she boldly displays it to the world. This face of the A is a model of ?acceptance,? a symbol of Hester?s respect for herself, and for her life. Hester did not plan to commit the sin of adultery, because it was not a sin of lust in her eyes; it was an act of love. Her salvation lies in the truth, the truth of love and passion. Hester?s pride sustains her from the opening scene until she dies, still bearing the scarlet A. Hester?s acceptance transformed the scarlet letter to being much more than a symbol, it was a guide, ??her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers-stern and wild ones-they had made her strong??In addition to the convictions of his characters, Hawthorne also expresses his own opinions in regards to his central character, and one might refer to it as a biased opinion.
Hawthorne does not condone Hester?s adultery, but he does find it less serious a sin than the sins of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Clearly, Hawthorne sees Hester as a victim, emphasizing that she is a victim of her society and her passion, which ultimately stands as her biggest downfall as well as her largest asset. When referring to Hester in the opening scaffold scene, Hawthorne remarks that ?never had Hester Prynne appeared more lady-like, in the antique interpretation of the term, than as he issued from the prison?. The way Hawthorne chose to illustrate his character enables the reader to acquire the author?s attitude toward his subject. To Hawthorne, the A is a symbol used to develop his character. He never takes a firm stance in the ever-changing meanings of the scarlet letter, yet merely casts it to his moral vision with the idea of ?atonement.? Hester and her scarlet letter never achieved simplicity. Perhaps because austerity is not obtainable through the human character. When dealing with human nature, the intricacy of life is accented and the variety of interpretation is strengthened. Beautifully illustrating that statement, Hawthorne challenges his readers to gain this truth through his work and development of Hester and the intricacy of the A.
Hawthorne does not see things as black and white, yet encourages all to live in the gray area. He realizes that everyone is vulnerable, and everyone wears his or her own scarlet letter. Each person?s letter is unique, different from all others; different because of what their own letter has originated from, and different because of the way it is viewed by various subjects. Hester and her scarlet letter are a perfect example; a result of passion looked upon from three perspectives. Hawthorne?s tragic moral vision is illuminated in his beloved character and the letter she bore. The universal idea that there is more than one way to view things is not only a truth, but also a complexity in itself I learned that times in the past were very strict and morale. I thought that it was good that people had high morale but it was sad that because of this a certain woman and man couldn?t be happy together. I had forgotten how important and religious things were. I can apply this to my life for morals and good judgement. I was in a similar decision before and I had lost myself in the process. This book reminded me of the basic morals I was once thought as a child.
