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The Scarlet Letter
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Scarlet Letter,” it is evident that conflict can take on numerous forms in the society for example from conflict with self, the religion and conflict with others among many other forms. Conflict is evident mainly through the way other individuals in the society treat Hester. She is accused of practicing adultery by giving birth to Pearl and refusing to provide the identity of the father of the child. After being charged with this crime, she is made to stand on the scaffold whereby the society seems to be against her and Pearl (Hawthorne’s and Nathaniel, p.83). Another form of conflict which is between man and man is seen when Chillingworth tends to be playing some tricks on Dimmesdale as he suspects that he is the father to Pearl as well as Hester’s hidden lover.
Moreover, the conflict between man and self is vividly described in Dimmesdale case. Dimmesdale who is a powerful young minister is seen to be regularly struggling between maintaining his influential position in the society and his secret love affair with Hester. Also in this form of conflict, Hester typically battles with herself to keep the secret about Chillingworth and also to keep her lover Dimmesdale a top-secret.
The characters conflicts in “Scarlet Letter” are resolved on the scaffold. The characters are made, or they decide by themselves to stand on it and confess their sins. For example, the situation whereby Dimmesdale decides to step on it at night and when Hester and daughter happen to pass by he pleads with them to stand by him which they eventually obey. Also, they are made to wear a scarlet letter for the rest of their lives as it happens to Hester, and this symbolizes a sign of shame. Therefore from the way the conflicts are resolved through the scaffold, it is evident that the sin had a considerable impact on the characters and it changed their lives forever (Karenina and Anna, p.43). The life of public repentance and humiliation takes center stage in controlling how the individuals behaved in the society, even though it seemed to be challenging and unpleasant. Therefore, from this context, the theme of sin, crime as well as punishment is significantly portrayed.
The sins by Hester and Dimmesdale seems to affect the various characters differently. For example, Hester’s husband is made to return to the town with the intention of finding Hester’s lover whereby he even changes his name to Roger Chillingworth. On learning that Dimmesdale is Hester’s lover, he ‘Chillingworth’ harasses him for the next seven years up to the time Dimmesdale becomes sick with guilt. Hester on realizing that her lover had been undergoing some psychological manipulation she decides to reveal the true identity of Chillingworth to Dimmesdale. The two chooses to relocate to England and Dimmesdale was still feeling guilty, and in the process, he develops a red mark on his chest. He, therefore, decides to confess his sins while standing on the scaffold and consequently he tears his shirt open to display the nasty red mark on his chest to the public before dying. This shows how sin affected the characters psychologically by not giving some peace of mind resulting in more adverse effects to the characters.
From the “Another View of Hester” chapter, the symbolism of the letter “A” tends to be changing over time. From the very first beginning, the letter “A” typically symbolized shame, but Hester tends to have a different interpretation of the letter, than what it was intended. The primary purpose of the letter was to shame her as well as present ignominy towards her (Hawthorne’s and Nathaniel, p.74). However, it relatively empowers her. Therefore the fact that the letter “A” was supposed to demean Hester but eventually reinforces her is regarded as situational irony. What the Author tries to present by this chapter is that individuals can have and take the same or various symbols in a diverse way to have different meanings and thus it all depends on the way the individual take things up. How they view and interpret things depends on one’s conscience.
Pathos is greatly portrayed in this work by how Hester argues that she had the right to keep her daughter Pearl since God entrusted her with Pearl. She claims it was God’s will to have the daughter and they had no reason to separate them and thus she protests ruthlessly for this action. Hester is also a sympathetic character by the way he sympathizes with Dimmesdale and Chillingworth by presenting each with the truth about her affair with both of them. According to his evil and ill-powered actions by leaving his wife Hester for a long time as well as his revenge by sabotaging Dimmesdale, he cannot be viewed with a degree of pathos (Hawthorne et al., p.38). Moreover, Dimmesdale presents pathos on different occasions for example with the way he is suffering both emotionally and psychologically due to his sins. Chillingworth is harassing him to the extent of feeling guilty and decides to confess his sin to the public while standing on the scaffold.
Dimmesdale is first seen as an anxious and sensitive individual, but this seems to change as time goes by. Due to his actions by confessing his sins and the way he is portrayed, it is good to say that Dimmesdale is a strong character. His confession is seen as a symbolic act, given that the influence he had on the community, he accepted his sins and confessed. Also, his control in the way he is handling his challenges depicts how he is a strong character.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, Hugh Thomson, and Katharine Lee Bates. The Scarlet Letter (Illustrated by Hugh Thomson with an Introduction by Katharine Lee Bates). Neeland Media LLC, 2015.
Hawthorne’s, Nathaniel. “The scarlet letter.” 21st Century Voices (2003): 83.
Karenina, Anna. “The Scarlet Letter.” Anna Karenina and Others (2016): 53.
