The Role of Hester Pryne in The Scarlet Letter Essay

The Role of Hester Pryne in The Scarlet Letter The Role of Hester Prynne in the Development of Plot and Characterization in the Novel, The Scarlet Letter Within the novel The Scarlet Letter, the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many ways to characterize Hester Prynne, and to show her importance in the development of the plot. This essay will show some ways Hester is characterized and will also show why and how she develops the plot. Hester Prynne is characterized as a beautiful woman who does not hide from, but lives with her mistakes and tries to lead the best life she can in a strict, Puritan society. Two main ways are used to characterize Hester Prynne; through dialogue, and narrative descriptions. Dialogue is used†¦show more content†¦Most of the story is written in the narrative point of view, so therefore, most of the information obtained is given to the reader from this point of view. â€Å"The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularit y of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes.† (50) This quote shows how the narrator can describe Hester. The narrator can tell the reader what a character looks like, or can explain occurrences, thoughts, and actions of the character also. â€Å"Hester Prynne, gazing steadfastly at the clergyman, felt a dreary influence come over her, but wherefore or whence she knew not; unless that he seemed so remote from her own sphere, and utterly beyond her reach.† (218). This description tells Hester’s feelings, as Hawthorne uses many descriptions in the narrative, to describe the feelings of characters. â€Å"Much of the marble coldness of Hester’s impression was to be attributed to the circumstance, that her life had turned, in a great measure, from passion and feeling, to thought.† (150). Hawthorne’s narrative descriptions are what makes him such a great writer, and helps him characterize the main characters of his stories. The above techniques are used to helpShow MoreRelatedThe Scarlet Letter by N athaniel Hawthorne506 Words   |  2 Pages In the Scarlet Letter there are characters that are important to the novel; however there is one specific character that relates to the topic of the story is Arthur Dimmesdale. The character Arthur Dimmesdale is a respected minster in Boston. However even though, Arthur Dimmesdale is a minister and preaches against sin to his congregation, he commits the ultimate sin with a young married woman named Hester Pryne. For punishment Hester Pryne becomes pregnant and shunned from public society, DimmesdaleRead More Character evolution through three scaffold scenes Essay961 Words   |  4 Pages Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804 (net). He attended Bowdoin College with famous writers such as Horatio Bridge and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (net). In 1850, Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter (1222). It is considered by many that The Scarlet Letter, â€Å"represents the height of Hawthorne’s literary genius. At this time, Boston was the center of a very Puri tan society. Throughout the novel Hawthorne uses many symbols. For example, one prominent symbol is the scaffoldRead MoreScarlet Letter Essay On Nature1175 Words   |  5 PagesSkylar Bowyer October 24, 2017 Mr. Bernstein Scarlet Letter Essay Albert Einstein, a famous theoretical physicist, once said, â€Å"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.† Nature reveals much more to the human eye than many people realize. By looking deep into nature, one can find the inner workings of the universe and the simplicity of life. The Puritans and other main characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter did exactly this. Within the novel, readers witness