Permanently Warping Effects Of Sin In The Scarlet Letter
The Permanently Warping Effects of Sin as Portrayed in the Scarlet Letter
?Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, – stern and wild ones, – and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss? (136). Hester Prynne, who is the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne?s The Scarlet Letter, is the subject of this quote. She is sent ahead by her husband in England to settle in the colonies. He fails to arrive and following a few years of his absence, Hester falls into an adulterous relationship and conceives a child. This is a turning point in her life. The effects of her sin perpetuate throughout her life and in all aspects of her life. Her life is transformed from one of ?antique gentility? (42) when Hester?s sin affects her social image and her emotional state. Hester?s change is an example of the permanently warping effects that a sinner?s offense has on him.
While standing on the scaffold in the first chapter, we learn through the flashbacks Hester has that in past she led a life of gentility and happiness. ?Reminiscences, the most trifling and immaterial, passages of infancy
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