Dimmesdale vs. Chillingworth

I missed class when we got to debate over who was the worse sinner, Dimmesdale or Chillingworth. If I had to choice, I'd be in the "NONE" group. In my opinion, sinning is sinning. Once you sin, whether it's adultery or murder, you are no longer pure and are a sinner in God's eye.

Many people may say Chillingworth was a worse sinner because it could be the way Hawthorne described his character with a hint of hatred. Readers know Dimmesdale was a sinner but we do not emphasize on his flaw because we focused too much on his pain and guilt that we forget he, along with Chillingworth, had committed a major sin.

Hawthorne: religious man?

I am assuming Nathaniel Hawthorne was a religious man. Actually, I'm not too sure. When Hawthorne described how Hester was proud of her scarlet letter by polishing and embellishing her letter and such, it made me question if Hawthorne actually wanted to tell his female audience to be proud of their wrongdoings. I'm sure he didn't mean to say that, but he sure sympathized Hester and Dimmedale's relationship in his novel.

Then vs. Now

Change isn't necessarily good. The Scarlet Letter showed me how much this world had changed. Adultery is so common this generation that it is almost like it's accepted. It seems as if this world keeps moving towards a new generation, the more sinning there will be. When Hester was found as an adulterer, the townspeople and even the government scolded at her. Now, when teenage girls get pregnant, it seems like the subject is not so significant anymore.

Literary Elements

Some literary elements Nathaniel Hawthorne used in his novel are imagery and irony. He used imagery to describe the prison and the rosebush, the forest, etc. Irony is one of my favorite literary elements he used.

Some ironic situations he created in The Scarlet Letter:

- Dimmesdale is a minister who commits one of the biggest sins in his town.
- Hester was scolded by the townspeople on the scaffold for commiting adultery. Dimmesdale questioned her who the baby's father is. Later, Dimmesdale stands on the same scaffold confessing he is the father.
- The meteor shower that is shaped in the letter "A". The townspeople thought it stood for "angel" because they though the angels had come to get the govenor after his death.

Dealing with Scarlet Letter as a Romantic novel

Although The Scarlet Letter was set during the Puritan time period, it is a romantic novel. The forest, where Hester goes when she wants to escape from the town, is a romantic place used in the novel. The forest deals with nature and transcendentalism, which were the main components of romanticism. Another romantic element used in the novel is death, like the killing of Dimmesdale. Intuition is also another element in The Scarlet Letter. Many characters in the novel had to deal with situations where they had to use reason vs. intuition. Like Hester, she used intuition to polish her scarlet letter because it defines her and her independence.

The Scarlet Letter: Happy or sad ending?

I don't like to anticipate about endings when I read.

Before I even had a chance to be on the third chapter of the novel, my sister destroys my thoughts by telling me the ending. Although this novel was no Harry Potter, I still did not want to know what will happen at the end!

How I responded to the ending: Well, considering how I already knew what would happen, nothing much came out of the responsiveness. However, I had wish for a happier ending where no one dies because happy endings... make me happy.

For a person from the 1800's, Nathaniel Hawthorne was a very imaginative author. I'm not saying people from the Puritan time period were stupid, but seriously, I had never imagined a person from a time period that long ago creating this masterpiece that would be continually read about 200 years later. That's kind of amazing. Hawthorne used all types of literary elements in his book. Who knew authors back then were so creative enough to add in imagery, irony, symbols, climax, et cetera. I am amazed at the ironic situations that can be found in this novel.

Wearing the letter P

Like Hester from The Scarlet Letter, I have a letter that represents me terribly well, and "terribly well" might as well be an understatement.

Today, I cut out a piece of paper and with a red marker, I wrote the letter P on the paper and taped it on my navy blue fleece. Anyone who noticed asked me why I was wearing a P and I told them that it was for The Scarlet Letter project (although I did not exactly know how to explain it well.) SB was one of the first few who asked me what the P stands for. When I told her that it was something I am very good at, she guessed it in less than a nanosecond. No, it does not stand for "perfect" although I'm sure many people might have guessed it was. ... Just kidding.

Honestly, I almost forgot I was wearing a letter P until I went to Walmart and the cashier asked me what's up with the letter on my fleece. Of course, I had to explain to her everything because she had never read The Scarlet Letter (which I thought was weird because if she had gone to high school, she would have read it in English class.) When I finished about 30 minutes later (yeah, I'm kind of exaggerating), the countenance (vocab. word!) on her face indicated that she'd wish she had never asked me. And at the same time, I had also wish the same because that conversation required too much thinking.

My feeling towards the letter is shame. At a point, I thought about the letter and why I picked to wear it. If SB took less than a nanosecond to guess what it stood for, that means I am terribly good at it... which is something I am not so proud of.





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If you do not know what P stands for, it stands for PROCRASTINATING. But I'm sure that wasn't hard to figure out.