C. Len
chrisleonard30
City of Anywhere
Planet Earth
TABLE TALK
No one has posted to this glutton's wall. Sad Glutton. You can be first by typing something above.PUBLIC NOTES
Leonard: Dimmesdale is Leaving: In this paragraph, Nathaniel Hawthorne examines Dimmesdale's attitude. Dimmesdale finds that he is leaving after he is giving his Election Sermon. He thinks this is the perfect time to end his career and leave. Hawthorne goes on to say that Dimmesdale is deceived, because he thinks he is a great minister, and there are still terrible stories to tell about him. Hawthorne says that no man, for any time, can be himself in private and then change in public. Dimmesdale is hiding the truth, and he is suffering because of this. Hawthorne thinks that it is impossible to be a completely different person in public than who you truly are. This could be the reason Pearl doesn't like him; he is not true to himself or his congregation; he tries to conceal the truth about the sin and Hester. Because he is not true to himself or to the congregation, Pearl realizes he's lying and will not hug him.
The Scarlet Letter
Monday, February 8, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Leonard: The Brook: In this paragraph, Nathaniel Hawthorne examines the difference between Dimmesdale and Pearl by using the brook. Dimmesdale thinks the brook is a boundary between two worlds, and Hester can never meet her again. Or, she is an elf, and she cannot cross running water. He tells Hester to get Pearl to hurry across, as her delay has caused him to shiver. Hawthorne uses the brook to highlight the differences between Dimmesdale and Pearl. Pearl knows and lives the truth, allowing her to remain free and with no regrets. Dimmesdale, on the other hand, denies the turh about what happened, and is on the other side of the brook. He lives with the pain and regret of his decision and the truth every day, and remains trapped. The brook serves as the boundary between two completely different people and their ideals. The brook is so significant because it highlights these differences between them.
The Scarlet Letter
Monday, February 8, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Leonard: Pearl and the Woods: In this paragraph, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes Pearl's relationship with the woods. Pearl spent the hour while her mother and Dimmesdale talked playing with the woods, eating berries, messing with the birds, annoying the squirrels and making friends with a wolf. The forest seems to like Pearl according Hawthorne; the forest sees the wildness in Pearl. The birds however, react negatively to Pearl. This could represent how the Puritan society as a whole interacting with Pearl; it doesn't know how to react to her, and thinks she could be dangerous, as the bird's reaction could be alarm. The pigeon's reaction to Pearl is similar to the governor's response in chapter eight, where they were afraid of Pearl, and thought she could be a demon child. So, not only are people afraid of Pearl, nature to some extent is afraid too. This just reinforces the idea that Pearl represents the truth.
The Scarlet Letter
Monday, February 8, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Leonard: Dimmesdale's guilt: In this paragraph, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes Dimmesdale's guilt about his sin. Hester tries to make him feel better, and tells him that he can leave this all in the past, to begin anew. She says the future waits, and that there is goodness and happiness in it; change his false life for a true one. she tells him to be a scholar, just do anything except give up and die. Make your will more powerful, and stop thinking about it. This passage reminds one of Dimmesdale's passiveness throughout the novel. He avoids going up the scaffold, he cannot proclaim his sin to the clergyman, and avoids the truth at all costs. The only action he has taken was to convince the governor that Hester should keep Pearl. He needs someone else to help him. Hester symbolizes the crutch he uses; he uses the crutch to help him physically; he uses Hester to help him emotionally. He requires too much help.
The Scarlet Letter
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Leonard: Hester and Dimmesdale: In this paragraph, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes the love Hester feels for Dimmesdale. She threw her arms around him, and pushed his head against the scarlet letter. Dimmesdale tried to release himself, but Hester wouldn't let him go. The world and heaven had frowned on her for seven years, and she had withstood it, and had not died. But she could not stand looking at the frown of Dimmesdale. Hester reveals her love for Dimmesdale in this paragraph. The fact that she cannot stand the frown on h is face hurts her deeply, meaning she cares deeply for him. It also goes to show she no longer has any respect for the church or the world, as she no longer cares what either of them think about her. She tries to comfort him by bringing him close, despite his efforts. This could represent Dimmesdale and the truth, where Dimmesdale tries to avoid the truth, but there is no avoiding it.
The Scarlet Letter
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Leonard: Dimmesdale: In this paragraph, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes Dimmesdale's pessimism. Dimmesdale says that only misery will come from preaching. Even though he preaches, and does goodness, he doesn't think it will help. He wonders what a sinner can do to help others to Heaven; he asks Hester if she can picture a scene where everyone looks at him, and they are hungry, and listening to him, and see goodness, and then look inside and see the sin. He's bitter toward the contrast of what he seems and what he is. However, if he had originally told everyone in the beginning about the affair, I don't he would have felt this way, or be having this conversation. But because of his short-sightedness and poor decision-making, he now suffers through his bitterness and agony. This is part of the reason he grasps at his chest, because of the agony in his heart, and at the contrast between reality and perception.
The Scarlet Letter
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Leonard: Hester and the Sunshine: In this paragraph, Nathanial Hawthorne describes how the sunshine avoids Hester and how it has to do with Pearl. As Hester tries to get in the sunshine, it vanishes. It seemed to Hester that Pearl seemed to absorb the sunshine. It seemed Pearl's nature became more vigorous. She avoided being plagued by sadness, unlike the other Puritan children, as if passed down from their ancestors. This wild energy reminded Hester of the time just before she had Pearl. This energy made her inhuman, and Hester hoped something would change this. The sunlight avoids Hester because of her sin, using the metaphor the romanticists' used is nature is the truth. The complete truth has not come out yet, and she withheld the truth at the beginning of the novel. The truth does not reach her yet, as she has not completely acknowledged it yet. Later, she will, and the sunshine will shine on her.
The Scarlet Letter
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Leonard: Pearl's Letter: In this paragraph, Nathanial Hawthorne goes on to describe Pearl's obsession with the scarlet letter. Pearl used seaweed to create herself in the image of a mermaid. She had inherited her mother's gift for dressing and sewing. To finish her look of a mermaid, she decorated herself with the letter A, to look like her mother. However, it was green, rather than scarlet. She looked down at the letter, as if to figure out its hidden meeting. Hawthorne describes Pearl's obsession with the letter. In earlier chapters, Pearl asks her mother what the scarlet letter is about, and continues to until her mother tells her to shut up. Now, she dresses up like her mother. In the chapters following this, when Hester isn't wearing the letter, Pearl forces her to put the letter back on. It seems that Pearl's entire life is based on the letter, and ironically she was the result of that letter.
The Scarlet Letter
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
ard: Hawthorne's Opinion on Love: In this paragraph, Nathanial Hawthorne's opinions on love become clear. In his opinion, he must win a girl's hand and a girl's heart, not just her hand. If he only wins her hand, the girl will find someone else, and the man will become similar to Chillingworth. The girl will be happier with this new man, and the old man will become jealous. This shows the romanticist opinions of Hawthorne's time period. He considers it more important that the man and woman love each other, rather than just be married, as was considered in the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries. These ideas embody the Scarlet Letter as a whole; the man who won the hand but not the heart (Chillingworth); the man who won the woman's heart (Dimmesdale); and the woman, being Hester. This idea that a woman has rights, was not in the Puritan society; this is based on Romanticist ideas about love, rather on the Puritans
The Scarlet Letter
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Leonard: Chillingworth: In this paragraph, Nathaniel Hawthorne talks about the physical changes that has occurred throughout the novel. Chillingworth at one time was a scholar, and was intellectual and studieos. He was calm and quiet. Now, even Hester, his only connection to his past life, can no longer recognize him; he has completely changed, and there is no going back. However, the change was not based on his age; he actually wore his age very well. HIs old self, his kind and caring self, had been replaced by an eager, searching, fierce, almost evil appearance. Whenever he tried to smile, the evil only became more apparent. Also, this new evil is seen in his eyes, as there is a red glare emitted from his eyes, but is hidden as quickly as possible not arouse suspicion. One of the common themes throughout the novel is the "Black Man", and Chillingwoth's description reminds one of the evil of the devil.
The Scarlet Letter
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
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