The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel. J 4 main characters: Hester Prynne: -­‐ After all, she chose to carry on her shame, even though she could have lived her life without it elsewhere. o Hester preferred to live a life of transparency, rather than a life of material wealth. Being transparent meant for her to reveal her wrongdoing and keep on living a life where she is the core ignominy. Most people would look down at her and would be ashamed to be seen at her side. But still she rather live this way knowing that she didn’t have anything to hide and therefore to fear. -­‐ She kept on going and became a woman who would life her life for others (servant) o When people in our society get face to face with tragic fates they often need a long time to get over it but then keep on living the life they just lived before. Hester Prynne understood well enough that she was doomed to wear this Scarlet letter all her life long, and she knew she could not anything against it; so she accepted it. It was part of her world, part of her daily life. Pearl: -­‐ She knew Mr. Dimmesdale right away and felt what others would not feel -­‐ Why did she not walk to her mom, when she took of the scarlet letter once? Mr. Dimmesdale: -­‐ Would it have been better to carry the shame with Hester at once? The Problem was, he would have been killed then, not being any help either o Only 7 years after the punishment of Hester, Mr. Dimmesdale revealed the fact, that he was the father of Pearl, and therefore us much guilty as Hester was. The question weather it was of him to wait these long 7 years of pain. But on the others, had he revealed this fact these seven years earlier he would have been executed instantly. But being alive all these years he had till the chance to be a blessing to his fellow citizens, which he indeed was. So this way for example he could intervene for Hester to be able to keep her child. Without she would have needed to give away and the author clearly shows us that Pearl was the only reason Hester kept living. So what was the right thing to do? Being honest to the government, accepting the punishment he deserves, or putting on a mask, living a life of pain but rescuing the lives of others? -­‐
Every sin will come out one day, and as long you don’t let out, it will depress you and limit your live intensely. o While reading the book I sometimes felt that Mr. Dimmesdale was actually suffering more pain than Hester did. And finally, after 7 years, he did commit his sin. And I believe this is an universal scheme of sin. Men are not really able to successfully hide sin without it influencing life in a negative way. o When we carry sin in us, it not only makes us feel bad about it but it also leaves broken relationships behind. Roger Chillingworth: -­‐ Without forgiveness, you cannot move on. o Roger Chillingworth was a successful and wealthy man. He had only one problem, and that was his wife cheating to him. It was obvious he would not return to his former wife anymore, so actually he had all the world before him and would able to do what ever his heart desires. But he couldn’t. He felt something in his heart hindering him to move on life. The fact that the man who his wife was still unpunished and even unknown. He could not bear this thought and made it his only goal life to find and then torture this man mentally. Doing so and not forgiving this man, his life continually fading away. o Often in our lives people harm us in a certain way that it influences our lives. And then we have to make a decision: To will leave the little harm our fiend did and try to deal it the best we can, or do we allow our fiend to control our live and tore us down even more? Roger Chillingworth did the latter. And this is the natural way we think. One has harmed so we have to take revenge and show who is the greater one not knowing that will simply harm us even more. So, what would be the alternative then? o We need to forgive this person in our heart. We don’t necessarily need to tell this person about it, but we need to learn to love this person. And that is exactly what forgiveness is asking. To love this person as a being but still hating what he does. How can we do this? We need to look at us and our wrongdoings and failures. Maybe this way we can even feel for the other person. -­‐ Carrying just a little bitterness in you heart will slowly but continually tore you down. o Bitterness comes when we don’t forgive, or simply feel not able to forgive. Just to show how bad bitterness is I give a short overview of what comes from a heart full of bitterness: anger, hate, jealousy, revenge, loneliness, bodily pain, contempt, emptiness, no feelings of happiness, and so on and so on. Don’t tell me that you can have a good life with all, or even just a couple of those characteristics. o It is very simple to catch some bitterness. We might even do it every day. So, to keep our hearts clean we to do a check up every single day. Sorry, but I don’t want to life a single day away from what’s possible. Have a few minutes every da and find out where we feel bitter towards another person and then find out how we can get rid of it immediately.