Dialecticaljournal

Cezanne Lossing-Cann
Cooper
English
11/4/16
Scarlet Letter Dialectical Journal
1) Discerning the impracticable state of the poor culprits mind, the elder
clergyman, who had carefully prepared himself for the occasion, addressed to the
multitude a discourse on sin, in all its branches, but with continual reference to the
ignominious letter.(46)
2) How do we create justice in society?
3) The focusing of the scarlet letter and its lurid gleam place the tone of the piece
right into that of a mysticism that seems to bewilder the public as they watch Hester walk
down the corridor to her cell. A clear focus on the ideas of punishment and sin are
brought up repeatedly as there is the description of the scarlet letter in the very
beginning of the chapter and the clergy man giving his discourse on sin while hester
stands before the crowd. Feelings of remorselessness and Insensibility are repeated
towards the end of the passage as the author shows the severity of effect of Hester
Prynnes actions. This hard shell that hester prynne puts around her shows the deep
seated shame surrounding her acts in the past.
4) The placement of hester before the crowd on a pedestal shows how society
creates displays of justice to war the public from acts that would in the end cause them
pain. There is a coldness to the scene where Hester Prynne has created a shell for
herself so that she can stand the shame of the public. The Scarlet Letter comes to
display its deep symbolism in the point of guilt by catching the eyes of the public and
causing them to feel a sense of fear in its regard. Terror comes to play repeatedly in the
minister's description as he addresses hester. The element of fear shows how justice
can be made to make the public fear acts that would in turn cause suffering.
1) Heart smitten at this bewildering and baffling spell, that so often came between
herself and her sole treasure, whom she had bought so dear, and who was all her world,
hester sometimes burst into passionate tears. (61)
2) How does the individual judge right from wrong?
3) In the passage, Hawthorne uses elements of antithesis conflicting the deep love
that Hester Prynne feels with gusty tenderness to the concerning unsympathetic
elements contained within pearls character. This antithesis highlights the inner conflict of
Hester by reconnecting how each of the childs actions affects Hester Prynne in some
way. Pearl is compared to a thing incapable and unintelligible of human sorrow.
Hawthorne uses this comparison as a way to show pearl as more of an object that holds
representation than a person. The conflict between Hester and her daughters feelings
continue into the tone as well which is reflected in words such as bewildering and
incomprehensible leaving a state of confusion that extends into much of the chapter.
There is a degree of distress in Hester Prynne, which show the inner conflict that is
going on within her as well as she analyses her daughter.
4) Hawthorne goes to display how hester can judge right from wrong by showing
her conflict in the control of her daugter Pearl. Pearl in a sense represents the rawest
elements of human character by showing that she can displays each piece of human
feeling from sorrow to pure joy to rage. With Hester's difficulty in controlling pearl, it
could be taken as a symbol of Hester's inability to control her own emotions due to the
guilt of her past actions. The guilt of Hesters past helps steer her actions in the hope of
raising her daughter to be one that is better than she is. The ability to judge right from
wrong comes to light as one's actions being primarily driven by a stubborn guilt that
affects Hester prynne in an eventually positive way, that positive being the love of her
daughter that is imbedded with the guilt that she feels, but is also a relief point from the
pain.
1) Before Roger Chillingsworth could answer, they heard the clear, wild laughter of
a young childs voice, proceeding from the adjacent burial-ground. (89)
2) How does the natural world connect to the individual?
3) In the last sentence of this passage the use of simple syntax with a lack of
commas and a overall short sentence to draw attention to it. In the sentences before
there is a description of the sticky burrs, naming them tenacious. The description goes
with the stickiness of the shame surrounding the scarlet letter as they are placed directly
onto the letter. The pairing of the burrs and Hester Prynnes scarlet letter show a clear
connection to the burrs and the scarlet letter. Pearl comes into description as a character
that is once again teasing and elfish irreverent once again. The allowing of Hester
Prynne to place the sticky burrs on her scarlet letter is connected to pearl through her
placing them there as hester does not take them off. This shows symbolism to the burrs
that would not have otherwise existed within the passage.
4) There is a connection of Hester, pearl, and the natural world in the passage when
sticky burrs become involved. The stickiness put in direct context of the scarlet letter put
a similar mark on Hester in that she is stuck with them. The burrs shoe a natural
connection of the book by holding a value that is more than just being irritating. With the
burrs that are thrown, the reader can find a clear significance to the shame that is thrown
towards hester that she lets sit on her letter, leaving her mildly unaffected. The shell
made by the scarlet letter protects in a sense from the burrs of society that would
otherwise render hester in a constant state of unbearable shame.

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Cezanne Lossing-Cann

2) How does the individual judge right from wrong?

2) How does the natural world connect to the individual?

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