Essay Archive - The Scarlet Letter: Hester's Attitudes
The Scarlet Letter: Hester's Attitudes
Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne's book The Scarlet Letter, Hester's
attitudes toward her adultery are ambivalent. This ambivalence is shown by
breaking the book into three different parts. In each part her attitudes
change significantly.
Hester starts by seeing her act as a sin that she is sorry for
committing. She changes and no longer feels sorry for the sin. Finally,
Hester sees the act as not sinful, but she regrets committing it.
In the first part, covering the first six chapters, Hester thinks
of her action as a sin. In chapter fou....
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