Sin/Symbol in Scarlet Letter

The first 200 words of this essay...

Lekha Ravichandran

Period 0

5/21/09

Scarlet Letter: Sin Symbol - Letter I

Hester Prynne, the protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, was forced to wear the letter A for the rest of her life because she committed adultery. This was viewed as an unforgivable sin in the Puritanical society - but despite all the stern looks she received atop the scaffold, she handled this situation "with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed." (P. 48) Unlike Hester, I never had to endure such a circumstance as shameful and degrading as her's, but after wearing my letter of sin, the letter I, I was able to understand a little more about how it feels to have everyone else stare and acknowledge the mark upon an individual's heart everywhere one travels. Although everyone in her town knew about Hester's sin and I chose to keep mine in secrecy, I too decided to elaborately decorate my letter in order for it to have a similar effect upon my demeanor as it did on Hester's where it "seemed to express the attitude of her spirit, the desperate recklessness of her