Human Nature: Beautiful and Beastly

Kelci Beatty, Slammin Salmon (Nick Miller), Scott Keffer, Terae Moxey

Human Nature Overview

Human nature has a great capacity for evil May be dark deep down, but even deeper is

eternal beauty Always beauty within the dark Scarlett Letter shows that internal beauty can

over come sin and darkness

Important Character: Hester

Prime example of eternal beauty Scarlett letter masks womanhood and youth Sin masks beauty Externally tired and aged Internally strong, prideful, and beautiful

ThemesTranscendentalism

People are naturally good

Individuality People will do what

they believe Staying strong

through hardships

Sanctity of the Heart

Beneath sin is still strong

Heart is the only thing your own

Individual (who you are)

ThesisIn human nature there is always beauty beneath the surface of people, even though they appear to be dark; Hester’s natural beauty is masked by her sins and she appears to be dark and aged, unlike her natural self that is beautiful

and young.

Quote 1“He laid his right upon the shoulder of a

young woman…in the threshold of the prison door, she repelled him, by an

action marked with dignity and force of character, and stepped into the open air,

as of by her own free will”(Chapter 2, page 62)

Meaning of Quote 1 Hester’s repulsion of the guard shows her inner

strength Inner strength=beautiful—not fully engulfed in

darkness

Quote 2“Hester Prynne with a mind of nature, courage, and

activity, and for so long a period merely estranged, but outlawed for society…Her intellect and heart

had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his

woods.”(Chapter 18, page 239)

Meaning of Quote 2

Internal beauty and strength helped Hester through hard times

Strength not always visible but it’s always there

Quote 3“The burden of shame and anguish departed

further from her spirit. Oh, exquisite relief!...Her sex, her youth, and the whole

richness of her beauty came back from what meant men call the irrevocable

past.”(Chapter 18, page 243)

Meaning of Quote 3

Once the SL is removed beauty returns Sin and darkness will mask inter beauty

One must find a way to show beauty in the darkness

Quote 4“But, on the one side of the portal, and rooted almost

at the thresh hold, was a wild rose-bush… which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and

fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his

doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.”(Chapter 1, page 56)

Meaning of Quote 4

Rose-bush symbolizes beauty Even during punishment for sin beauty can still

be found

Quote 5“Mother says little Pearl, the sunshine does not love

you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom.”

(Chapter 16, page 220)

Meaning of Quote 5

SL masks Hester’s beauty and happiness Noticeable that the SL is the reason behind her

darkness