THE SCARLET LETTER

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne's “The Scarlet Letter”

Introduction

Hester Prynne was a beautiful woman living among the Puritans of Boston in 1650's. Hester faces a number of obstacles as she tries to re-establish herself in the restrictive Puritan community. The town has labeled her a sinner, so she must first find a way to challenge the community's perception of her and her daughter, Pearl, the child and the proof of her “guilty passion.” Her talent for sewing and embroidery becomes her primary medium for self-expression. Not only does she decorate the letter she has been forced to wear, but also she dresses Pearl in beautiful, elaborate clothes in order to counteract the intended shame of the punishment. This paradoxical position defines Hester's relationship with the townspeople throughout most of the novel. This paper compares what happens to Hester Prynne in the 1600's to today and why something like the scarlet letter would not happen in today's society.

Discussion

Near the end of The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale is faced with a choice. He can either make good on the plan he has made with Hester to form a "proper" family in a distant land, or he can remain in Puritan Boston, write and deliver his election-day sermon, and confess publicly his involvement with Hester and Pearl. He chooses the latter, of course, and in so doing becomes a martyr for the well-being of the status quo.

In the opening pages of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter the townspeople in the novel anxiously await the arrival of Hester Prynne at the scaffold. Through the conversation of the women in the crowd, Hester's crime (adultery) and its punishment are revealed. Although the townswomen believe Hester will rebel against the magistrates' sentence by covering the "A" she is required to wear, her appearance reveals a rebellion of another kind. The letter is so beautifully and elaborately done—in scarlet cloth and gold thread—it cannot be missed, and even the gossips must acknowledge Hester's "good skill at her needle." As Hawthorne explains the "gorgeous luxuriance" of the letter flagrantly violates the sumptuary laws of the colony; thus, Hester conforms to and transgresses the law at the same time. (Gerber, 2008)

Upon Hester's release from prison, the reader is informed that although she is condemned to wear the scarlet letter on her breast, no part of Hester's sentence requires her to remain within the Puritan community. She is free to move someplace where the letter will have no meaning or where she can remove it altogether. Yet, she chooses to remain among those whose stares and remarks are a constant torture. Hawthorne provides readers with several possible explanations. First, there is the "fatality" of a great event in a person's life that infuses the place with meaning, which all other locations lack. Next, there is the belief, which Hester hides even from herself, in the union, though "unrecognized on earth," between herself and her lover. Finally, there is the reason Hester gives herself, which is "half a truth and half ...