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Irony In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

1413 Words6 Pages

Society, cowards with masks. Everyday people put on a new mask for each lie they tell creating a facade just so their perfect self stays pure. But underneath it all, they become dirtier every time the fake words slip out of their mouths. It takes thought, but in the end telling the truth makes people's lives more positive. This message is shown in The Scarlet Letter when Hester Prynne commits adultery and is forced to wear and “A’”, referred to as the Scarlet Letter, her entire life. Though shamed and mocked, she stays open, ultimately becoming stronger. While she becomes positive her Adulterer keeps himself a secret and tortures himself even though he never receives public punishment. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses irony to …show more content…

Hester sulks in her own misery until it eats away at her but overtime adapts to this idea of ridicule and no longer lets it affect her. The “A” becomes a symbol of a strong person who society refers to as “able” to overcoming such tortures beginnings. Even though she is still stuck with the letter, Hawthorne has the people stop harassing her because “the scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread” since it was once a punishment in puritan society and ironically shifted to a symbol of identity and hope opposing what they believed (188). Hester then comes to a point when she believes she no longer needs the A to show her crime/ past failures. Because of this, she throws the letter into a brook and “there lay the embroidered letter, glittering like a lost jewel...the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit” because the past seven years of her life were concentrated on this letter and without it she found herself again . However, Hawthorne tests her by keeping her daughter Pearl in her life as a constant reminder of her sin so she can never fully depart from her mistake. Pearl sees the letter on the ground and “suddenly

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Although Hester get used to the torture and other consequences of using the scarlet letter, it was still seemed as a symbol of punishment until Chapter 13, when the letter is seemed in a different way. Despite the fact that no one cared for Hester, she always cared for the others. Hester’s actions were always good; she was there for the people that needed the most, creating another meaning for the letter. In Chapter 13, Hawthorne describes how “the scarlet letter became the symbol of her calling, she was so helpful, with so much power to aid and to sympathize, that many refused to recognize the A for its original meaning. They said that it stood for “able”, so

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Hester doesn´t reflect that when she wears it. At first, for Hester the scarlet letter represents the loneliness that she feels, the sense of guilt and how society is judging her for her sin. Later, however, she comes to terms with her fate and accepts it. This is when the letter “A” becomes something secondary because Hester finds the strength and confidence inside her, to a point where she refuses to take the scarlet letter off, saying that is has grown too deep in her. It has become part of

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