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Puritanism in the scarlet letter
Puritanism in the scarlet letter
Analysis of Symbolism in Hawthorne's Novel The Scarlet Letter
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As the situation in Europe developed into a stalemate between the Allies and the Central powers, actions taken against civilians, namely US citizens, angered the United States. Despite the mounting incentive for war, many Americans were hesitant about joining a war on the other side of the world. However, all of this changed on April 6, 1917, when Congress passed President Wilson’s resolution for war. With public opinion unsure about their participation, the government had to build public support and refocus the entire economy on the war effort. In the interest of preparing for and supporting the war, Congress gave President Wilson control over the economy, allowing him to regulate and nationalize any war-related industries.
In the beginning of the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne introduces the main character Hester Prynne, a young, beautiful member of a Puritan society being punished for her sin of love, not lust. The opening chapters introduce the reader to gossips who deem her original punishment, death, too harsh and contrary to Puritan beliefs that unborn babies should be given a chance at life. Instead, Hester and her child are to be alienated and shunned. In addition she is to wear the letter ‘A’ (which stands for ‘adultery’) on her chest which will forever display her as a symbol of shame for her sin. Though a very resilient figure who soon overcomes this pain, Hester’s isolation takes a negative toll on her life.
Relationships–they make us, and they break us. They give us life and can also kill us physically and emotionally. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, relationships are the antagonist and protagonist. One in specific–that of Hester Prynne’s and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale’s–creates the major drama within the plot, after the appalling sin of adultery is committed in seventeenth-century Puritan society. Hester must stand upon a scaffold and face the punishment of shame in front of the whole town, and is also sentenced to wearing a woven scarlet letter A on her breast to remind others that she is an adulterer.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a novel that focuses on sin in the Puritan society. Hawthorne revolves the theme around the four main characters Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth., and Pearl. Hester Prynne is forced to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ after committing adultery against her husband Roger Chillingworth, with the minister Arthur Dimmesdale. As a result an odd child is born.
Within Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, antagonist Hester Prynne is subjected to the opinions and treatment of 17th century’s Massachusetts Bay Colony as a result of her sinful act of adultery. In the Puritan colony, it was important to be faithful, both to thine spouse, and most importantly, to God. Hester’s adultery issued her public ridicule and shunning, and a physical reminder to be forever worn; an embroidered ‘A’ placed upon her bosom. The symbol served to alert all of her faithless act, “It had the affect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself” (page 74). Throughout the novel, Hester’s treatment is obvious, and she makes many efforts to not let her choice, and her illegitimate child Pearl, define her.
The punishment that the protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, and that of
She receives three punishments from the townspeople, who claim they will free her from her sin. The community orders Hester to go to jail, wear a scarlet letter on her chest, and stand on the town scaffold for hours. Hester wears her scarlet letter proudly on her chest, and endures much suffering because of her public ridicule. Hester is “kept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan settlement” after she was released from prison, but she chooses to stay (Hawthorne 71). Later, Hester’s child, Pearl, symbolizes the Puritan view of Hester.
She is banished to the forest to live in a small cottage to be isolated from the rest of the town. In the Scarlet Letter Hawthorne states, “It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off this badge,” calmly replied Hester” (Hawthorne 117). In this quote Hawthorne feels that the town is considering letting her take off the letter, just like Chorley states in his article. It is a big step in the community saying sorry for how the years of shame they make Hester feel. At the beginning of the story nobody feels bad for Hester because of how bad she breaks the law.
The townspeople “[began] to look upon the scarlet letter as a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” This quote exemplifies how sin is not a death sentence for Hester. Through hard work and charity it allowed the rigid Puritan society to see her as something different, and as someone who would not let society define who she was. Hester, thus, was not only able to change herself, but also the image in which society viewed her by working hard to benefit the public. Likewise, the scarlet letter which was supposed to represent sin was instead “fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.”
“...that Scarlet Letter, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself “ (Hawthorne 62). Using this letter to distinguish Hester as an adulterer for all to see, the colony sets her up to live a shameful and isolated life, never forgetting her sinful offense. The severity of the deed in the eyes of the Puritans is reflected by their harsh objection, which they voice while gossiping among themselves. A lady of the town even exclaims, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die...let the magistrates who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray” (60).
In the excerpt the Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a psychological approach to the reality of sin and guilt using Hester and Dimesdale adulterous affair which resulted in Hester’s pregnancy of Pearl. Hester becomes a victim of the Puritan morality which is seen as the story unfolds. She suffers at the hands of a religious minister, Dimmesdale who strips her happiness and freedom. The author deals with issues of the human nature such as sin, guilt, hypocrisy and revenge through the role of religion as a central example.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist, Hester Prynne is a Romantic Hero. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, we see Hester Prynne’s struggle in Colonial America after she is condemned by the Puritan society. She is sent to America by her husband, but he never returns, and Hester later conceives a child with the local minister. She is convicted with the crime of adultery, but refuses to identify the father, she is then forced to wear the Scarlet Letter. The novel captures her experience as she struggles to survive the guilt, sin, and revenge.
In “The Scarlet Letter” he depicts it as an oppressive 17th – century Puritan society. “The style of Puritanism that Hawthorne presents is drab and gloomy, preoccupied with judgment and punishment, unrelenting and dogmatic,”1 writes Deborah L. Madsen in her book, “American Exceptionalism.” Hester Prynne, the main character accused of adultery, is persecuted by Boston community. Not only adults despise her, but also children who, blinded by the decayed values and norms, humiliate her and her child, Pearl. The character of Hester symbolizes the fight against Puritan enslavement, the need to modernize the prevailing norms that cause nothing but harm to American society.
When Hester finally takes off the scarlet letter “A” and her cape in the wilderness, it not only represents the beauty she held despite the emotional punishment she underwent, but it also represents her removing the Puritan and patriarch society holding her back. Hester’s feminist conscious is intricately portrayed throughout the
1 I'm losing my patience. Partially because of the rain. "A warm and sunny June morning," according to Willard Scott, NBC's leading meteorologist who never wished ME a happy birthday on my half-centennial! A quick glance at the smarter two-legged, featherless animals; dressed to the hilt with bright colored raincoats and galoshes tells me he could be wrong. " Greatest, however, is water.
