Hester's Isolation and Alienation in The Scarlet Letter
In Nathaniel Hawthorn's The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne and
Reverend Dimmsdale have committed adultery, an unacceptable sin during the
Puritan times. As a result of their sin, a child is born, whom the mother
names Pearl. Out of her own free will Hester has to face major punishments.
She has to serve many months in prison, stand on the scaffold for three
hours under public scrutiny, and attach a scarlet letter, "A" on her chest
every day as long as she remained in the town of Boston. The letter "A"
was to identify Hester Prynne as an adulteress and as an immoral human
being. "Thus the young and the pure would be taught to look at her, with
the letter flaming on her chest", also "as the figure, the body and the
reality of sin"(73). Holding on to sin can lead to alienation and
isolation.
One reason Hester was alienated was her refusal to identify the
other adulterer. When Hester is released from prison and stood upon the
scaffold, she was asked to reveal the name of whom she committed the sin
with. Having a heart blinded by love Hester choose to stay in the town and
wear the scarlet letter "A" instead of revealing the other adulterer. She
faced society only to protect and be close to the man she still loved. The
"impulsive and passionate nature" (54), which to Hester seemed pure and
natural had to be faced under humiliation alone, without the partner of sin.
It seemed as though she was paying not only her own consequence, but that
of her lovers as well. Saying so herself while standing on the scaffold "I
might face his agony as well as mine!" (64). Now taking on all blame she
has given "up all her individuality. Now she would become the "general
symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they
might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty
and sinful passion" (73). After the sin had been revealed Hester never
again felt she was accepted by society. It seemed to her as though "every
gesture, every word, and even the silence of those whom she came in contact,
America’s pastime has been complicated in the last couple centuries, and integration has been a really big key in the game of baseball. Like most of America in the 1940’s, baseball was segregated, whites playing in the Major League system and African-Americans playing in the Negro Leagues. There were many factors that made whites and blacks come together including World War II. Integration caused many downs in the time period but as baseball grew and grew it was one of the greatest accomplishments in the history. It was hard to find the right black man do start this, they needed a man with baseball abilities and a man who didn’t need to fight back.
It's something that has been said since forever by well meaning parents and high school counselors and in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author reiterates this bit of advice to the characters as well as the readers: "Be true!" When viewed from the surface, almost none of the characters followed the simple suggestion offered by Hawthorne, or the entire conflict of the novel could have been averted. Chillingworth the revenge monger was unwilling to reveal even his real name and intent, and Dimmesdale the sentimental and trusted pastor, was unable to reveal his dark secret. That leaves Hester. In the beginning she was not only forced to be true to herself and the whole town, but to emotionally and mentally evolve. She had found her identity in the novel the day she stood on that scaffold. If given a choice, Hester would have rather worn the mark of shame than not, because the letter had transformed her into who she is. The blood red letter may not be pretty, but it is immensely better than living a lie. By digging a little deeper into the novel, it's plain that Hester is the only one true in the entire book, both to her self and society. Hester and Hester alone had the courage to do what was right by showing who she really was. She let the events of the novel shape her like a ball of clay into the person she would become, instead of controlling events or resisting change. Although many may say she didn't learn her lesson by wanting to run off with Dimmesdale, she had in fact learned her lesson thoroughly and by admitting her love she didn't make the same mistake a second time.
Had Hester given a name and condemned her child’s father, she would not have to stand alone. The fact the “[she] will not speak” shows her love for Pearl’s father (68). Hester’s love for this man is her downfall; had she been willing to give him up in an act of selfishness, she wouldn’t have to suffer alone. In addition to this show of weakness, Hester has the opportunity to leave town after she is released from prison, giving her a chance to start a new life and live free from judgement and away from the weight of the eyes of the town. Instead of taking this gift, she “deemed herself connect in a union” with the father of her child, therefore she chooses to bear the town’s judgement for “a joint futurity of endless retribution,” (80). Hester Prynne was married to Roger Chillingworth for convenience, not for love. He had “betrayed [her] budding youth into a false
First of all, Puritans believed that as an effect of Adam and Eve’s original sin, every person is born a sinner. For starters, in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, although it was written in 1952, he went through extreme
At that point, tears filled her eyes as she took out of her bands that entitled her to another man's love. My heart had to start bursting with agony how on earth could thine women of my dream lead me on when being entitled to another man. Hester had expressed her lack of paramour for her spouse as he had left her years ago for Amsterdam and that she had actually a strong love for me. Thine admiration that Hester had for me was still there and she did not attend to hurt me as she was too intoxicated the night in the woods to bring up the fact about her husband. Thou women had dark circles that had been visible under her eyes showing the lack of sleep that the Hester had experienced thinking of the problems that she has created. I accepted the fact that Hester wanted to tell me and I could relate to the reason Hester had moved on from her husband as he had left her for no reason, and she never really loved him in the first place. Hester decides to stay hidden in the chamber so that society could not condemn her
One should not violate the godliness of a pure heart. Hester was a radical woman in her time, more like a 20th century woman. She knew that true love was more important than a phony, love-less marriage.
The church and Christian beliefs had a very large impact on the Puritan religion and lifestyle. According to discovery education, “Church was the cornerstone of the mainly Puritan society of the 17th century.”( Douglas 4). Puritan laws were intensively rigid and people in society were expected to follow a moral strict code. And because of Puritans and their strict moral codes, any act that was considered to go against this code was considered a sin and deserved to be punished. In Puritan theology, God h...
To this day, the word “puritan” connotes both rigidity and a generally narrow view on life. The dictionary definition of Puritan (the capital refers to the actual religious group) includes, "...demanding the simplification of doctrine and worship, and greater strictness in religious discipline” (Source A). Simplification of their religion would be an understatement of what the Puritans did. Basically, acts were separated into good or evil, approved by God or frowned upon. In this robotic fashion, with no gray area, cruel ignominy was shockingly popular, and used in unworthy situations. An example lies in Source B, a still from the movie adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s magnum opus, The Scarlet Letter. (Although classified as a fictional work the novel is known for it’s factual representations of the Puritans’ behavior.) For committing adultery, Hester Prynne is assigned a lone standing position on the town scaffold, essentially to be put on display and judged while nervously clutching her new baby. To add ridicule, she is enclosed by guards carrying swords and other various weapons. It makes one wonder just how much destruction a woman and her baby are capable of.
She was aware of the situation of women in her times, especially being a puritan woman. They were restricted to certain modes of behavior, speech
In 1896, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal accommodations for blacks and whites were constitutional. Seven years before the doctrine was overturned, in 1954, Jackie Robinson signed a contract with the major leagues; he defined his experience as being “a black man in a white world” (279). With the separate but equal doctrine still in place, how was Jackie Robinson able to land a contract with the major leagues, and what role did he play in the Civil Rights Movement?
The Negro League was similar to the majors because they had an all-star game, league winners, a minor league structure, and a World Series. However, the conditions of players’ lives in the Negro League were very different than those from the white leagues. The players spent all day, every day to...
African-American baseball players had been a part of professional baseball when it was first starting in the 1880s. Some black players had signed a contract already with their team, but the International League banned blacks from signing anymore. Blacks that were already under contract were able to finish until it was up, but they were not allowed to renew it. Ever since that, Major League Baseball was a segregated sport until the late 1940s. The major league owners had conspired together and wrote what was called a “gentlemen's agreement” to keep black players out of the game. This did not stop African-Americans from achieving their goal of playing baseball. They organized their own teams and played “pickup games” with anyone that ...
A change is to make or become different. In the Scarlet Letter change is very evident in the main character Hester Prynne. Hester has undergone both physical and emotional changes that have made her more acceptable to the Puritan Society.
Hester Prynne committed a crime so severe that it changed her life into coils of torment and defeat. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester is publicly recognized as an adulteress and expelled from society. Alongside the theme of isolation, the scarlet letter, or symbol of sin, is meant to shame Hester but instead transforms her from a woman of ordinary living into a stronger person.
The world of Puritan New England, like the world of today, was filled with many evil influences. Many people were able to withstand temptation, but some fell victim to the dark side. Such offences against God, in thought, word, deed, desire or neglect, are what we define as sin (Gerber 14).