Heroines are portrayed as able bodied women, when in the face of danger or adversity, display courage and self-sacrifice. Hester Prynne, the female protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, is forced to wear a scarlet A on her chest because of her affair with Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The first impression of Hester is that she is a strong woman, grounded in her decisions to keep the father of her child secret, suffering the consequences. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne develops Hester, broken and drowning in her sin, surviving only by having hope and stifling her emotions. Hester is enveloped in her sin, seeing it in her daughter daily, feeling the strain of society, and living with the penalties of her actions. She could have run away with Pearl, leaving behind the shame and persecution and begin anew. Hester does not though; she remains in town, exiling herself and Pearl to a tiny cottage in the woods, on the outskirts of town. This is one of the many reasons why Hester is appropriately dubbed a tragic heroine. Hester hoped for a better future, one involving a more accepting culture and a life with Dimmesdale and Pearl, so she abandoned her emotions in order to escape the pain of reality.
The opening of The Scarlet Letter depicts a scene of a rose bush, so striking one cannot help but be in awe of it. Contrasting the rose bush are “gigantic pines and oaks that once shadowed it,” (Hawthorne 34). The rosebush symbolizes Hester and the trees signify the society, the powerful, menacing, and forbidding culture. Hester’s mere beauty sets her apart for the brutish women in the town, creating an even larger gap between Hester and the Puritans. She is publicly humiliated and forced to wear her letter, to set her apart, and further alienat...
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...human experience and complicates and humanizes our approach to it” (Seymour Gross 358).
Works Cited
Baym, Nina. "Thwarted Nature." Hawthorne In Salem. N.p., n.d. Web. . 6 May 2014.
Carpenter, Frederic. “Scarlet A Minus.” A Norton Critical Edition: The Scarlet Letter. Eds. Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, E. Hudson Long, and Seymour Gross. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company, 1978. 2nd Ed. 312. Print.
Gross, Seymour. “Solitude, and Love, and Anguish” : The Tragic Design of The Scarlet Letter.” A Norton Critical Edition: The Scarlet Letter. Eds. Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, E. Hudson Long, and Seymour Gross. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company, 1978. 2nd Ed. 312. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York : Dover Thrift Editions, 1994. Print.
A. The Scarlet Letter. Enriched Classic ed. of the book. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2004.
Beginning with the very first words of The Scarlet Letter the reader is thrust into a bleak and unforgiving setting. “A thong of bearded men, in sad-colored garments,” that are said to be “intermixed with women,” come off as overpowering and all-encompassing; Hawthorne quickly and clearly establishes who will be holding the power in this story: the males (Hawthorne 45). And he goes even further with his use of imagery, painting an even more vivid picture in the reader’s mind. One imagines a sea of drab grays and browns, further reinforcing the unwelcoming feeling this atmosphere seems to inheren...
The central theme in The Scarlet Letter is that manifested sin will ostracize one from society and un-confessed sin will lead to the destruction of the inner spirit. Hawthorne uses the symbol of the scarlet letter to bring out this idea. In the novel, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet letter A (the symbol of her sin) because she committed adultery with the clergyman, Dimmesdale. Because the public's knowledge of her sin, Hester is excluded physically, mentally, and socially from the normal society of the Puritan settlement. She lives on the outskirts of town in a small cottage where she makes her living as a seamstress. Though she is known to be a great sewer amongst the people, Hester is still not able to sew certain items, such as a new bride's veil. Hester also has no interaction with others; instead she is taunted, if not completely ignored, by all that pass her by. Despite the ill treatment of the society, Hester's soul is not corrupted. Instead, she flourishes and improves herself in spite of the burden of wearing the scarlet letter and she repeatedly defies the conventional Puritan thoughts and values by showing what appears to us as strength of character. Her good works, such as helping the less fortunate, strengthen her inner spirit, and eventually partially welcome her back to the society that once shunned her.
Every action reaps its consequences. This veracity is revealed in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, published by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields in 1850. Categorized into the genre of romance, The Scarlet Letter has a solemn, dark, mysterious, and almost eerie mood. The historical novel is set in the strict Puritan society of seventeenth century Boston, Massachusetts. When the book begins, the past action of adultery has already been committed. The story then follows the characters involved in the dirty deed and skillfully details their responses to the consequences.
He defies the system of education by leaving the institution and starting his own school. He did this because he believed following a set system with rules would hurt his integrity. This similar act plays out in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the novel, main character Hester Prynne cares for her child despite what others think. She puts little importance to the townspeople's ridicule and judgement and continues to walk through the marketplace with her head held high. Hester keeps her integrity and continues to focus on her most important goal, which is to look after her daughter Pearl and give her all the love she deserves. Like Henry, Hester showed strength through her determination of keeping her strong moral principles and making her own decisions. Despite being judged and hated, Hester stayed sane and together because she had her integrity and knew the importance of defying against all external forces to be able to stick to what she believed
Sewall, Richard B. "The Scarlet Letter: Criticism." Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2001. 319-27.
Smiles, Samuel. "The Scarlet Letter." The Critical Temper. Ed. Martin Tucker. New York City: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1962. 266.
“MORAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES.” MORAL AND ETHICAL ISSUSES IN THE SCARLET LETTER. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr.2014.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s well known novel, The Scarlet Letter, extensive diction and intense imagery are used to portray the overall tone of the characters. In particular, Hester Prynne, the wearer of the Scarlet Letter, receives plentiful positive characterization throughout the novel. Hester’s character most notably develops through the town’s peoples ever-changing views on the scarlet letter, the copious mentions of her bravery, and her ability to take care of herself, Pearl, and others, even when she reaches the point where most would give up and wallow in their suffering.
Griswold, Rufus Wilmot. "The Scarlet Letter." The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. Ed. Charles Wells Moulton. Gloucester, Massachusetts: Peter Smith Publishing, 1989. 341-371.
As Hester wears the scarlet letter, the reader can feel how much of an outcast Hester becomes. When walking through town, “…she never raised her head to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter and passed on” (Hawthorne, 127).She believes that she is not worthy of the towns acknowledgments and chooses to ignore them. The guilt that now rests in Hester is overwhelming to her and is a reason of her change in personality.
Bensick, Carol. “His Folly, Her Weakness: Demystified Adultery in The Scarlet Letter.” New Essays on The Scarlet Letter. Ed. Michael J. Colacurcio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. 137-159. Print.
Kaul, A.N. Character and Motive in The Scarlet Letter. Critical Quarterly 10 1968, pp. 373-84. Print.
The Scarlet Letter is a blend of realism, symbolism, and allegory. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses historical settings for this fictional novel and even gives historical background information for the inspiration of the story of Hester Prynne in the introduction of The Scarlet Letter, ‘The Custom-House’. The psychological exploration of the characters and the author’s use of realistic dialogue only add to the realism of the novel. The most obvious symbol of the novel is the actual scarlet letter ‘A’ that Hester wears on her chest every day, but Hawthorne also uses Hester’s daughter Pearl and their surroundings as symbols as well. Allegory is present as well in The Scarlet Letter and is created through the character types of several characters in the novel.