A Study of a Character: Hester Prynne in The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

If one were to give an example of an interpretation on what an adulterer may be, one may think of negative aspects, whether physical, emotional or mental. This adulterer could have a personality where everything that occurs in life has to revolve around themselves, including their wrongdoings. What they achieve in life is for their own benefit, and those around them mean little to possibly nothing in their minds. As outcasts, adulterers are seen as those who should never be looked up to, for they have caused chaos in their own lives without any positivity for the future. Looking into a religious point of view, the sins of those who commit adultery are seen as unforgivable. The Puritans give a clear example of this religious opinion, for in The Scarlet Letter, they punish those who sin. For being an adulterer, those accused were to wear a scarlet red A for the rest of their life as punishment. However, Hester Prynne, an adulteress, took the scarlet A not as just a punishment, but as an opportunity to change her life for the better. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne goes through life changes based on her choice of being an adulterer, however, this negative punishment eventually causes her lifestyle to become positive.

When one is introduced to Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, she is depicted as a symbol of femininity. Hester exemplifies most of her femininity whilst imprisoned, her beauty outshining her shame. She defends herself with silence, refusing to answer during the minister’s interrogation, standing firm on the scaffold through her sad eyes. At this point in her life, condemned for eternity to wear the ashamed symbol on her breast, she explains to Chillingworth, her husband and acting doctor that she wishes for death...

... middle of paper ...

...rne describes her as not letting her hand cover the symbol. She grew to understand her fate and continues to make the best of it, doing all that she could to be normal in a society where she is seen as an outcast. The way I feel about Hester is quite odd, for reading about an adulteress should have given me the vibe of disgust or detachment from her description. However, her actions throughout the novel brought me to understand her emotions and mentally strive for her happiness, which, in a way, never fully occurred. Hawthorne taught me, through Hester, that although things made be difficult and out of reach, one can achieve at least a fraction of what they want to achieve in life no matter how bad the circumstances may be. This lesson thus causes me to understand that anything is possible in life.

Works Cited

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet/characters.html