|
|
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist, Hester Prynne, finds herself transforming from a state of societal ignorance to that of enlightenment. Her reformation is due mainly to an act considered sinful in the eyes of Puritan law: adultery. Her punishment to wear the letter A upon her chest for the remainder of her days is a way for the colony to make an example of her as a sinner. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores the way in which the colonies intentions of the scarlet letter have failed. Hester Prynne emerges from the weight of the letter to become a woman that realizes her position in society and the unjustness that follows her sex. Through Hester’s physical appearance, personal touch of the letter on her dress, and internal thoughts externalized by Hawthorne, the punishment of the scarlet letter has changed into an awakening for Hester. The intentions of the colony by condemning her to a lifetime of wearing the letter A upon her chest is clear. By wearing something that will make Hester stand out from the rest of the population, she will be an outcast. People who are not familiar with Hester’s history will ask questions about the letter and those that know of her are reminded of the crime she committed. “Mother and daughter stood together in the same circle of seclusion from human society” (152). To be an outcast in society means that you are open to public ridicule. Hawthorne describes the way that even the children of the colony often make a game of teasing Hester and her daughter Pearl as they walk through the streets. Even though the children have no realization of why the young mother wears something so out of the ordinary on her chest, they sense the general distaste towards the pair and react negatively towards them. “The little Puritans…had got a vague idea of something outlandish, unearthly, or at variance with ordinary fashions, the mother and child; and therefore scorned them in their hearts, and not infrequently reviled them with their tongues” (152).
|
