The Character Of Hester Prynne In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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During the early 1600’s, the Puritans came to the New World. They traveled to the New World from their original home of England to escape the religious laws of the King. Their goal was to create their own religion in which they could have strict laws about committing sins such as lying, stealing, and adultery. An early puritan woman, by the name of Hester Prynne, defied these laws. She was an independent and proud single mother, despite being burdened with her dark sin of Adultery. The outcome of this sin, which was committed alongside Minister Dimmesdale, was her beautiful and high-spirited daughter, Pearl. Hester was then punished for this iniquity through the imposed bearing of the scarlet letter “A” upon her chest. The intention of this ignominious letter was to inflict an evolution upon Hester’s beautiful, vibrant, and prideful soul into a soul of anxiety and depression. This letter imposed a great deal of torment and everlasting burden to her soul. …show more content…
The transformation of her spirit, taking place within and outside of Hester, relates to the theme that living a life accompanied by burden can deprive a person of their vitality and beauty. In the case of Hester Prynne, the Scarlet Letter, symbolizing her adulterous actions, was more than enough to deprive her of her happiness and willpower. Ultimately, while there was no exact turning point for the character of Hester Prynne, there was a series of devastating events that eventually succeeded in stripping Hester of happiness and joy. This series of unfortunate events, which are ascribable to the effects of the Scarlet Letter, essentially influenced the evolution of Hester’s transcendentalist beliefs of self-reliance against society, experience to gain happiness, and nature’s spiritual power into depression and shame that overwhelmed her until she reached her breaking point. In the beginning of the novel, Hester’s transcendentalist attitude that the individual is more divine and powerful than society is developed as she is released from her jail cell and emerges into the crowd to stand atop the town scaffold. This event reveals Hester to be a self-reliant character who trusts the strength and integrity in her own self against society’s conspiracy and misunderstanding. This is shown as the town beadle brings Hester out of the prison when Hawthorne states that, “She repelled him, marked with a natural dignity and force of character... as is by her own free will,” (Hawthorne 46) and the townspeople behold the scarlet letter upon her chest, which “had the effect of a spell, taking her out of ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself” (Hawthorne 47). Here, it is established that, with the aid of the distinctive scarlet letter, Hester is able to isolate herself from a controlling and barbarous society and remain proud of her inner self, regardless of the insults being thrown at her by the crowd. This self-confidence reflects Hester’s transcendentalist attitude that the individual is more divine and powerful than society. Hester’s poised attitude is further developed when Hawthorne states: “She had dark and abundant hair….a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion….marked brow and deep black eyes” (Hawthorne 46). This use of imagery gives the impression that Hester Prynne is a lovely, young woman who is soft on the eyes and was, indeed, ashamed of her sins, but deeply covered her guilt with beauty and pride, and a “disdainful smile,” (Hawthorne 50). Essentially, despite Hester’s feelings of shame for her sins, the Scarlet Letter gave her the self-assurance she needed to overcome the harshness of those around her. However, as time passes, the Scarlet Letter’s powerful and everlasting reminder of her crime to the code of society gradually builds upon itself and grows into an overwhelming burden on Hester’s soul. As these feelings of mortification and embarrassment began to torment Hester from the inside-out, her transformation was initiated. These emotions commenced their manifestation within Hester the instant she approaches the top of scaffold when Hawthorne states: “In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with

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