A Scarlet Punishment with Positive Consequences Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter explores how the human condition and sin clash. Placing the characters in Puritan Boston, Hawthorne reveals the hypocrisy of a theocratic government, especially when it comes to punishment. Hester Prynne has committed a great sin, which coincides as a malicious crime in such a government, and is punished accordingly. Or is she? Her punishment consists of public humiliation that will be paraded on her chest for the rest of her life. Such a government would lead anyone to despair, however, Hester does not allow society to decide her identity. The punishment of wearing the scarlet letter affects Hester Prynne’s personality and physical appearance, allowing
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Shamed away from society, Hester is left alone with her own thoughts. Travelling through the marketplace, the gaze of the townspeople always seems to fall upon the scarlet letter. Hester is aware of this; however, a new sense begins to develop within her from her punishment, “She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts” (80). As she endures the cruelty of others, Hester begins to see the humanness in everyone around her and realizes the perfect Puritan society has flaws. Such a profound effect on Hester’s person could be seen outwardly as “Much of the marble coldness of Hester’s impression was to be attributed to the circumstance, that her life had turned, in a great measure, from passion and feeling, to thought” (148). With this new view, Hester becomes contemplative of everything the world has to offer. These contemplations take a part in the way she is raising Pearl, “But, in the education of her child, the mother’s enthusiasm of thought had something to wreak itself upon” (149). She even has thoughts concerning the patriarchal society she has always been accustomed to. Being an outcast, Hester has relied on her sewing skills to provide for herself and Pearl. Born into a culture where women’s predominant …show more content…
Despite being able to leave Boston after the original three hours on the scaffold, Hester stays in the place where her sin was committed (73). Hester makes a life for herself, earning profits from her popular needlework. She made more money than needed, and instead of splurging, she “bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself” (77). She did not do this seeking praise, though perhaps her efforts benefitted her personal atonement, “Meeting them in the street, 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” (146-147). It seems as if Hester gave up aspects of her previous life, passion and beauty, and replaced them with selfless compassion for others. The people began to see Hester in a new light because of her charitable deeds, almost recreating her image of the unforgivable sin she represents, “They said it meant Able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (146). Hester lets charity become one of her new purposes, and it takes over so she is not the same person she used to be. Compassion allows Hester to reinvent herself outside of her sin, adding to her inner strength and free
Shamed away from society, Hester is left alone with her own thoughts. Travelling through the marketplace, the gaze of the townspeople always seems to fall upon the scarlet letter. Hester is aware of this; however, a new sense begins to develop within her from her punishment, “She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts” (80). As she endures the cruelty of others, Hester begins to see the humanness in everyone around her and realizes the perfect Puritan society has flaws. Such a profound effect on Hester’s person could be seen outwardly as “Much of the marble coldness of Hester’s impression was to be attributed to the circumstance, that her life had turned, in a great measure, from passion and feeling, to thought” (148). With this new view, Hester becomes contemplative of everything the world has to offer. These contemplations take a part in the way she is raising Pearl, “But, in the education of her child, the mother’s enthusiasm of thought had something to wreak itself upon” (149). She even has thoughts concerning the patriarchal society she has always been accustomed to. Being an outcast, Hester has relied on her sewing skills to provide for herself and Pearl. Born into a culture where women’s predominant …show more content…
Despite being able to leave Boston after the original three hours on the scaffold, Hester stays in the place where her sin was committed (73). Hester makes a life for herself, earning profits from her popular needlework. She made more money than needed, and instead of splurging, she “bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself” (77). She did not do this seeking praise, though perhaps her efforts benefitted her personal atonement, “Meeting them in the street, 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” (146-147). It seems as if Hester gave up aspects of her previous life, passion and beauty, and replaced them with selfless compassion for others. The people began to see Hester in a new light because of her charitable deeds, almost recreating her image of the unforgivable sin she represents, “They said it meant Able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (146). Hester lets charity become one of her new purposes, and it takes over so she is not the same person she used to be. Compassion allows Hester to reinvent herself outside of her sin, adding to her inner strength and free