Had Hester sinned alone? Nathaniel Hawthorne explores this question of group morality throughout The Scarlet Letter. After making her first appearance branded with the scarlet A, the author conveys how the shame inflicted by her fellow Puritans will forever be a part of Hester Prynne’s identity and how she will “become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman’s frailty and sinful passion” (71). In order to illustrate the disgrace Hester feels, the language in this passage contains vivid word choice describing the contrast between the sinful and the pure. It seems as though the narration style in these lines is inside the mind of Hester, and how she might
…show more content…
The narrator describes an experience in which Hester feels “an eye—a human eye—upon the ignominious brand, that seemed to give a momentary relief, as if half of her agony were shared” (77). In the moments that Hester feels as though “her agony [is] shared”, she recognizes the presence of a fellow sinner, looking upon the “ignominious brand”. Words like “agony” and “ignominious” reflect how Hester is suffering, and it is understandable why she is relieved to someone to share her burden, even if it is only “momentary”. However, this relief from her sin is only brief, as in “the next instant, back it all rushed again, with still a deeper throb of pain; for, in that brief interval, she had sinned anew” (77). Instead of being relieved of part of the “agony” of her sin, Hester is in fact loaded with more, as “a deeper throb of pain” informs her she has “sinned anew”. Obviously Hester has not committed a new sin, and the fresh sin described must be that of a passerby, imparting their burden onto Hester. The Puritans use Hester as storage for their sins. Instead of facing the ignominy that Hester must, they avoid the shame and make Hester bear even more disgrace. Although metaphorical, this bestowal of sins does hurt Hester, which the Puritans don’t care to realize. They are willing to sacrifice the well-being of one in order to avoid the penance and shame that they would have to face if their sins were made public. In exposing this gross offence, Hawthorne reveals the blatant hypocrisy in Puritan culture: although they inflict shame unceasingly onto Hester and exclude her from their society, they too are sinners, not brave enough to confess their crimes, and instead force even more disgrace onto poor Hester. Although the Puritans exclude Hester from their society, this passage
The narrator describes an experience in which Hester feels “an eye—a human eye—upon the ignominious brand, that seemed to give a momentary relief, as if half of her agony were shared” (77). In the moments that Hester feels as though “her agony [is] shared”, she recognizes the presence of a fellow sinner, looking upon the “ignominious brand”. Words like “agony” and “ignominious” reflect how Hester is suffering, and it is understandable why she is relieved to someone to share her burden, even if it is only “momentary”. However, this relief from her sin is only brief, as in “the next instant, back it all rushed again, with still a deeper throb of pain; for, in that brief interval, she had sinned anew” (77). Instead of being relieved of part of the “agony” of her sin, Hester is in fact loaded with more, as “a deeper throb of pain” informs her she has “sinned anew”. Obviously Hester has not committed a new sin, and the fresh sin described must be that of a passerby, imparting their burden onto Hester. The Puritans use Hester as storage for their sins. Instead of facing the ignominy that Hester must, they avoid the shame and make Hester bear even more disgrace. Although metaphorical, this bestowal of sins does hurt Hester, which the Puritans don’t care to realize. They are willing to sacrifice the well-being of one in order to avoid the penance and shame that they would have to face if their sins were made public. In exposing this gross offence, Hawthorne reveals the blatant hypocrisy in Puritan culture: although they inflict shame unceasingly onto Hester and exclude her from their society, they too are sinners, not brave enough to confess their crimes, and instead force even more disgrace onto poor Hester. Although the Puritans exclude Hester from their society, this passage