If one chooses to go the biblical route, the first sin was committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. For that, they were banished and given labors; in their footsteps is what all of mankind has been following since. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne suffers the same sentence that Adam and Eve suffered. Not only does she feel disconnected from society and is essentially banished, she trudges through the labors of single motherhood, including her world spinning around her only companion and her necessities taking a back seat to the needs of others. An abundance of sins or one major sin can lead to guiltiness and bitterness, which in turn, suffocates all the glamor of socializing out of a person. Hester Prynne
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Children, the worldwide symbol of innocence and purity, are wary of Hester. The children have no conception of why Hester may be alone in the woods or why she wears her letter, yet they still question why “this woman should be shut out from the sphere of human charities” (77). It is very clever how Hawthorne uses subtle symbols to insert his own opinion on the subject. He uses children- the worldly symbol of innocence and naivety- as catalysts to start rolling the ball. Hawthorne corners his readers into wondering and asking questions about Hester’s nature. She does not hide herself or make herself scarce from the prying eyes of the younger generation, in spite of the illogical fear they all held captive in their hearts. She does not attempt to cleanse her image in front of the children and set them right about the situation. She holds her pride and creeps even more into the darkness of isolation, quarreling with herself over keeping the multitude of secrets in her …show more content…
Her need to control her child cannot be fulfilled. The readers understand her frustration that the limits cannot be experimented with lest she not realize she went too far. Especially with Pearl’s punishments, this is the case: “...the lonely mother of this one child, ran little risk of erring on the side of undue severity”(86). Since she does not have a partner or someone in her vicinity to stop her if necessary. With her mother incapable of punishing her, Pearl runs rampant and refuses to cooperate with society. However, another reason for Pearl’s uncooperative persona could be the fact that she has grown up with only Hester and condemnation surrounding her. “Hester took little Pearl-who was necessarily the companion of all her mother’s expeditions, however inconvenient her presence…” This is both negative and a positive as Hawthorne writes their life
Children, the worldwide symbol of innocence and purity, are wary of Hester. The children have no conception of why Hester may be alone in the woods or why she wears her letter, yet they still question why “this woman should be shut out from the sphere of human charities” (77). It is very clever how Hawthorne uses subtle symbols to insert his own opinion on the subject. He uses children- the worldly symbol of innocence and naivety- as catalysts to start rolling the ball. Hawthorne corners his readers into wondering and asking questions about Hester’s nature. She does not hide herself or make herself scarce from the prying eyes of the younger generation, in spite of the illogical fear they all held captive in their hearts. She does not attempt to cleanse her image in front of the children and set them right about the situation. She holds her pride and creeps even more into the darkness of isolation, quarreling with herself over keeping the multitude of secrets in her …show more content…
Her need to control her child cannot be fulfilled. The readers understand her frustration that the limits cannot be experimented with lest she not realize she went too far. Especially with Pearl’s punishments, this is the case: “...the lonely mother of this one child, ran little risk of erring on the side of undue severity”(86). Since she does not have a partner or someone in her vicinity to stop her if necessary. With her mother incapable of punishing her, Pearl runs rampant and refuses to cooperate with society. However, another reason for Pearl’s uncooperative persona could be the fact that she has grown up with only Hester and condemnation surrounding her. “Hester took little Pearl-who was necessarily the companion of all her mother’s expeditions, however inconvenient her presence…” This is both negative and a positive as Hawthorne writes their life