Mob Mentality In The Scarlet Letter

The Concrete of Ambiguity Making judgements is an inherent part of human nature. We are programmed into making assumptions, our minds riddled with stereotypes and ideas as to what arbitrary things have to say about someone. But as society grows and evolves, as does the way it conditions use, and as we ourselves grow, so do the ways that we perceive things, and add our own experience to that which society has taught us. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the ways in which individual characters, along with the mob mentality of society as a whole, give a power to the objectively meaningless concrete of the scarlet letter, transforming it into an abstract vehicle that is able to define subjective truths about Hester. Hawthorne …show more content…
The scarlet letter was forced upon Hester by her community, and is meant to display to the community what Hester has done. The strictly Puritan beliefs of all of those living in Boston create a concrete view as to who Hester is and what the letter on her chest means. In her novel The Scarlet Letter: A Reading, Nina Baym suggests that the Puritan people, understanding that the letter itself is simply a pointer to a “truth that is somewhere else”, devise their punishment so as to “ mark her in the human world as, in their views, God has already marked her in the invisible world” (85). As the entire community stands in front of the scaffold and engages in the public shaming of Hester, Hawthorne displays the initial effects that are taken on Hester’s life. She is isolated from the rest of her community, seen as an other. The scarlet letter “had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself” (41). A narrow idea of truth about Hester is being seen, she is only defined as her one mistake, and the letter blinds the community from any good she has ever done. In the process of her public shaming, the community turns Hester into an example. The letter on her chest is meant to blatantly advertise her sin, ensuring that “she will be a living sermon against sin” (46). Dehumanization plays a major role in how to community relates to Hester and the letter. They transform her from a person into simply being sin, further isolating her from a community that she is no longer seen as a functioning member of. This concept of Hester being an example in the eyes of the masses is a constant throughout her life, even if the form in which this plays out undergoes a