Hester's Rejection Of The Scarlet Letter example essay topic

"The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is an allegorical novel filled with a great deal of symbolism that is both veiled and explicit. The scarlet letter "A" on Hester Prynne's chest may seem easy to interpret, but in reality, it is one of the most ambiguous symbols in the book. Furthermore, various characters can construe the scarlet letter differently. As time passes throughout the story, it takes on multiple indications from an extremely deplorable offense to a fully contradictory view. Although it seems to indicate Hester's sin of adultery, it's true meaning lies much deeper beyond the exterior.

In the beginning of the anecdote, the scarlet letter can easily be deciphered as Hester's sin and shame. It was "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" (Hawthorne 83). As time passes, it becomes more complicated. We realize that she has embroidered the red letter "A" with gold thread, as if she wanted to break the sumptuary laws and develop even more hostility and conflict with the Puritan society. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy [... ] but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony. (60) By showing off the letter, she is telling everyone that she is not ashamed, and may even be proud of the offense she has committed.

Although the Puritans have shunned her, they have also placed her upon the scaffold, as if to worship her. She stands tall above everyone else, and to the Native Americans, she seems to be a very significant and eminent person. However, we soon realize that she is mortified, for she breaks down and cries to Chillingworth when he visits her in her cell. She no longer seems proud and arrogant, but appears instead, to be weak and debased by the situation she has found herself in.

When Pearl finally comes into the picture, the scarlet letter takes on yet another meaning. Pearl becomes "the scarlet letter endowed with life" (103), even dressing in a manner to resemble the letter physically. They are one and the same, even in the eyes of the Puritans. Furthermore, Hester is never seen by the townspeople without Pearl, and on no account without the scarlet letter "A" on her bosom. The scarlet letter seems essential to Pearl as well. She seems to realize that the scarlet letter is the link between her and her mother.

When Hester tears the scarlet letter away from her bosom and called to Pearl, she refused to come until it was replaced. By Hester's rejection of the scarlet letter, Pearl interprets it as her mother's rejection of herself. "The child and mother were estranged [... ] through Hester's fault, not Pearl's" (197). With Pearl in her life, Hester needs to provide for her child, and she does, by becoming a seamstress. She makes extravagant clothing for government officials and the upper class. Although they demur her, they welcome her works of art with open arms.

In her spare time, she has also taken on the job of caring for the less fortunate, who don't even appreciate her help. "Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them" (87). The scarlet letter has once again changed it's meaning to "able". It was none the less a fact, however, that, in the eyes of the very men who spoke thus, the scarlet letter had the effect of a cross on a nun's bosom. It imparted to the wearer a kind of sacredness which enabled her to walk securely amid all peril (157). Seven years later, deep in the forest, Hester and Dimmesdale are finally reunited.

All those years, Hester has kept an imperative secret from Dimmesdale, which has caused him great "agony": his personal interpretation of the letter "A". Furthermore, he has carved the letter "A" onto his own chest, his own flesh, which reveals how much it impinges on him as well as the "affiliation" between Hester and himself. He seems to have condemned himself as an "adulterer", for he is Pearl's biological father and Hester's partner in crime. However, when the scarlet letter on his chest is finally exposed to the townspeople when Dimmesdale dies in the end, they refuse to see it for what it obviously portrays and its even more palpable connection to Hester. In their eyes, he is still an "angel", uncorrupted, pious, and pure. According to these highly respectable witnesses, the minister, conscious that he was dying [was] conscious, also, that the reverence of the multitude placed him already among saints and angels.

(241) At the closing stages of the allegory, Hester and Pearl move to Europe. While Pearl inherits a fortune from Chillingworth and marries into a noble family, Hester, surprisingly, returns to the scene of the crime. In fact, she comes back and becomes a friend to the underprivileged and helps them with their problems. Even more astonishing was the fact that she replaced the scarlet letter "A" on her chest.

"The scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too" (244). It was a part of her now and "never afterwards did it quit her bosom" (244). Throughout the novel, the scarlet letter carries on multiple functions, often times serving as a connection between characters, sometimes acting as punishment, and occasionally as Hester's ability to help others and their admiration towards her. At the conclusion of the story, the townspeople embrace Hester and her "ability". They may even go so far as to consider her as an "asset" to their Puritan society. Hester, herself, has come to welcome the scarlet letter as part of her and a connection to Dimmesdale and Pearl.

Although it was meant to set an example for the community and behave as Hester's sentence and bring her shame, it has ultimately failed to accomplish its goal.