Scarlet Letter Essay

Juliette Daignault 802

            The book the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the story of a woman named Hester Prynne who commits adultery. The society punishes Hester severely by making her wear a scarlet letter “A” for adultery on her chest. When she wears the A, people are constantly shunning her and looking down upon her. While Hester, choses another way to look at the situation. Instead of believing she has committed a great sin, she chooses to add a new meaning to the scarlet A.

            All through out the book everyone in the small Puritan village disapprove of Hester and the scarlet letter she wears. They give her dirty looks and make it clear that the crime she has committed is unacceptable.  In chapter two, the women in the market place are being especially hateful toward Hester “If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I trow not!” The women and people in general in the society, are making assumptions about Hester. They want Hester to feel shame and they may not even think that the punishment is that harsh. The author really tries to show how much the scarlet letter symbolizes when the sunshine is shunning Hester in the forest. “’Mother,’ said little Pearl, ‘the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom…It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!’” Throughout the book it is made clear that many people criticize and look down on Hester, but the sunshine can represent the society as a whole and maybe her sin as well. The sunshine is afraid of what is on her chest and maybe the villagers are afraid of what Hester has done too. This can possibly explain why the town is so harsh and cruel towards her.

            Even though the town may view the letter as a terrible sin, Hester begins to view the letter in a different way. She wants the people in the town to see the letter as the good things she has done and what she wants the letter to mean. She doesn’t want the town telling her what the A stands for, but she herself wants to decide. “But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity… The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread” There is a change in Hester; she does things to benefit the community. She wants peoples vies of the scarlet letter to become something other then adultery. The people of the town begin to see the A as Able instead of Adultery. Hester goes into new places that people in Puritan villages had never seen before, she changes a punishment into something people admire and respect.

            To conclude, the different views of the scarlet letter help to develop the story and provide and understanding to what it was like in a Puritan village. The character Hester shows many that something that can be seen one way can become something different and more positive with work. The devotion and good deeds Hester does proves a point and illustrates courage and perseverance.