The Scarlet Letter RD

Megan Nalli

Mrs. Post

AP Language

13 December 2010

The Scarlet Letter:

Argument of Society Essay

         Women have long been considered the weaker of the two sexes. This belief stemmed-in the Christian faith-from Eve's succumbing to temptation and then tempting her mate in turn. The dark stain of the first woman's mistake has colored women falsely with the pigments of weakness, both mental and physical. Several Millennium later, author Nathaniel Hawthorne challenges this view of women with his character, the liberated Hester Prynne.

         Society's narrow view of women at that time believes that all women are incompetent of caring for themselves and are married off the their father's choice for their own good. In Hester's case, it never clarifies why her father chose Chillingworth as his daughter's husband, but it does clarify how Hester felt about the marriage match: “I felt no love , nor feigned any.” (p.80). Hawthorne seems to be hinting that by not allowing women to marry who they chose, may have led them to adultery as an attempt to find the love that their marriage lacks. A male's view of adultery in this moral of human passions, isn't always that understanding. Chillingworth-Hester's former husband-refuses to publicly renounce Hester as his wife in refusal to encounter the “dishonor that besmirches the husband of a faithless woman.” (p. 82)

         After her initial public shaming, Hester lived alone with her daughter Pearl away from the town. Though she could have fled from Boston and the scarlet letter, she stayed. Though “every gesture, every word...with whom she came in contact, implied...she was banished” (p. 91), her unique place in society was her chosen self-identity. The letter is the tool that Hawthorne gives her to move forward and learn what she herself wants to learn. This freedom-so rarely granted to any Puritan-is a foil to Hester Prynne's own strength as a woman. It also gives a small glimpse into the morbid curiosity of humankind. The living she earns from supplying the magistrates and their wives with fashionable pieces of wardrobe is feminine, but she still feeds her child and herself and still has time and money to help those less fortunate than she. And though the women and sick she visited were inclined to instil “drops of bitterness” (p.91), she still lent her aid.

         **Even with her acts as a good Christian woman and capable provider, society thinks to remove Pearl, Hester's only anchor from sin. The inane reasoning was an “interest in the mother's soul required them to remove...a stumbling block...” (p.108) Pearl, though capricious, is the reason that Hester is still a good woman. She symbolizes  both Hester's punishment and salvation. Hawthorne uses Pearl to illustrate that even a fallen woman has limits and lines that cannot be crossed. Hawthorne uses the scene at the governor's home to give credence to Hester's decision to stay true to His will using the scene where Mistress Hibbins invites Hester to join the witches' party in the forest that night. Hester replies: “I must stay at home and take care of my little Pearl. If they had taken her from me, I would have gladly gone to the forest with you..."(p. …).

         **the A in the sky is the first time you can see the two adulterers side by side and compare the weakness of Dimmesdale to the strength of Hester. While Hester makes no effort to hide Pearl, Mr. Dimmesdale is unable to confess to his part in Pearl's creation. Instead, he whips himself in his closet. His role as reverend places him upon a high pedestal, and though no visible stigma of his part in the sin, he tries to confess to the town that he is a sinner even darker than they (the church quote..if I could find it...). It is from the physical illness and the close proximity of Roger Chillingworth of Mr. Dimmesdale that Hester decides to cast aside her role in Boston, Massachusetts. 

         (insert quote of Pearl's behavior in the woods) Pearl's reaction to her mother's removal of the scarlet letter is due to Hester's  symbolic abandoning of her identity. Pearl has never seen Hester without it and reacts as many children do to  an immense change in their mother. Since Hester chose her meaning of the letter and refused to allow it to define her, it was a symbol of her strength of character and will to live rather than to allow the close-minded people who once wished her ill, to decide who she was as a person.

         In the beginning of the story, we meet a young and defiant Mistress Hester Prynne. As the story flows to an end, we see her adapting into a fiercely independent woman who had a few incidents in her past but has grown all the stronger for them. Hawthorne's view of woman's potential in society...