A Singular Flame

In the 1850’s, America was undergoing a massive internal changes via the industrial revolution. With this new era, American culture was drastically changed as women started to take a more prominent role in American society. In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempts to stimulate this change by illustrating the positive influence of a strong female character in a Puritanical society through his heroine, Hester Prynne, by putting her in a scandalous situation capable of drawing out the worst in people.

Along with the negative aspects of isolation, Hester realizes that being in her own sphere takes away many societal pressures to conform to a set of beliefs. When Hester starts to come back in contact with society, she still feels as if she does not belong. Hester feels that all contact she has with others demonstrates that she is “as much alone as if she inhabit[s] another sphere” (74). Even though she is physically in contact with others, Hester is still alone. She no longer has to conform to the beliefs of her Puritan town because she “communicate[s] with the common nature” in different ways than “the rest of human kind” (74). Because she is isolated, Hester “[stands] apart from [society’s] moral interests, yet close beside them,” meaning she can take a step back to look at the views of the majority, but she has the option to make her own choices (74). Even though she feels separated from society, Hester can still feel the influence of its beliefs. This idea is also illustrated with the location of Hester’s

Considered an outcast from society, Hester continues her job as the town’s seamstress. In 1888, Emerson publishes an essay called Self Reliance. In Self Reliance, Emerson writes that people must “accept the place the divine providence has found for [them], the society of contemporaries, the connection of events” (Hodgins 190). In essence, Emerson says that people need to accept their life’s path. Hester learns to do just that. She knows that she will live alone with Pearl and accepts her roll as the soul provider. During the tough times, Hester never loses her spirit or determination. She “never sacrificed her moral integrity for the sake of her own benefit” (Analysis). Towards the middle of the novel, Hester accepts that the scarlet letter remains a part of her, but discovers that it no longer defines her. Hawthorne says “…that many people refuse to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able” (Hawthorne 146). What the people say about Hester explains her self-reliance perfectly. The A no longer has its original meaning to the town people. The town people begin to accept Hester for her qualities, not for the symbol upon her

Being a sinner, commits an inadequate image of herself in Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston & in life itself. Hester Loves her daughter Pearl because she is the person for who she is now. Pearl is Hester’s most delighted & essential treasure. “She would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody the images of a woman’s frailty and sinful passion.” (Hawthorne 66). Hester is wanting to let the world or society around her know that Pearl will never be a sin to her, but something treasurable that was given to her. To the people of Boston, Hester will be considered as a sinner because she committed the crime of having a child with a preacher. Therefore, Hester would not ever want to change her ways of whom she has

Hester’s appearance and role in both society and nature help to portray her as pure in contrast with the corrupt puritans. Nature is a symbol for all things beautiful and positive about the world, this is then added to by Hawthorne’s claim that society is corrupt and thus cannot be trusted. Due to Hester inhabiting a home outside of civilization and within nature, it allows for her character to be “lady-like” and “characterized by a

In a way, the strain between Hester and the community is identical as that of the tension between Pearl and the town’s children. The only difference is that Hester does not exhibit the “enmity and passion” that Pearl had inherited from Hester, as it had been “soothed away by the softening influences of maternity” (84-85). Therefore, Pearl is not afraid to handle conflicts with an unwise passion, in contrast with Hester’s tactful encounters with the people. Pearl and the children do not get along much in the way that Hester and the townspeople do not get along. The most prominent example Hawthorne has given us thus far is when the children of the town throw mud at Hester and Pearl.

     In Hawthorne's revered novel The Scarlet Letter, the use of Romanticism plays an important role in the development of his characters. He effectively demonstrates individualism in Hester to further our understanding of the difficulties of living in the stern, joyless world of Puritan New England.  It is all gloom and doom.  If the sun ever shines, one could hardly notice.  The entire place seems to be shrouded in black.  The people of this society were stern, and repressed natural human impulses and emotions than any society before or since.  But for this reason specifically, emotions began bubbling and eventually boiled over, passions a novelist

For centuries written language remains the most common form of passing information and ideas. Society greedily uses it for its own purposes of persuasion and assertion upon impressionable youths. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses this platform to express his rightfully negative feelings about the Puritan lifestyle through The Scarlet Letter as a way of persuading himself of separation. His purpose is to shed the guilt he ancestrally bears from the witch trials in the feministic, romantic tale of Hester and Dimmesdale. The self-proclaimed romantic author of The Scarlet Letter uses the letter attached to Hester’s bosom as a symbol of Alienation intensely exploited through himself, Hester and Dimmesdale.

Hester Prynne, the heroine and main character of The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, went through many hardships because of one decision. She is a very strong woman in a mental sense. For many years, she had to carry the burden of her sin, which was adultery, by herself. Although being alone, with the exception of her beloved daughter Pearl, amidst public shame and humiliation for a multitude of years, she somehow repeatedly looked for a light at the end of the tunnel. Even though Hester did not end up with the happy ending she had longed for, she learned many lessons on her journey throughout this novel, along with showing the Puritans what a real person looked like. Nathaniel Hawthorne possesses a very exquisite skill when it comes to the use of symbolism. The Scarlet Letter uses symbolism on many different accounts to make characters’ significance obvious, to expose hypocrisy in the Puritan society and the world of Puritan ministers, and to bring importance to everyday objects.

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, narrates the experiences of Hester Prynne, a beautiful young woman in Puritan times, after committing the sin of adultery with the local Reverend, Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale. Because she became pregnant, she bears the public scorn of her sin, while the town does not uncover Mr. Dimmesdale’s participation in the act until the very end of the novel. Using the Puritan society as the setting, and the development of both Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, Hawthorne explores the concepts of individuality, identity, and isolation. Through Hester and Dimmesdale, he presents two scenarios: one in which the character is isolated and freed from society,

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s American classic, The Scarlet Letter, a Puritan community in early New England is explored through the story of Hester Prynne, a woman who has had a child out of wedlock, and the consequences that follow. Being set in the early American colonies, the themes of The Scarlet Letter parallel many of our modern cultural ideals, such as freedom, religion, equality, and perfection.

Envisage living in a community where one could only be intimate with their husband. Sounds insane, right? Though being sexually active with more than one partner in a lifetime is moderately common in today’s society, it was severely looked down upon in the 1800s. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathanial Hawthorne communicates the story of Hester Prynne, an adulteress. Hester Prynne lived in a Puritan Society in which women were held to high, difficult, and unjust standards by men. Evidently, she undergoes unusual punishments for her infidelities against her estranged husband. She forcibly wears an embroidered, scarlet letter A on her breast for the remainder of her life. Though physically benign, its call of attention to Hester’s transgression is emotionally straining. As a man or woman, adultery must always be perceived as improper and unlawful. However, the author exhibits transcendentalist values when one can conclude that Hawthorne’s words were not demeaning Hester, but more so commending her. His execution of rhetorical devices applauds Hester’s individuality in a conforming society. Through the author’s implementation of diction to illuminate Hester and debase the rest of society, manipulation of symbolism to compliment Hester’s individuality, and application of irony to manifest Hester’s gained dignity from rebelling, Hawthorne illustrates Hester’s journey in a culture against change as one of dauntlessness, and conveys his purpose that individuality is precious.

As Hester’s story in The Scarlet Letter progressed, she became more independent. She started to question the community’s thinking, and decided to accept the sin she committed rather than live in self pity. Hester did not need to be dependent on a man, which was not ordinary during this time period. Instead, Hester was dependent on herself and spent her focus on her daughter or the poor, caring for young Pearl and attending to the less fortunate. Hester Prynne also began to think more freely, and did not restrict herself to thinking the same way all the puritans had done.

Have you ever read a novel with a young, nature-loving main character? Did they have a quest for a higher truth? If so, you may have encountered a romantic hero. Hester Prynne, the main character of The Scarlet Letter, committed adultery as a young woman; earning her a scarlet letter “A” on the breast of her clothing, along with the scorn of her fellow citizens. Her and her daughter lived on the outskirts of town, suffering alone due to the inability of the father to step forward. However, she did not let these adversities define her. Hester Prynne is an American romantic hero based on her informal knowledge of people and her sense of self-induced honor.

In the 19th century, a new ideology called Romanticism emerged, pushing back against strict conformist beliefs and relying on nature, individualism, and emotion. Many writings from this time period are still being discussed because of their relatability to modern societal problems. Of the many Romantic writers, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville effectively explain the negative effects of society on individuals. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne narrates a Romantic story of a young woman in the Puritan Era who is convicted of adultery and has to face being a social outcast. On the other hand, in “Bartleby, the Scrivener” Herman Melville examines the story of Bartleby, a copyist who mysteriously refuses to work and is, therefore, put in jail. Both Hawthorne and Melville use the characterization of Hester Prynne and Bartleby as nonconformists to critique the effect society’s evils have on the Romantic ideal of individualism in order to remind their readers that despite the human inclination to conform to one’s society, self-reliance is more important than the status quo to support progress for humanity.