Hester Essay

Repeatedly she stays silent to protect both those she loves and those she is indebted to. One instance of this is when she denies information about Dimmesdale, her lover, to her husband in order to protect him, saying “‘That thou shalt never know!’” (Hawthorne 69). This privilege of trust is not just exclusive to loved ones however, as she turns right around and offers the same deal to her husband, who asks her to “‘[b]reathe not, to any human soul, that thou didst ever call me husband!’” (Hawthorne 69-70). She complies, and no one ever finds out their prior relation. Hester is loyal to more than just the people around her, however. Hester is also loyal to her punishment and societal beliefs despite her lack of respect for the clergymen and their decisions. Hester has the option to escape her punishment, but chooses not to, rather displaying her embroidered ‘A’ to the public “... which was of a splendor in accordance the the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony” (Hawthorne 50). She views this mark of her sin as something to be proud of, decorating the letter like a trophy and taking a firm ownership of her sin. At the same time she also remains loyal to her ideals, refusing to believe she has done anything wrong. Hester “remains unwilling to separate herself from her sin by recognizing it as a sin,” and as a result maintains a strong “devotion to

Hester does not abuse her children in the traditional way, her treatment of

     Hester Prynne, through the eyes of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner. She has gone against the Puritan ways by committing Adultery. The Puritans believed that Hester was a lost soul that could only be saved by sincere and thorough repentance. For this

her lack of luck. Hester’s son, Paul, believes he is lucky and wants to earn her

This is because Hester was becoming more known for her embroidery skills and her helpfulness to the townspeople. Hester went from being seen only as her sin, adultery, to being seen as an actual person who was “able” to support herself. In chapter 5 it says, “She possessed an art that sufficed, even in a land that afforded comparatively little scope for its exercise, to supply food for her thriving infant and herself. It was the art-then, as now, almost the only one within a woman’s grasp-of needle work.” This example shows that Hester was “able” to support herself and her

She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them"(Lawrence 225). The quote creates an image of how cold the mother is towards her children. Hester stops respecting and loving her husband, once he is unable to provide her with all her extravagant taste. Hester blames their financial failure to her "unlucky" husband (Gordon 160). The situation makes her grow bitter. Hester's priorities are obviously not her children but her greed, which has made her unable to display any affection toward the children. The narrator tells the reader about the feelings of the mother towards her children as she says, "Only she herself knew that at the center of her heart IS a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody" (Bloom 323). Along with that the author shows the situation that is arising everyday within their family. For example, "the mother had a small income, and a father had a small income, but not nearly enough for a social position, which they had to keep up" (Lawrence 221).

When Hester is released from prison, she ponders the effect of the scarlet letter and realizes, “she must either sustain and carry it forward by the ordinary resources of her nature, or sink beneath it” (Hawthorne 69). In other words, Hester knows that allowing other people to bring her down will lead to self-destruction. Through a great deal of inner strength, Hester decides to stay in her hometown and let “the torture of her daily shame . . . purge her soul and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saintlike, because the result of martyrdom” (Hawthorne 71). Essentially, Hester resolves to learn from her “mistake” and use the situation as a growing opportunity. Decisively, Hester concludes that although she cannot change the past, she can show her strength and resolve by overcoming the shaming that is sure to occur in her town. Hester’s honesty and willingness to accept her punishment enable her to

In nearly everything she does, as a young child, she finds immense pleasure. However, the forest is also a safe place. the unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes all fastened upon her, and concentrated on her bosom. Her existence came from what Puritanism deems “evil”. Hester demonstrates human naturalness by obeying her instinctual urges and having a relationship with Reverend Dimmesdale.

Despite the lonely life that she leads Hester somehow finds an inner strength to defy both the townspeople and the local government. Hester’s strength is apparent also in dealing with her husband, Chillingworth and

Haunted by the scarlet letter, Hester circles her life around its existence; it lights its way into her every passage, becoming a great fragment of her persona, shaping her every move, touch and…. sight. “A” warps a route into Hester’s life, to an extent where it’s

For the most part, Hester sees her relationship with her daughter as a big important factor in her life. This can be seen by the ways that Hester express herself. “She is my happiness - she is my torture, nonetheless!” (Hawthorne… pg.

Imagine yourself on display in front of your whole town, being punished for cheating on your husband or wife. Today adultery is looked down on, but in reality nobody makes a huge deal out of it. Sin can affect a person in many ways, but whether it’s good or bad only time can tell. In the old days, religion and law were looked at as one, and Hester Prynne just so happened to sin, which in turn caused her to break the law. In the novel, Hester displays that how a person deals with sin has a lasting impact on the people around her, and most importantly those that are the closest to her.

The characterisation of Hester reinforces this reading, as although she is established to be repressed emotionally and displays a disinterest in romantic relationships, readers see in chapter 4 that this was not always the case. As a child, Hester’s hopeful and romantic expectations are shown through her relationship with Hilde, and it is described that the two ‘washed their necks every day with cold water so that it would be beautiful to receive…the necklaces and pendants and jewels some man would want to cherish her with’ (pg. 70). This implies that the idea of marriage and romantic relationships once appealed to Hester when she was a child. Although she has forgone any attempts at romance in her adulthood, Hester still displays a desire for companionship, and achieves this through her relationship with Kathy. Her desperation to keep Kathy as a companion is reinforced through her extravagant spending, spoiling Kathy with ‘clothes, foods, furniture, cassette players and transistors’ as ‘there was no end to their wishes and to their shopping’. This text may therefore be read as a comment on the nature of human beings, as it naturalises the human need for companionship through Hester’s past and present desires for a

Hester gives food and clothing to those in need even if they don’t want to receive it. She becomes content with the life she has created and becomes a sister to all of mankind.

D. H. Lawrence indicates that Hester Paul’s mother feels that they never have enough money. Hester’s obsession with money has blinded her as she focuses only on how she can come into money and how it would be spent. She displays greediness and only concentrates on material items, coming into wealth. It appears that the more money she receives the more she spends as her desire for wealth grows. Although, Paul provided wealth to his mother, Hester is still unhappy.