Isolation In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'

There are many ways that people can isolate themselves. Isolation is not always something brought upon one’s self. Isolation can be optional, or a person may have no option in isolation. Stevie Smith, Nathaniel Hawthorne and E.A Robinson show, develop, and illustrate the theme of isolation in their short story and poems.

     After her horrible ordeal, and her release from prison, Hester and Pearl reside for the next few years in a hut by the sea. Hester tries to keep her distance from the Puritans. She does not want them to influence Pearl. Hester wants to raise Pearl, and find peace within herself. Pearl, however,

Numerous of people think Hester Prynne shouldn’t keep Pearl. Hester should be allow to keep Pearl, because Pearl isn’t use to anyone else; Pearl is Hester’s child; and Hester can teach Pearl from her sins.

While Hester tries to protect Dimmesdale by not giving the name of Pearl's father, she actually condemns him to a long road of

Despite the isolation, Hester supports herself and Pearl with nothing but her inner strength. She is able to deal with the negativity from the townspeople and the local government, and is even able to be honest and compassionate in ways such as acknowledging her sin, keeping the identity of her

Abandoning Hester and her illegitimate daughter Pearl also augmented his problems. Forcing Hester to go and find work around town, an obviously hard task for a single parent.  He also abandons them emotionally and physically. He is rarely there when Hester and Pearl needed him.  Innocent little Pearl wonders why Dimmesdale is so afraid of public displays of affection, yet when they are alone, he takes notice of her and Hester. Talking to him, Pearl asks  "Wilt thou stand here with Mother and me, tomorrow noontide? (149),” a question whose answer is unclear for Pearl. In fact, the only way Hester and Pearl receive any kind of support from Dimmesdale is when Hester threatens to tell the truth about his sins.

where seven years since, I should have stood!”3 Beckoning Hester and their child, Pearl, to his

Hester's daughter, Pearl, functions primarily as a symbol. She is quite young during most of the events of this novel—when Dimmesdale dies she is only seven years old—and her real importance lies in her ability to provoke the adult characters in the book. She asks them pointed questions and draws their attention, and the reader's, to the denied or overlooked truths of the adult world. In general, children in The Scarlet Letter are portrayed as more perceptive and more honest than adults, and Pearl is the most perceptive of them all.

Hester Prynne, the mother to Pearl Prynne, heard townspeople speak about her custody of her child. Pearl represents Hester’s sin of adultery, community people think the sin is shone through her. Townspeople believe two theories about the child. One theory, Pearl “was of demon origin” because she resulted from adultery. The people believe that if Pearl was taken away from Hester and was introduced to a christian family, Hester would be better off. If it were true then Hester’s soul would feel relief. The other theory about Pearl was that she was “capable of moral and religious growth and possessed elements of salvation” then she would be given a guardian

After the death of Dimmesdale, Hester left town but returns back to the town full of the same people who looked down upon her when she was still raising Pearl. Despite Hester parenting Pearl without a companion, she stayed strong and never acted fearful of what others said. She remained brave and continued her normal

Hester raises Pearl all by herself. Yes, without a father and no one else's help Hester cares and provides for Pearl all by herself. This signifies that Pearl doesn't need her baby daddy and no child support she takes all responsibilities like a rightful woman would do. She, knows that she already looks bad because she committed adultery and has the letter on her and that's

This is the setting where Hester is waiting to see the governor to beg for the right to keep her child, after hearing that she could be taken away. Pearl

Firstly, the character, Hester Prynne, has a nature of evil within herself. The sin she committed was made public. She committed adultery and paid this price by having a “scarlet A” sewn on her dress to show the community her sin. She was criticised for what she did, and many women in the community believed that she should have been imprisoned or put to death for it. Even though she is hated by the community, she shows remarkable strength in trying to make things right to them. At the beginning, she was described as a beautiful woman with a figure of perfect elegance, but after seven years of enduring her sin; she hides her beautiful hair underneath her cap, and her beauty and warmth are gone as the result of the scarlet letter. Pearl is Hester’s daughter that was born from her sin of

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.

Franz Kafka, a German, Ashkenazi Jewish novelist, once stated that “isolation is a way to know ourselves”. In the Scarlet Letter, the personalities of many characters, like Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and the minister, are best expressed through their moments of isolation. Each character that experiences some kind of solitude displays a change in their behavior and actions. However, more than just isolation appears to affect each of the main characters. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne illustrates that the cause of a person’s isolation can have a profound impact upon that character.