Role Of Hester Prynne In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne’s message about obtaining salvation through the means of being open and true to yourself, is shaped by the contrasts of consequences the characters Hester Prynne, who publicly acknowledges her sin, and Arthur Dimmesdale, who hides his sin, face. In Hester’s case, she was publicly shamed for her sin from the beginning and was forced to wear the symbol of her sin, the scarlet letter “A” representing adultery, to isolate her from the rest of society. She had the opportunity to leave the town and begin a new life free from the scarlet letter, but she decides to stay as, if she were to run away or remove the scarlet letter, she would be admitting to the shame of her sins. Her staying, shows she wants to change the scarlet letter to not represent her sin, but her as a character.

Hester Prynne is forced to wear the scarlet letter for the rest of her life because of the one sin she has committed. As she stands on the scaffold in front of the whole town she is told “... And then and the after for the remained of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom.” (Hawthorne 59). This quote shows that hester is forever going to be guilty for the one sin she has committed with Dimmesdale. Hester will never be treated the same or looked at the same off because of the Scarlet A on her bosom. As the book goes on Hester moves into a cabin that is half in the forest and half in society and raised her daughter Pearl. She made clothes for a living and she decided to start making extra clothes for the poor. Hawthorne then explains how the poor don’t even have respect for Hester because of her scarlet letter “...she give of her little substance to every demand of poverty; even though the bitter-hearted pauper threw back a gibe in requital of the food…” ( Hawthorne 146). This proves that she is still being treated different because if her sin. She is getting treated so wrongly and this sometimes make her feel guilty for committing her sin. Although Hester can leave at anytime she plesases she decides to stay in this town because she believe she should be punished in the same town that she committed her sin. She also stays because of

Hawthorne chooses to have Hester overcome her struggles. At the end of the book, Hester finds at least some degree of peace. The struggles and pain she went through were not pleasant, but they did provoke her to improve her relationship with God. Her burden seems lessened and if there is nothing else for her to be joyful about, her daughter Pearl has adapted and thrived in her new life. Hester Prynne shows mercy upon the sick and does charity work even when it goes unappreciated. She gave her time and effort to help the poor even when they rebuked her as well. Her dedication to try and fix her mistakes is admirable and the reader feels as if Hester has really changed for the better. The change in Hester makes the people respect her and come to her for advice at the end of the story. In chapter 13, Hawthorne writes about how the Puritans have mixed feelings about Hester, but the majority of the people now forgive and hold her in high regard. “They said it meant ‘Able’; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength.” (pg. 158) This quote shows how the interpretation of the letter and of Hester herself has changed. The new view of Hester gained by the Puritans is based on her response to the scarlet letter, a symbol meant to ruin her but in reality it made her

Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter is a unique character. She shows a lot of strength. Hawthorne creates a Puritan Society who isolates Hester, which made her a character of her own uniqueness. Hester is a woman of strength, compassion, and honesty.

Hester Prynne, on the other hand, contradicts with this statement, as she proves time and time again that she is a strong, female character. The novel would undeniably be viewed as a feminist novel as it makes a strong statement on women and their impact and role in society. Nathaniel Hawthorne showed a sense of feminism with the character of Hester to show readers that women are not always secondary and are capable of doing anything. Hester is certainly a feminist through her respectable actions and beliefs throughout The Scarlet Letter. She shows personal strength in herself as she demonstrates how, throughout all of her humiliation and punishment, she still believed in her own humanity. Hester has shown to be a strong character as she overcame the mortification of the scarlet letter, took care of her daughter Pearl on her own, and protecting her partner, Arthur Dimmesdale, even through the long years of shame and humiliation. Knowing the Puritan crimes, Hester faced the years of embarassment while still holding onto her ideals and beliefs, which allowed her to grow stronger and stronger with each experience. It is, without doubt, that Hester’s “sin” definitely changed her into the strong character she is. Overall, Hester became a symbol of a strong minded individual to the

But before this happened, society has really hated her for committing the biggest sin, as known as her daughter Pearl. Prynne’s husband is ashamed therefore Hester takes the blame and goes through many difficulties in life. Once everything starts getting into action Hester becomes a strong independent women, not for herself, but for her daughter Pearl. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester represents social feminist ideas of a sinner, an object, a victim, and an independent woman.

In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hathorne, Hester Prynne commits adultery with Dimmsdale and has a daughter named Pearl. According to the 17th century Puritan society, Hester commits a big sin by having an affair and the child. Chapters 7 and 8 discuss whether or not she would be able to keep her daughter despite her wrong doings. In the two chapters, Hawthorne exemplifies the idea of living with guilt and shame during a time of strict social norms.

In The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is more than a literary figure in a classic novel, she is known by some people to be one of the earliest American Hero’s. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hester commits adultery and has a child that she must care for all alone. She is forced to wear a powerful, attention grabbing “Scarlet A” on her chest while she must try to make a living to support her and her child, Pearl. Even though she must face all the harsh judgment and stares she does not allow her sin to stop her from living a successful life. She looks past the Letter as a symbol of sin and turns it into a sign of approval. Hester

In “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne the character of Hester symbolizes as an objectification women, victimization of a female, social definition of feminine of sin, and growth into feminine independence.

As common as it is, we should not judge a book by it’s cover as the ladies at the beginning of the novel did to Hester. Who is to stay they haven’t done the same thing without being caught. Hester, even with a major sin, turned out to be stronger, and more compassionate than the puritan women who looked down on her. The theme of sin in The Scarlet Letter shows us, the readers and interpreters, that one sin cannot define us and we can overcome sin if we accept it, learn from our mistakes, and embrace the imperfect human beings we

Of course the answer to this question is "neither" if she must be only one or the other. In one way, Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a much less complicated character than her lover because her great sin is known to all and how she deals with it is overt; however, because of that public punishment, Hester does not have to deal with the effects of her sin on her soul in the same way that Arthur Dimmesdale must. If a sinner is defined simply as someone who has sinned, then Hester is, indeed, a sinner. If we think of a sinner as being someone who persists in committing the same sin--then I might make the case that Hester is a sinner. The truth is that Hester is really only sorry for getting caught, which she does because she is pregnant.

This ridicule has a trickle down effect on Hester as she too is banished from her own community for committing adultery. The comparison between Hester and Hawthorne defines the external struggle for the reader to fully understand the effect of opinions from society on them Although reluctant to allow Hester to leave prison, the members of the town suggest that her punishment be to wear a scarlet red letter A on her bosom, thereby allowing all to know of her crime. The scarlet letter “ was red-hot with infernal fire, ” (Hawthorne 81) and defined the state she was currently in, that being eternal hell. Though she was forced to marry an older man at a young age, her rebellion to have an affair is not seen as an internal struggle that she overcame; rather, it is merely seen as a woman who sinned, a woman who shall therefore endure the punishment for the sin, rather than a woman who was never given a say in what she wanted with her life. Time and again, Hester Prynne is seen defying society by allowing herself to stand out from societal norm just as the roses “with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner“ (Hawthorne) did. Instead, she returns to the community and is observed aiding those in need, all with seven year old Pearl by her side.

She had to live outside of town in a small cottage, apart from the rest of the society. While she could still sew for a living, she could not make a wedding dress, for the people feared that she would stain the purity of the bride. Most importantly, she must forever wear that scarlet letter, so that no one would ever forget that she was an adultress: “The poor, as we have already said, whom she sought out to be the objects of her bounty, often reviled the hand that was stretched forth to succor them… If she entered a church, trusting to share the Sabbath smile of the Universal Father, it was often her mishap to find herself the text of the discourse... They (the children) pursued her at a distance with shrill cries, and the utterance of a word that had no distinct purport to their own minds, but was none the less terrible to her, as proceeding from lips that babbled it unconsciously.” (Hawthorne, 1994, p. 58-59) The Puritan society never let Hester live down the crime that she

The women of the town don’t believe that Hester Prynne is being punished enough for her crime, “ ‘The magistrates are God-fearing gentlemen, but merciful over much - that is a truth,’... ‘At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead. Madam Hester would have winced at that, I warrant me. But she - the naughty baggage - little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown!’ ” (44-45). This quote proves the idea that the Puritans are an unforgiving people. At this point in the text, Hester Prynne’s suffering is only just beginning. She at first doesn’t realize the severity of what she will endure in living through her situation. Adultery was a sin punishable by death and Hester was just mindful that it hadn’t come to that. The first step of Hester’s suffering was accepting the fact that her sin was about to change her life. “Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast, that it set forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes! - these were her realities, - all else had vanished!” (51) This is one example of the sin, knowledge and human condition in the sense that, like Adam and Eve, Hester Prynne was expelled from having an easy life. The Scarlet Letter that Hester Prynne was destined

In the novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the character Hester Prynne, as a representation of feminist views and perspectives. The Puritan society views Hester as a sinner and unable to receive forgiveness or grace; however, she overcomes her adversities and finds joy within her being. In general, critics agree that The Scarlet Letter exemplifies the definition of female empowerment. For example, critic Wang writes: “Although shamed and alienated from the rest of the community, Hester does not fall but becomes a miniature of a resistant ‘Feminist Angel’, a strong woman looking forward to the equality between men and women” (Wang ). Wang demonstrates how Hester approaches unfair circumstances with maturity and diligence. Furthermore, critic John Updike states: “Hester Prynne can be seen as Hawthorne's literary contemplation of what happens when women break cultural bounds and gain personal power” (Updike ). The novel defines the position of a feminist