The Well Elizabeth Jelley Analysis

When Hester fixed the onerous scarlet letter back onto her bosom, “the warmth and richness of her womanhood departed, like fading sunshine,” leaving behind only a “gray shadow” in its place (145). As a result, the beauty Hester once held with such alacrity was snatched away by the venomous stigma society had placed on her. Moreover, society, by humiliating Hester with the scarlet letter, destroyed her very sense of self, thus causing her to grow into a character filled with woe; the infectious remorse placed by society consumed Hester - eating away at her beauty and humanity. Over time, Hester’s face began to incorporate the “frozen calmness of a dead woman’s features,” and Hester seemed “actually dead” (155). Hester, similar to a dead body, was unable to return to the living; she lost everything that once made her a beautiful lady. The woman whom society once viewed with esteem no longer existed, and in her place was a ghoulish, empty shell of a human who could never return to its original form. Hester is comparable to the rose bush with its “delicate gems,” and “fragile beauty,” caged behind the prison door “studded with iron spikes” (33). Hester’s allure is restrained by the pernicious barbs of society’s harsh punishments, so that she herself is an object not of admiration, but of scorn. Shackled by the chains of an immoral

     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

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.

Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length

The narrator covers the events of several years. After a few months, Hester is released from prison. Although she is free to leave Boston, she chooses not to do so. She settles in an abandoned cabin on a patch of infertile land at the edge of town. Hester remains alienated from everyone, including the town fathers, respected women, beggars, children, and even strangers. She serves as a walking example of a fallen woman, a cautionary tale for everyone to see. Although she is an outcast, Hester remains able to support herself due to her uncommon talent in needlework. Her taste for the beautiful infuses her embroidery, rendering her work fit to be worn by the governor despite its shameful source. Although the ornate detail of her artistry defies

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

Though you might call her self-reliant due to the fact that she is living alone, she is only living alone because of the reasons stated in the above paragraphs. She also is overly-affected by the shame left by the Puritans. Instead of transcending their judgment, she lets it affect her and makes her regress. Hester also lets the Puritan government decide what she is to society, instead of taking action for herself, she lets the community shame her for three hours, and then make her a symbol of guilt around the

First, Hester’s punishment could be compared to a spectacle. Indeed, after having committed adultery in a Puritan society, the town government decides to punish Hester by exposing her on a scaffold for several months and by making her wear the “A” letter on her breast to be able to identify her as an adulterer. During this time, she faces endless mockeries and insults but she never gives up; she grows stronger and doesn’t let the town judgement affect her.

Hester’s initial sacrifice for love is highlighted during her decision to commit the affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. Although she was fully aware of the consequences that accompanied the affair, she considered love to be more valuable than her reputation among other individuals in the community. Yet again, Hester was met with another option to further sacrifice the reputation that had already been abandoned, when she exclaimed “that I might endure his agony, as well as mine” (Hawthorne 58). She held the identity of her affair a mystery to the outside world, which not only provided the man with protection, but it also defined Hester’s idolization of love and endearment. Due to Hester’s reputational sacrifice, Nathaniel Hawthorne used her forbidden relationship to characterize the rigid and punitive Puritan community of the colonial

The land on which Hester’s cabin lies is also a direct parallel to Hester and her life. The test states, “ It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned, because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation,” (Hawthorne 121). This quotation proves that the land was deemed infertile and no one believed that anything could be grown. However, Hester manages to grow a few small plants. Even from a few plants, she still managed to grow something from what was given to her. This same idea is repeated throughout her life. After, having Pearl, she was an outcast, yet she still was able to make herself into a well known talented embroideress. She was also still able to support herself and Pearl even though she was given nothing but shame. This proves that Hester is not what the Puritanical society sees her as. She is more than they think she is because, just as the infertile land, she was able to make something from nothing.

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.

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.

Throughout the novel, Hawthorne integrates Hester’s character through a series of conflicts between herself as well as with other characters, which aid her to develop her new sense of morality. In the second chapter, “The Market Place”, Hester is escorted to the overly crowded market place to pay her price of public humiliation for her sin of adultery. She faces the crowd of ashamed women as they judge her for her proclaimed lenient punishment, for “she-the naughty baggage” (45), “will .. care [little for] what they put upon the bodice of her gown!” (45). This encounter with the so called “women being of mature age and church members in a good repute” (44-45), gives Hester her first experience of the attitude of oppression she receives from society, in which she must become accustomed to in order develop her new sense of moral and journey through life. As Hester faces these encounters of conflict with society, she conjures conflict within herself as she battles to

Hester displays herself to everyone as a very strong and a very independent woman, who, full of defiance and bravery, accepts the unfair punishment. She moves forward each and every day by creating objects she makes by hand and by being extremely patient. “She had in her nature a rich, voluptuous, Oriental characteristic, - a taste for the gorgeously beautiful, which, save in the exquisite productions of her needle, found nothing else, in all the possibilities of her life, to exercise itself upon.” (Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, p. 72). In order to keep herself busy, Hester creates, by hand, magnificent objects for the rich people within her society. Financially, she is very independent, which does not discourage her at all. As a matter of

Hester had come to realize that God “had given her a lovely child, whose place was on that same dishonored bosom, to connect her parent forever with the race and descent of mortals, and to be finally a blessed soul in heaven” (Hawthorne 84). This realization indicates the importance of Hester’s daughter to her, and that her sin of adultery had some holy repercussions.