Transcendentalism In The Scarlett Letter

     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 page describing her crime shows how Hester defies the Puritan belief system through rebellion because the crime of adultery is a serious sin in their religion, showing that she purposely disobeys the laws of their religion by having an affair. Hester Prynne also defies the Puritan belief system through the scene where she immerges from the jail cell and is seen in public with her wedlock child for the first time. Hawthorne describes the manner in which she immerges from the jail and how the town reacts, in the quote “Those who had before known her, and had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even startled, to perceive how her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she had enveloped” (46). This quote shows Hester’s rebellion against the Puritan beliefs because, due to how serious her crime is seen in the Puritan community, the town members had expected her to show sorrow, shame, and weakness as she walked from the jail cell. But, instead she walks out with her head held high, ignoring their judgment, showing no shame and in the crime she committed, and disregarding the mannerisms the Puritan’s expected of her. Along with her rebellion, Hester Prynne defies the Puritan belief system

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

Hester is somewhat, alienated because she would refuse to tell the name of the other adulterer. When she is released from prison and asked to stand on the scaffold, she is asked to tell the name of the other adulterer. Hester is in love, and because of that love, she chooses to stay in the town of Boston and has to always wear the scarlet “A” on her chest, so long as she lives in Boston. She, herself says this when standing in front of the people of Boston, "I might face his agony

As another form of atonement, Prynne still manages to do charity work like feeding and sewing clothes for the poor. She does this even when they are cruel to her, “Hester bestowed superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself” shows how much she would undertake to make amends for the sin (77). Hester redeems herself by undergoing the cruel bitterness from the dreadful people of the Boston society, and by responding to the bitterness with pure virtue. Hester Prynne atones for the infidelity in which she commits by enduring the hatred of the parochial community, and bears a badge of shame upon her chest which causes her to redeem herself to becoming a valuable human being.

One of the most important characteristics of the American Transcendentalist Movement is self-reliance. Due to the movement’s embrace of Romanticism, the importance of individuality and self-reliance are central to the transcendentalist belief system. This notion of self-reliance and individualism outweighing custom and tradition is seen many times throughout Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Hester asserts her independence as evidenced in the following description of her decision to make her punishment more bearable: “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done…that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore…” (Hawthorne 47). Hester’s audacious decision to pardon the strict societal norms of the Puritan community that surrounded her and to embellish the epitome of her sin marks the beginning to her lifelong journey of self-acceptance. At the conclusion of her journey, the narrator comments on Hester’s decision to remain in her hometown: “But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester’s life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world’s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too” (Hawthorne 258). As

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

The citizens of Boston know that Hester is married and her husband isn 't living with her. Therefore, when she becomes pregnant, she is arrested for adultery, a grave sin in their Puritan society. Consequently Hester is punished with jail time and made to wear a scarlet letter A for the rest of her life, meaning adulterer. These punishments make her life as a single mother even more difficult. Suddenly, Hester is disliked and ridiculed by everyone in the town. People look down on Hester to make themselves seem better than her. In chapter two, several women gossip about Hester. "This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die; Is there not law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute- book" (Hawthorne 78).  The women are calling for an even harsher punishment than the scarlet letter. They want Hester to be executed. As well as being ostracized by the entire community, Hester must endure living in a patriarchal society. Hester has no choice but to adapt to the adversity she faces. To avoid some of the daily persecution she faces, Hester moves to the outskirts of town, where she learns to tend a garden to grow food for her daughter Pearl and herself. This is a clear example of acquiring a skill, because talent and hard work are needed to grow a garden. She also learns to sew, and earns money by crafting beautiful articles of fabric for people in Boston. Hester also applies her free time to crafting clothes for the

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

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 such a kind nature and willingness to assist others that the fact that those whom she fed often returned the generosity with nothing but insults did not cause her to cease in her endeavors. Then, towards the end of the novel, after returning from Europe to the New England town in which she had sinned and repented numerous years before, Hester began to counsel other unfaithful women. For example, "Hester comforted and counseled them as best she might. She assured them, too, of her firm belief, that, at some brighter period, when the world should have grown ripe for it, in Heaven's own time, a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness." This also demonstrates Hester's generosity and helpfulness. Although the New England town harbored such unpleasant memories for her, she was willing to return in order to assist others in need. She was willing to relive her own pain and absorb the pain of others in order to benefit future generations, and she was willing to give back to a society which had given nothing to her.

First of all, she was terribly ashamed of herself. Everywhere she went, people mocked her and told her that she was the biggest sinner of them all. Hester felt completely bound to the letter she wore, but she learned a few things from it. She grew in wisdom and gained an understanding of guilt; she could see the sin and hypocrisy in the community around her. She also grew in strength, as she decided not to let her shame bring her down. Hester was very talented at sewing, and she used that skill to make clothes and linen for the townsfolk. She was very generous with her money and sewing, often giving food and clothing to the poor of her town. Over the years, she became known for these deeds. As she walked through town, the people began to view her with respect. They even viewed the scarlet letter A differently, theorizing that it may mean “able.” While Hester managed to purge the pain and guilt out of her, she did so at the expense of her womanhood and beauty: “All the light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by his red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline, which might have been repulsive, had she possessed friends or companions to be repelled by it. Even the attractiveness of her person had undergone a similar change. It might be partly owing to the studied austerity of her dress, and partly to the lack of

Hester faces conflict with Puritan society again when she cannot use her elaborate seamstress skills to make bride veils. Although Hester is very talented she is restricted from anything that would offend the Puritan society, which becomes evident when it is stated, “But it is not recorded that, in a single instance, her skill was called in aid to embroider the white veil which was to cover the pure blushes of a bride” (73). The moral sin of Hester Prynne leads to conflict with the Puritan way of life.

Having sinned, her shame and her scarlet letter plastered on her chest was meant to degrade her reputation; however, Hester’s adulterous sin does not keep her from having her talented handiwork vindicate her from her forlorn lifestyle. She not only finds release from sewing, rather she makes a living out of it- expressing her independence and her self reliant nature. Even the people around her hypocritically depend on her services, “Her needle-work was seen on the ruff of the Governor; military men wore it on their scarfs, and the minister on his band; it decked the baby’s little cap; it was shut up, to be mildewed and moulder away, in the coffins of the dead.” (78) Hester was able to produce goods for the town through her talent which was only revealed to the townspeople when she was placed in a circumstance to provide for herself- this happened in the wake of her sin. Hester didn’t have it easy from everyone, “But it is not recorded that, in a single instance, her skill was called in aid to embroider the white veil which was to cover the pure blushes of a bride.

The harsh townspeople force her up on the scaffold to be humiliated in front of the whole town. Not only is she sent up on the scaffold with her sin revealed by the “A” for everyone to see, Hester becomes an example of what a woman should not come to be. The author is talking about Hesters experience on the scaffold and her pregnancy, “Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion”(32). Hester looses her individuality and is labeled by the townspeople and known for the Scarlet Letter. Further, the townspeople singled her out as an alien or outcast of the town forcing her to live an abnormal live. She was ridiculed and known for her one sin, unable to have acceptance back into society. Although the townspeople feel as if Hester has brought sin upon there lives, she clearly have not harmed any of the townspeople physically, and they have no grounds to punish Hester. The cause of the townspeople's harsh disciplinary acts on Hester originates from a strict, unrealistic standards of puritan society and the zero tolerance of any ungodly behavior observed in the town. Due to the absence of proper justice, Hester's sentencing is left up to the harsh townspeople in which they show no mercy or