The Scarlet Letter - Hester as Mother of the Year
No one is perfect. Especially when it comes to parenting. Even Book characters have trouble being good parents. One example of this is Hester Prynne. She is a book character for the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Now, Hester is not the worst mother, but she is not the best either. How can you be the best mother in the world with a heathenish daughter like Pearl? Still, Hester does her best, and that's all anyone should ask for. Hester is a good mother because she looks out for Pearl's future, she knows when to be stern and she is a great role model.
When people think of a good parent, the usually think of someone who is always looking out for their child's future. Sometimes, that means lying. Unfortunately, Hester runs into this problem when Pearl asks her mother why she wears the Scarlet letter. "'Silly Pearl,' said she, `what questions are these? There are many things in this world that a child must not ask about...I wear it for the sake of its golden thread.'"117 Truly, Hester lied to Pearl about why she wears the scarlet letter. She lied for a good reason. She lied because as you are growing up you adjust to things. If Hester told her the truth, Pearl would have just shrugged off the comments that she heard about her mother. By not telling her, the impact of those harsh comments would effect her more and perhaps stop her from committing the same sin her mother did. Therefore, save her from suffering.
But there is much more to parenting then just looking ahead to the child's future. Being a good parent also means looking at the here and now as well as the future. The here and now can be a code word for discipline. Sometimes, discipline means scaring the child into behaving. This is what Hester has to do on one occasion. "'Do not tease me: else I shall shut thee into the dark closet!'"178 Admittedly, this seems as if Hester is an awful person to threaten her own daughter. At the same time, is it not necessary if the child will not behave?
The story of Eva Smith is a dramatic one. JB Priestley is full of good
It's something that has been said since forever by well meaning parents and high school counselors and in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author reiterates this bit of advice to the characters as well as the readers: "Be true!" When viewed from the surface, almost none of the characters followed the simple suggestion offered by Hawthorne, or the entire conflict of the novel could have been averted. Chillingworth the revenge monger was unwilling to reveal even his real name and intent, and Dimmesdale the sentimental and trusted pastor, was unable to reveal his dark secret. That leaves Hester. In the beginning she was not only forced to be true to herself and the whole town, but to emotionally and mentally evolve. She had found her identity in the novel the day she stood on that scaffold. If given a choice, Hester would have rather worn the mark of shame than not, because the letter had transformed her into who she is. The blood red letter may not be pretty, but it is immensely better than living a lie. By digging a little deeper into the novel, it's plain that Hester is the only one true in the entire book, both to her self and society. Hester and Hester alone had the courage to do what was right by showing who she really was. She let the events of the novel shape her like a ball of clay into the person she would become, instead of controlling events or resisting change. Although many may say she didn't learn her lesson by wanting to run off with Dimmesdale, she had in fact learned her lesson thoroughly and by admitting her love she didn't make the same mistake a second time.
The character of Hester Prynne changed significantly throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester Prynne, through the eyes of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner; she has gone against the Puritan ways, committing adultery. For this harsh sin, she must wear a symbol of shame for the rest of her life. However, the Romantic philosophies of Hawthorne put down the Puritanic beliefs. She is a beautiful, young woman who has sinned, but is forgiven. Hawthorne portrays Hester as "divine maternity" and she can do no wrong. Not only Hester, but the physical scarlet letter, a Puritanical sign of disownment, is shown through the author's tone and diction as a beautiful, gold and colorful piece.
As a living reminder of Hester’s extreme sin, Pearl is her constant companion. From the beginning Pearl has always been considered as an evil child. For Hester to take care of such a demanding child, put lots of stress onto her life. Hester at times was in a state of uncontrollable pressure. “Gazing at Pearl, Hester Prynne often dropped her work upon her knees, and cried out with an agony which she would fain have hidden, but which made utterance for itself, betwixt speech and a groan, ‘O Father in heaven- if Thou art still my Father- what is this being which I have brought into the world!’” (Hawthorne, 77).
"Lovely ladies ready for the call. Standing up or lying down or any way at all. Bargain prices up against the wall" (Boublil). The selling of one's body is consensual. When a woman decides to put herself for sale, she will be given the cold shoulder by her peers. Many women make the decision to sell themselves solely to provide for a child. The song "Lovely Ladies" from the musical Les Misérables, involves whores in France selling themselves to men in a Parisian back ally. The musical Les Misérables was based on a book written by Victor Hugo. One character in this book goes by the name of Fantine. She had a child out of wedlock to a man who left her and their child alone. She had to work to support not only herself but also her daughter, Cosette.
...er to overcome the passion, once so wild that had brought her to ruin and shame." (Hawthorne, 165) It was Hester's motherly sentiments to nurture and love her child that saved her from temptation and from death and opened her heart to the poor and needy around her. It was the torturous fixation of her child upon her shame that tempered and refined her character and led her toward the precious virtue of being true to herself and others. And it was the reflection of her own character, even at Its worst, in her child that brought Hester to a greater understanding of herself and a desire to build a better life for Pearl. Pearl was more than merely her mother's tormentor--she was her blessing, her life, and the giver of the freedom to live a life true to herself and to her God.
satisfied. He talks a lot and likes the sound of his own voice. He's a
There is a debate whether Hester Prynne is or is not a good mother, and if she should or should not keep Pearl. Hester Prynne is a good mother and should be allowed to keep Pearl. Hester has regret for her sin, Pearl is her happiness and shame, and she still has done a decent job at raising her. Hester repeatedly has mentioned her regret for her sin. She mentions it every time the letter brings the letter into focus. One example is shown in chapter 5, in the quote,”From first to last,in short, Hester Prynne had always this dreadful agony in feeling a human eye upon the token; the spot never grew callous; it seemed, on the contrary, to grow more sensitive with daily torture.” The fact that she regrets her sin proves that she wants to be the best she
... may mean that if a person does not learn from their mistakes the first
Even with the hateful comments and the negative attitude towards her daughter and herself, Hester believes that she can raise Pearl right, and to be a good mother even with the scarlet letter on her bosom. Hester`s confidence in herself, not giving up, and to keep pushing forward when times are tough keep her from drowning in despair, self-pity, guilt, and depression. For example, Hester defends her rights of motherhood to keep Pearl, and to have the confidence to speak such a way to the ministers and Governor Bellingham. Hester says, “God gave her into my keeping, repeated Hester Prynne, raising her voice almost to a shriek. I will not give her up! —And here, by sudden impulse, she turned to the young clergyman, Mr. Dimmesdale, at whom, up to this moment, she had seemed hardly so much as once to direct her eyes” (Hawthorne, 103). The quote explains how even with the scarlet letter on her chest, Hester has her own identity and will defend Pearl for anything. Hester`s true identity and the way society views her are entirely different, because she is described as a sinful hussy who does not know how to raise a child, when in reality, Hester would give her own life for
Hester wears the scarlet A on her chest, to publicly atone for her sin and receive redemption in the light of God. She mirrors this in Pearl’s attire, as she dresses her in a “crimson velvet tunic of a peculiar cut, abundantly embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread” (69). Hester’s sin and Pearl are both guilty acts, but were also both acts of affection. Hester dresses Pearl in a beautiful scarlet dress, in attempt to create an “analogy between the object of [Hester’s] affection and the emblem of her guilt and torture” (70). Hester tries to show that Pearl is another physical representation of redemption of the sin that the scarlet letter
Pearl and the other Puritan children have a huge role in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Pearl is displayed as very different from any of the other children in the book. The attitudes of the children tell the reader a lot about the lives of the Puritans. The story emphasizes that children were to be seen but not heard however, Hester chooses to let Pearl live a full and exciting life. Hester does not restrict pearl or hide her from anyone or anything. This is part of the reason that Pearl becomes such a colorful child. People see Pearl as a child of sin; the devil’s child. Pearl is quite the opposite. She is a happy and intelligent little girl. Pearl is born with an incredible sense of intuition. She sees the pain her mother feels but does not understand where the pain is coming from. Pearl knows somehow deep in her heart that Dimmesdale is her father. She takes a very strong liking to him. This makes it much harder on dimmesdale to work through the guilt seeing what a beautiful thing came from his terrible secret. Pearl serves as a blessing to and a curse to Hester. Hester Prynne loves her daughter dearly but she is a constant reminder of the mistakes she has made.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, many of the characters suffer from the tolls of sin, but none as horribly as Hester's daughter Pearl. She alone suffers from sin that is not hers, but rather that of her mother's. From the day she is conceived, Pearl is portrayed as an offspring of vice. She is introduced into the discerning, pitiless domain of the Puritan religion from inside a jail; a place untouched by light, as is the depth of her mother's sin. The austere Puritan ways punish Hester through banishment from the community and the church, simultaneously punishing Pearl in the process. This isolation leads to an unspoken detachment and animosity between her and the other Puritan children. Thus we see how Pearl is conceived through sin, and how she suffers when her mother and the community situate this deed upon her like the scarlet letter on her mother's bosom.
From the very beginning Hester is seen as a beautiful women who carried a child with an antonymous father. The Puritan society punishes her by standing on the scaffold for three hours and wearing the letter A on her bosom. While standing on the scaffold all the townspeople are gathered around to stare and judge. "At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead. Madame 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!’’(Hawthorne 51). Hester is told to speak up and name the father of her child, but she refuses not to. This shows that Hester is willing to stand up alone and she is brave.
Hester Prynne, the central character in the Scarlet Letter, realizes and accepts the consequences of the adulterous act she committed against her husband, Roger Chillingworth, as Hawthorne shows in this quotation. Hester, throughout the book, excludes and humbles herself because of her crime, rather than simply running away. At the same time, she advertises her sin through the brilliantly embroidered “A” and through her daughter, Pearl, born out of this sin. Hester realizes that she indeed sinned in committing adultery, and, being the strong individual that she is, accepts the consequences of her actions.