Isolation In The Scarlet Letter

Symbolism of Isolation in The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the central theme of an individual’s isolation from the community. The author utilizes symbolism in the novel to express the seclusion of Hester Prynne from her community in Boston. The letter “A”, the scaffold, and the wilderness are all symbols of the isolation that Hester Prynne experiences in a cruel and judgmental Puritan society.

Hester Prynne becomes shamed and alienated from her Puritan settlement in Boston, Massachusetts following her affair with the town’s reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester wears a scarlet colored “A” on her clothes everyday as a form of punishment for her unholy act. The letter “A” was specifically chosen to represent

adultery. For Hester “the scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude!” (Hawthorne 188). The scarlet letter caused Hester to “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” (Hawthorne 73). These quotes illustrate how the letter is meant to isolate Hester and remind her and everyone in the community of her sin. Hester’s first display of her letter to the community occurred during her walk for the prison-door to the market-place. One of the spectators in the town says, “Come along, Madam Hester, and show your scarlet letter in the market-place!” (Hawthorne 50). The community intends to make Hester feel humiliation for her sin. Hawthorne describes this scene when he writes:
Measured by the prisoner’s experience, however, it might be reckoned a journey of some length; for, haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon. (Hawthorne 50)
The Puritan community looks upon Hester with disgust and hate for what she represents. This scene marks the beginning of the community’s alienation of Hester.
Once at the market-place, Hester, holding her illegitimate child Pearl, climbs up onto a scaffold.

The scaffold symbolizes ignominy. Hester stands elevated upon the scaffold holding Pearl and wearing her scarlet letter. Hawthorne described Hester in this instance when he wrote “The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentrated at her bosom” (Hawthorne 52). The Puritan community is based on a religion of strict Christian ideals that contribute to their harsh treatment of Hester. They see Hester, the scarlet letter “A”, and Pearl as symbols of disgrace to their Puritan values. They demonstrate their disapproval of Hester’s actions through their shunning of her and her daughter. “Hester, as an allegory of sin, loses her "individuality," and her only role becomes that of directly representing sin” (Carrez). Hester’s isolation is a result of the Puritan community wanting to distance themselves from the sin they believed Hester represents. Hester’s feeling of isolation is described when Hawthorne writes, “it had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself” (Hawthorne 49). Hester’s experienced judgement and humiliation on the scaffold that secluded her form the rest of the

community.
The theme of Hester’s isolation continues with the site of her home.

She lived “on the outskirts of the town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage” (Hawthorne 74). Hester’s remote home in the wilderness is symbolic of the solitude she experienced. Hawthorne even compared Hester’s state of confinement to a forest when he wrote, “She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest" (Hawthorne 188). The wilderness is the setting of the meetings between Hester and Pearl’s father. Pearl’s father is the community’s reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale did not confess to his sin when he had the chance to join Hester upon the scaffold. Since then, he has not had the courage to admit to everyone the truth of his sin. Dimmesdale, wanting to keep his identity as the partner to Hester’s sin a secret, could only be seen with Hester in the remoteness of the forest. The detachment of the wilderness is conveyed when Hawthorne wrote, “deeper it goes, and deeper, into the wilderness, less plainly to be seen at every step! until, some few miles hence, the yellow leaves will show no vestige of the white man’s tread” (Hawthorne 185). The solitude of the wilderness offers a place where they can reunite away from the rest of the

society.
The theme of isolation of an individual from a community is depicted in the novel, The Scarlet Letter through Hawthorne’s utilization of symbolism. The unmistakable scarlet colored letter “A” worn across Hester’s chest, the secluding scaffold that held Hester up for judgement, and the detachment of Hester’s cottage from the community represent the alienation of Hester Prynne from society.