Human identity is a perplexing concept, one that is difficult to define and often challenging for people themselves, whether philosophers or everyday citizens, to come to terms with. In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses an elaborate array of duplicitous symbols in order to illustrate that individual lives cannot be defined by a single, solitary characteristic or event. The symbols of the scarlet letter itself, the scaffold, and the setting of the forest all contain a certain duality of meaning that highlight the variety within the human identity.
Over the course of the novel, the symbol of the scarlet letter acquires two separate meanings, each reflecting the way Hester's character is identified according to the Puritans, and more importantly, alluding to the complexity of identity of every human individual. At the exposition of the novel, the scarlet letter is a burdensome castigation that is partially imposed by the Puritan community as her legal reprimand, and partially imposed by Hester herself. In having "for the remainder of her natural life to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom" (Hawthorne, 71), Hester is immediately identified as a despicable, ignominious woman to the greater Puritan society and to the reader in the early chapters of the novel. Hawthorne uses this distinction of identity to suggest that people often define each other by one particular attribute. Yet it is critical to note that all identification does not come from an external source: Hester also struggles with a degrading view towards her own personal identity. The scarlet letter, representative of her wrongdoing, is literally fashioned by the work of her own hands. Therefore it is, in a sense, a self inflicted punishment, so...
... middle of paper ...
...it on a single term.
The variety of meaning within many of the symbols in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter serve as a profound parallel to the variety within the human identity. Unable to be defined on the basis of one attribute, the individual human person and the characters within this novel, like the symbols of the scarlet letter, the scaffold, and the forest, are complex and filled with many traits, both positive and negative. As Hawthorne reminds his audience, it is critical that the individual does not blatantly define his or herself, or others for that matter, on the basis of one wrongdoing or right action, but rather in terms of the pursuit of respective authenticity.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Hanover: Dartmouth College, 1864. iBook. https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=395541288
Beginning with the very first words of The Scarlet Letter the reader is thrust into a bleak and unforgiving setting. “A thong of bearded men, in sad-colored garments,” that are said to be “intermixed with women,” come off as overpowering and all-encompassing; Hawthorne quickly and clearly establishes who will be holding the power in this story: the males (Hawthorne 45). And he goes even further with his use of imagery, painting an even more vivid picture in the reader’s mind. One imagines a sea of drab grays and browns, further reinforcing the unwelcoming feeling this atmosphere seems to inheren...
The central theme in The Scarlet Letter is that manifested sin will ostracize one from society and un-confessed sin will lead to the destruction of the inner spirit. Hawthorne uses the symbol of the scarlet letter to bring out this idea. In the novel, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet letter A (the symbol of her sin) because she committed adultery with the clergyman, Dimmesdale. Because the public's knowledge of her sin, Hester is excluded physically, mentally, and socially from the normal society of the Puritan settlement. She lives on the outskirts of town in a small cottage where she makes her living as a seamstress. Though she is known to be a great sewer amongst the people, Hester is still not able to sew certain items, such as a new bride's veil. Hester also has no interaction with others; instead she is taunted, if not completely ignored, by all that pass her by. Despite the ill treatment of the society, Hester's soul is not corrupted. Instead, she flourishes and improves herself in spite of the burden of wearing the scarlet letter and she repeatedly defies the conventional Puritan thoughts and values by showing what appears to us as strength of character. Her good works, such as helping the less fortunate, strengthen her inner spirit, and eventually partially welcome her back to the society that once shunned her.
In the beginning, the scarlet letter represents the sinful nature of Hester’s crime, as revealed through the thoughts and feelings of Hester and the townspeople towards the letter. When first wearing the letter in public, Hester portrays herself as indifferent towards the town’s harsh language and detest for her, despite still feeling the intensity of her punishment internally. Hester portrays herself as indifferent towards the town’s harsh language and detest for her, and strong in the difficult conditions. By “wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she…with a burning blush, and…haughty smile…looked around at her townspeople and neighbours” (Hawthorne, 80).
While allegory is an explicit and tempting reading of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, I see in this novel also the potential of a psychological reading, interpreting it as a search for one’s own self. Both Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne goes through this process and finally succeeded in finding the duality of one's personality, and the impossibility of complementing the split between individual and community identity. However, they were compelled to take different paths on this journey, and they react quite differently when they finally arrive at the conclusion of this search.
She is not a feminist because the patients view her as a cruel tyrant rather than an equal. Similarly, Hester is mistaken for an elite in her community. In a public gathering, Indians assume “that the wearer of this brilliantly embroidered badge must needs be a personage of high dignity among her people” (368). For the Indians to think this means that she actually is of nobility, and Hawthorne includes this account in his novel to portray this to the reader. The scarlet letter comes to mean much more than a punishment as it becomes part of Hester’s character when she defies cultural gender injustice. By the end of the novel, it reveals that she is someone greater than just an outsider. Although not admitted by the people of the Puritan culture, they view her as an honorable and admirable woman above the others, just as the Indians do. Because others see Hester and Ratched as greater than equals and their struggles as a fight for power rather than equality categorizes them as not
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter has a very wide cast of characters, but settles upon three distinct main ones. These three characters are all very different, but still suffer from the same internal conflict regarding their relationships with one another. One theme can be associated with each individual character, but a single trait is common among all three. Love, fear, and revenge are all primary themes present in The Scarlet Letter, but no other emotion is as prevalent to the characters’ developments than their guilt. These themes give us a sense of how different, but also how similar, these characters are.
“To the untrue man, the whole universe is false,--it is impalpable,--it shrinks to nothing within his grasp. And he himself, in so far as he shows himself in a false light, becomes a shadow, or, indeed, ceases to exist.” (Hawthorne 115) Throughout the hostile novel The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne used contrasting settings to represent opposed ideas that were central to the meaning of the work. Some have argued that when it came to the theme that secrets have a destructive effect on the secret-keeper and truth, by contrast, was natural, a character evaluation would best advocate these differences. However, two settings, Dimmesdale’s house and the secrets that lie within, and the scaffold representing the truth, better embody the adverse ideas posed by the point at issue.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, symbolsim is constantly present in the actual scarlet letter “A” as it is viewed as a symbol of sin and the gradally changes its meanign, guilt is also a mejore symbol, and Pearl’s role in this novel is symbolic as well. The Scarlet Letter includes many profound and crucial symbols. these devices of symbolism are best portayed in the novel, most noticably through the letter “A” best exemplifies the changes in the symbolic meaning throughout the novel.
Hawthorne was a talented and skilled writer, who was greatly influenced by the the community in which he lived. Instead of giving in to society dashing his hopes of becoming a successful writer, he wrote about Hester to express himself and explain his conflicts with the crooked, oppressive society and beliefs of the time. He discusses the problems in a way that every reader can relate to and sympathize with the characters. He skillfully transforms a symbol of shame and sin into a symbol of maternity and nurturance. The Scarlet Letter is truly a symbol of believing in people's capabilities. It is a symbol of resistance to society if all it causes people to do is reject their identities and who they really are.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses a public versus private dichotomy to differentiate between character’s outward appearances and their inward states. The public and private features of each character contribute to the question of whether it is more important to conform to cultural demands or to satisfy their personal impulses. This dichotomy guides the reader to wait until the novel’s end for the meeting between the force of the community/societal demands and the force of individual impulses. Those two forces are distinct opposites which will ultimately reveal the truth that both the reader and the community have long been seeking. Overall, Hawthorne’s use of the public versus private dichotomy allows the reader to
As Hester wears the scarlet letter, the reader can feel how much of an outcast Hester becomes. When walking through town, “…she never raised her head to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter and passed on” (Hawthorne, 127).She believes that she is not worthy of the towns acknowledgments and chooses to ignore them. The guilt that now rests in Hester is overwhelming to her and is a reason of her change in personality.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Scarlet Letter”. American Literature: Volume One. Ed. William E. Cain. New York: Pearson, 2004. 809-813. Print
In the novel the Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character Hester Prynne sinned by committing adultery which changes her identity while she wears the Scarlet Letter. “In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity” (Erik Erikson). The way the scarlet letter defines Hester as someone who sinned in her society. The way that her society reacted to her with the scarlet letter, made her question her identity of who she is with the scarlet letter. Hester is forced to change her identity and the society around her looks at her in a different eye than what she was before she received the scarlet letter.
One of themes that Hawthorne conveys in The Scarlet Letter is that society is more willing to forgive people who ask for forgiveness with humility and generosity than those who demanded it as a right. This theme was conveys using Hester Prynne, a young women who committed adultery. This was considered to be one of the worst crime someone could commit in the Puritan society during the eighteen hundreds, where she resides in. As punishment, Hester was required to wear a scarlet letter "A" upon her garment in order for everyone to recognize her crime. Her society had condemn her, they believed that she "has brought shame upon all of us, and ought to die..."(59) Yet, as time went by, because of the way in which Hester carried herself wearing the scarlet letter, the symbol had taken a new meaning. Although, when the scarlet letter was first place on her bosom it was a symbol of Hester's crime, burden, seclusion, and shame. However, as a result of Hester's generosity and humility the scarlet letter had come to symbolize Hester's strength, philanthropy, and gained her very high respectability in her society.
The Scarlet Letter is a blend of realism, symbolism, and allegory. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses historical settings for this fictional novel and even gives historical background information for the inspiration of the story of Hester Prynne in the introduction of The Scarlet Letter, ‘The Custom-House’. The psychological exploration of the characters and the author’s use of realistic dialogue only add to the realism of the novel. The most obvious symbol of the novel is the actual scarlet letter ‘A’ that Hester wears on her chest every day, but Hawthorne also uses Hester’s daughter Pearl and their surroundings as symbols as well. Allegory is present as well in The Scarlet Letter and is created through the character types of several characters in the novel.