Analysis Of ”Scarlet Letter” By Nathaniel Hawthorne
The “Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a gothic romance of a public suffering adulter, Hester Prynne, and an unnamed to the public, but a private suffering adulter Reverend Dimmesdale. Hester has to wear a Scarlet Letter “A” due to her committing adultery with Dimmesdale. Puritan beliefs prohibit the community to forgive and move on about her unruly sin, therefore she is shunned by other Puritans. Dimmesdale, a well respected Puritan minister, is privately suffering from great guilt and self-conscious shame. Throughout the novel, Pearl, the devilish daughter of Hester Prynne, represents the ever-changing dynamic Scarlet Letter.
She is Hester’s private way of suffering. Roger, the husband of Hester, is another way of punishing Dimmesdale and increasing his guilt. Roger is not seeking justice. He is instead seeking revenge. He intentionally tries to destruct others, rather than tell them about their wrongs, again with Dimmesdale’s private suffering. Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale, during this time period it was a capital sin that required the execution of both the adulterers. Sometimes instead of execution, they would serve public corporal punishment. Therefore Hester was punished dearly with 3 long dreaded hours of standing in front of the entire community on the scaffold. She also will have to wear the Scarlet Letter “A” on her bosom for the rest of her life. Hester is now going to be an outlaw with people shunning and making fun of her for the rest of her days. Hester’s humane acts of helping others in her community still did not benefit her situation.
The private and nonprivate torture that Dimmesdale goes through is more than enough punishment for them committing adultery. He is more wretched as he imposes a false or fake appearance while trying to maintain divinity. Dimmesdale’s innocence is conscious and manipulated. He even tries to come out to the community and confess on a numerous amount of times that he is the father of Pearl, but he is too weak to do so. He constantly throughout the novel tries to convince people that he is the worst sinner but people become joyous to him more and more, getting the aspect and inferring that he is really “humble”. He does not want to conceal the act of adultery because of his morals, but his degraded state does not allow him to confess. His sin leads him away from his goal of priesthood, and he becomes a victim of his own morbid imagination. Hester was not only punished by the townspeople she was also punished dearly by Pearl.
Pearl was a consistent and constant reminder to Hester of the terribly sin that she had committed, and that she could not take it back. Hester’s life would be ruined for the rest of her life, that is the great price that she paid for Pearl. Pearl caused Hester’s life to never be filled with joy. She continually constantly nagged and harassed her mother over the “A” which she had to wear day in and day out. She would harass her to the point she would make her own Scarlet Letter to wear, and sometimes this would include her playing games with her mothers, by trying to his it vigorously with rocks. Pearl would also decorate it which would remind her of the sin. Some of Pearl’s actions would reflect the desolation of Hester’s social life and her mental state. Throughout the book numerous times Pearl would get made fun off. Pearl would always respond like a demon-possessed baby. Even though Hester had so much trouble with Pearl, she took into account that this was another one of her consequences for cheating on her husband Roger and for sinning. Chillingworth’s vindictiveness dehumanizes him and turns him into a wretched person. He is a worse sinner than either Hester or Dimmesdale. Chillingworth is a pearl to Dimmesdale. While tempers with the nature of Dimmesdale, by making him feel guilty and shameful for his sin.
While he feels no guilt of the paint that he is causing Dimmesdale. He causes him to to complete mental, emotional, and physical insanity. In the “Scarlet Letter”, the “A” is represented in numerous amount ways. One way is through, public suffering such as Hester in her every day, life. Another way is the private suffering Arthur Dimmesdale while being greatly tormented by Roger. Dimmesdale was eaten alive by his moral beliefs. Dynamic meanings of physical representations, Pearl along with the constant reminder to Hester that this is the result of her committing adultery. Revenge and decisiveness brought by Roger through torturing Dimmesdale, mentally which causes him to hurt himself physically.
