Hesters Isolation and Alienation in The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

Hester's Isolation and Alienation in The Scarlet Letter In Nathaniel Hawthorn's The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmsdale have committed adultery, an unacceptable sin during the Puritan times. As a result of their sin, a child is born, whom the mother names Pearl. Out of her own free will Hester has to face major punishments. She has to serve many months in prison, stand on the scaffold for three hours under public scrutiny, and attach a scarlet letter, "A" on her chest every day as long as she remained in the town of Boston. The letter "A" was to identify Hester Prynne as an adulteress and as an immoral human being. "Thus the young and the pure would be taught to look at her, with the letter flaming on her chest", also "as the figure, the body and the reality of sin"(73). Holding on to sin can lead to alienation and isolation. One reason Hester was alienated was her refusal to identify the other adulterer. When Hester is released from prison and stood upon the scaffold, she was asked to reveal the name of whom she committed the sin with. Having a heart blinded by love Hester choose to stay in the town and wear the scarlet letter "A" instead of revealing the other adulterer. She faced society only to protect and be close to the man she still loved. The "impulsive and passionate nature" (54), which to Hester seemed pure and natural had to be faced under humiliation alone, without the partner of sin. It seemed as though she was paying not only her own consequence, but that of her lovers as well. Saying so herself while standing on the scaffold "I might face his agony as well as mine!" (64). Now taking on all blame she has given "up all her individuality. Now 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" (73). After the sin had been revealed Hester never again felt she was accepted by society. It seemed to her as though "every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those whom she came in contact,