The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorn, is an incredible story about the negative aspects of religion, committing sins, and the difficulty of love. Hester and her daughter Pearl, two outcasts in the Puritan society, are shunned for Hester committing adultery. Sins, when committed, can cause social suicide in societies where religion is very strict and considered the center of life. Pearl, along with the red letter “A” that Hester has to wear, are thought of as Hester’s punishments for committing adultery. Roger Chillingworth, someone that seems like a good person to outsiders, is actually the evilest person in this group. Arthur Dimmesdale seems like a pure person, but on the inside, he should be wearing a letter just like Hester. In this romance, we see that not all people are what they seem.
Hester’s punishment for her crimes is to be alienated, but the cause of this punishment is because of the strict religion the Puritans believe in. Alienation means being alone or not coming in contact with other people. Hester Prynne, the main character of the story, along with her daughter, Pearl, are isolated from everyone else. They live in a small cabin at the edge of the community, near the forest. Their only interaction with the Puritans was when Hester delivered the objects she sewed, and were insulted by local people who threw objects at them and called them names. One of the most obvious symbols in this story is the scarlet letter “A,” which stands for “adultery.” However, throughout the story, the meaning of the letter changes to Hester’s amazing ability to sew beautiful items, as the letter is decorated ornately. She uses the decorations as a sort of rebellion against the harsh judgement of the Puritans, reacting calmly when she is humiliated by the religion. Shame and judgement play a huge role in this book as well, all because of the different religious beliefs in the story. The story starts off as Hester is about to be publicly ridiculed at the scaffold, and people call Pearl the Devil’s child. It gives Hester severe depression at one point of the story, speculating whether or not she should kill Pearl and them commit suicide. The Puritan society, harsh and fast to judge people, are the main reason why Hester has to go through so much suffering.
Many of the main characters are not who they might seem to the other people in the story. The two male, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, are seen as nice men, but the truth is a lot darker. The narrator of the story describes Chillingworth as the evilest of all the characters, committing terrible sins that can’t be forgiven. From torturing Dimmesdale to trying to destroy his life, Chillingworth is the real person that should be punished instead of Hester. Dimmesdale delivers sermons to the Puritans, and is known to be pure and caring. However, Dimmesdale is actually the father of Pearl, meaning that he should bear part of Hester’s punishment. Dimmesdale harms himself, feeling guilty that he is too much of a coward to face the people, but he eventually confesses his sins, right before dying in front of a large crowd of people. Pearl is one of the most important human symbols in this book, as she represents her parent’s infidelity and her mother’s independence. This story focuses mainly on sins and religious life.
Another theme in this story is that people break the rules of society. Hester and Dimmesdale fall in love and have a child, even though it is considered a terrible sin. Hester was also married, and technically not supposed to have a lover, but she believed that Chillingworth was actually dead. Chillingworth poses as a doctor to get close to Dimmesdale, suspecting he had something to do with Hester, and claims that it was his treatments that cured the sickness, when it was actually the stress that left Dimmesdale’s shoulders. Pearl is a young girl, not understanding the rules she has to follow, and nearly reveals what happened in the forest with Dimmesdale and Hester to the public. Breaking rules is considered a bad thing to do in Puritan society, because their religion is so strict.
The Scarlet Letter is a romance that focuses on the Puritan life in the 17th century and how some people commit sins. Though many people in the community should be considered evil, they hide the sins they have commited inside of themselves, where it slowly breaks them apart. From this story, we can learn about how we shouldn’t hide ourselves, and instead show our true selves, even though there might be consequences.
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