Hester Prynne Essay -- essays research papers

Hester Prynne   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, a dark tale of sin and redemption,centers around the small Puritan community of Boston during the 17th century. In the midst of this small community is Hester Prynne. She is a woman that has defied the Puritans, taken the consequences and in the end conformed with the Puritans. It did, however, take great effort to settle down and become a women of honor again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hester Prynne, through the eyes of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner. She has gone against the Puritan ways by committing Adultery. The Puritans believed that Hester was a lost soul that could only be saved by sincere and thorough repentance. For this irrevocably harsh sin, she must wear a symbol of shame for the rest of her life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  From the beginning, we see that Hester Prynne is a young and beautiful woman who has bought a child into the world with an unknown father. Hester, to the reader, is obviously a woman who has violated a strict social and religious code, but who has sinned in an affirmation of love and life. The Puritans do not take her feelings into account. They are people that take things as being right or wrong. Committing adultery is seen as wrong in the Bible, and therefore Puritans do not care of the circumstances. The Puritans are grim, forbidding people. Nonetheless they have a degree of dignity and authority. They lack sympathy and discrimination. In their eyes all crimes are equal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hester is punished by the Puritan society by wearing the scarlet letter A on the bosom of her dress and standing on “the weather darkened scaffold';(p.234) for three hours. The Scaffold is a painful task to bear. The townspeople have gathered around to gossip and stare at her. They yell horrid things at her. One matron screams “At the very least, they should have put the brand of hot iron to her forehead.'; (p.59) Obviously, the Puritans did not believe that this punishment was cruel enough. The screams of this matron showed just how unforgiving the Puritans were. Here one can see the difference between the Puritans and Hester. She was standing on scaffold shedding her honor because she had sinned in love. Although she had committed a sin, the reasons behind it were because she was truly in love. T... ...athe the ways of her child.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As time went by, Hester came more in contact with the Puritans of the town. She had come to conform with their belief that redemption would save her soul. She gave her life to God, by visiting the sick and sowing for the poor. She came to be revered by most members of the community because of her actions. The scarlet letter, for many had come to represent able, not adultery. Her strength to satisfy the needs of others and comfort them was a gift many towns people respected. As time went by, Hester was no longer conforming to Puritan ways of redemption. She was doing kind things because it bought her pleasure and peace of mind. The word in the town was that the letter no longer stood for adultery and indeed stood for able. Hester became strong with the letter. She had let it be a part of her for many years while Pearl’s father, minister Dimesdale, had covered it and it had gnawed at his soul. Hester was no longer hurt by the letter neither did she feel guilt.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hester Prynne had committed a sin which the Puritans believed took her soul. In the end, however, her sin had become part of her