The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - Essay Example

It was part of the community’s verdict as punishment when she committed adultery. Hester was a young woman who had been abandoned by an old husband. He would rarely come to see her and had left her to stay alone for a very long period of time. It was in his absence, that the young lady had committed her sin. She gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, whose father’s name she refuses to divulge. The magistrates, representing the townspeople, believed that making Hester an outcast and singled out would pressure her to reveal her lover’s name.

Hester was made to wear A as an act of expulsion. Then it served as a reminder of her sin and as a warning that seem to declare how sin would never be tolerated in the Puritan interpretation of morality. In Hester, A evoked shame and hatred. She has broken the Ten Commandments and the community associated her with adultery, worthy to be condemned. These symbolisms were best exemplified by a community resident who viciously stated, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die.

Is there no law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book.” (p. . She became the personification of the sinful Eve. The hatred of the townspeople continued to the point that they tried to take Hester away from her daughter. Only the interference of another minister, who is later identified as the child’s actual father, restricted the townspeople from taking Hester’s daughter away from her. Life during this period was embarrassing and painful for the single mother.

Over the passage of time, the townspeople would gradually change their perspective. Hester began to get out of her house a little. She has passed her days of shame and gradually regained the inherent vigor in her personality. She started helping the poor and the suffering. She began visiting the community often and works for the welfare of others. The townspeople, having seen her intermingle after a long period of time, came to be accepting and forgiving. At first, they were uncomfortable about the idea of having the A taken off from Hester’s chest.

But it is this small detail that eventually gave a different meaning to the A in the chest of a woman who helped people tirelessly. Time came when Hester’s presence is taken as welcome and the meaning of the scarlet letter A was transformed. By the end of her punishment, seven years later, the townspeople believe the A stands for “able” since she endures her punishment with great dignity, does expert sewing, and performs many good deeds for the poor. Hester went further in her redemption by becoming some sort of self-ordained Sister of Mercy, laboring both as a nurse that competently cared for the community’s sick.

All the years that she has suffered and did good work finally paid off. People started equating the letter A with her community with people in trouble and her charity to the poor. The