The scarlet letter.doc

112111179 Liu 1Liu Pingping Professor JinAmerican Literature6, April 2012The Solitude of HesterOn a June morning 1942, a throng of people collected in the market place in Boston. Hester, with a baby in her arms, was exposed on a scaffold because of committing adultery. This scene happened to be seen by her returned husband, who has been away for many years. Her pastor, Dimmesdale, was the father of the illegitimate baby. Hesters husband, in order to take his revenge, under the disguised name of Chillingworth, tried to be the physician of Dimmesdale, tormenting him conscientiously. As a result, the minister Dimmesdale died after his confession of adultery. Without the support of living, Dimmesdale also died after a year, leaving Pearl a considerable property. Hester, after a few years departure, finally returned to the cottage. Unlike the minister Dimmesdale and the physician Chillingworth who hide their sin in their heart, Hester faces it openly.Adultery: outcast in the community Since the day she put on the scarlet letter on her gown, Hester has been an outcast. “It (the scarlet letter A) had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself” (Hawthorne, 2003, p.51). When her term of confinement is over, she finds everything around seems foreign to her. All mankind point their figures at her infamy. The different eyes of her college people hurt her like the scarlet letter burning on her bosom. She finds no sense of belonging. When she walks along the street, she becomes the object of clergymens exhortation. If she goes to the church, she would find herself the text of the discourse. Whenever she feels peoples focus on her token, she has always dreadful agony, especially in the gaze of a new eye. She has no companion but her only child. The solitude of Heater is revealed fully after her exposure of her adultery.Alienation: rebellion against the PuritanHester rebels against the principles of Puritan. She lives wildly and freely without the rule or guidance. There is no specific law in his minds.So she dares to tread the place where other women dare not to. “The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,stern and wild ones,and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss” ( Hawthorne, 2003, p.180). She doesnt feel ashamed of her sin. Unlike the puritans who all wear plain colored clothes, Hester wears the scarlet letter that it itself is the brightest color. She makes the scarlet letter golden thread around and elaboratelymade.It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony. (Hawthorne, 2003, p50)Besides, she always dresses Pearl with gorgeous robes. “The childs attire, on the other hand, was distinguished by a fanciful, or, we might say, a fantastic ingenuity.” (Hawthorne, 2003, p.77) Her attitude towards the dressing is also a rebellion against the puritan principles. As the first one who offends the existing principles, it is unavoidable that her townspeople regard her as a queer so that all of them try to keep a certain distance from her.Able: penance in the charityThough Hester lives a terrible life after her sin is exposed to the light, she does not flee. She takes up her marvelous art as a passion of her life. She is quite good at her needle, by means of which she devotes herself to the charity. She is satisfied in helping the poor. With time going on, people get familiar with the scarlet letter. They didnt throw their different regard on it any more. Gradually she wins the respect of her townspeople. See how her villagers said to strangers: “ It is our Hester,the towns own Hester, who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted” (Hawthorne, 2003, p.147). Even so, Hester still can not engage herself into the community. She looses the normal contact with her villagers. “Meeting them in the street, she never raised her head to receive their greeting.” (p.146) She always lives in the shadow, with the scarlet letter driving away the sunlight. She is fated to be solitary from the day she put on the scarlet letter, which burdens too much on her. On the whole, though Hester transforms from Adultery to Able and to Angel, she can not get rid of her solitary fate. Just as is indicated at the end of the story, Hester alone returns to her previous cottage with Pearls absence. Regardless of her solitude, she is a still a great woman who deserves our reverence. She treads the untrodden place. She frees herself from the confinement of the Puritan. She faces bravely her sin and does not flee. When she was estranged from the community, she did not give up. Instead, she used her faithful hands to help the poor. She lives lonely and independently, with Pearl to be guided and protected. She learns to be strong and gradually wins their rev