Isolation In The Scarlet Letter Essay

Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the isolation of Hester , Dimmesdale , and Pearl to express the toxic and unfair treatment Puritans values have put upon certain individuals throughout the era of their existence and the scaring aftermath leading to those who have been affected by it. “The main image of this evil that threatens a whole community can be found in the mysterious figure of the Black Man. Hawthorne, as the author, never makes a statement as to his existence; all references to him exist simply in the mouths of the characters. From them one can gather that he lives in the forest, outside of the city, and that he carries a book and an iron pen which he offers to those whom he meets. If they inscribe their names, in blood, he places his mark
‘Thou thyself wilt see it, one time or another. They say, child, thou art of the lineage of the Prince of Air! Wilt thou ride with me some fine night to see thy father? Then thou shalt know wherefore the minister keeps his hand over his heart!” (Chapter 22 Pg.230). In The Scarlet Letter Mistress Hibbins is the voice of society so one can infer that the rest of society also perceives Pearl as not only Hester’s sin, but also as the devil, which is why she is left to find companionship on her own leading her to do things in which the Puritan society frowns upon such as grave stomping and disrespecting her elders. Once Pearl expresses her anger throughout bad actions it leads Mistress Hibbins to believe that Hester is an unfit to raise Pearl due to her sin. “But this could never be. Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants. Nothing was more remarkable than the instinct, as it seemed, with which the child comprehended her loneliness: the destiny that had drawn an inviolable circle round about her: the whole peculiarity, in short, of her position in respect to other