Hester's Guilt In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
At the start of the book, Hester is a young woman with a newborn baby. She has been alone in New England for the past two years because her husband, a wealthy scholar from England, sent her ahead to the Massachusetts Bay Colony while he took care of business at home. The arrival of a baby was sufficient evidence to convict her of adultery. It is difficult to know what kind of person Hester was before the book begins. However, the book opens with her sudden acknowledgment of shame as she stands before a crowd of citizens and realizes, for the first time, that she wears a scarlet A on her dress for all to see her guilt. For seven years, Hester is weighed down with the burden of guilt and humiliation over her sin and over the public nature of
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She has been alone in New England for the past two years because her husband, a wealthy scholar from England, sent her ahead to the Massachusetts Bay Colony while he took care of business at home. The arrival of a baby was sufficient evidence to convict her of adultery. It is difficult to know what kind of person Hester was before the book begins. However, the book opens with her sudden acknowledgment of shame as she stands before a crowd of citizens and realizes, for the first time, that she wears a scarlet A on her dress for all to see her guilt. For seven years, Hester is weighed down with the burden of guilt and humiliation over her sin and over the public nature of her punishment. Yet, she makes the curious choice to stay in the community where everyone scorns her. Although the narrator never explains why she chooses to remain, he does suggest that people tend to stay near the places where they’ve experienced a significant event that has changed their lives. Hester chooses to give to the poor, despite her own poverty and despite the fact that the poor also look down on her as a sinful woman. This could be a part of her personal penance, but her generosity also suggests that she is a woman with naturally charitable instincts. She works so diligently and is so kind to others that people begin to reinterpret the scarlet letter. They note that Hester is very capable, and that there is clearly goodness in her – the kind of goodness that protects people from
She has been alone in New England for the past two years because her husband, a wealthy scholar from England, sent her ahead to the Massachusetts Bay Colony while he took care of business at home. The arrival of a baby was sufficient evidence to convict her of adultery. It is difficult to know what kind of person Hester was before the book begins. However, the book opens with her sudden acknowledgment of shame as she stands before a crowd of citizens and realizes, for the first time, that she wears a scarlet A on her dress for all to see her guilt. For seven years, Hester is weighed down with the burden of guilt and humiliation over her sin and over the public nature of her punishment. Yet, she makes the curious choice to stay in the community where everyone scorns her. Although the narrator never explains why she chooses to remain, he does suggest that people tend to stay near the places where they’ve experienced a significant event that has changed their lives. Hester chooses to give to the poor, despite her own poverty and despite the fact that the poor also look down on her as a sinful woman. This could be a part of her personal penance, but her generosity also suggests that she is a woman with naturally charitable instincts. She works so diligently and is so kind to others that people begin to reinterpret the scarlet letter. They note that Hester is very capable, and that there is clearly goodness in her – the kind of goodness that protects people from