The Scarlet Letter Essay
In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne shows her brave and daring side, as she stands up for herself. She is very bold to do some of the things she did and still not let the town see how she was really feeling on the inside. Hester proves that she is a strong woman in the Puritan society when she is compared to the other women that are repressed in the society, her interactions with others, and how she responds to the punishments she is given.
Hester reacted to her punishments in a very mature manner unlike what some of the other women would have done. She feels like crying, but she doesn’t want the townspeople to see that side of her and give them that satisfaction. She wears the letter with pride, even embellishing it in gold. ““God gave me the child!” cried she. “He gave her, in requital of all things else, which ye had taken from me. She is my happiness!—she is my torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me too! See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a million-fold the power of retribution for my sin? Ye shall not take her! I will die first! (Hawthorne 112).” Hester has learned to accept her daughter and love her as a gift from God. Pearl is basically the representation of adultery coming from Hester’s sin, constantly reminding her of what she did. Hester also shows that she is a very powerful woman when she is shunned by the community, yet goes through it all alone. She had the chance to tell who Pearl’s father was and make him share in the punishment with her, but instead she decided to stand on the scaffold for three hours and not reveal anything. Lastly, Hester is a very caring person because she is not a wealthy person herself, yet she goes and does charity work for the poor, even when they look down upon her.
Hester is different from the other women of the society because she had the opportunity to flee, but she didn’t. If the women were in her place, they probably would have
Hester reacted to her punishments in a very mature manner unlike what some of the other women would have done. She feels like crying, but she doesn’t want the townspeople to see that side of her and give them that satisfaction. She wears the letter with pride, even embellishing it in gold. ““God gave me the child!” cried she. “He gave her, in requital of all things else, which ye had taken from me. She is my happiness!—she is my torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me too! See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a million-fold the power of retribution for my sin? Ye shall not take her! I will die first! (Hawthorne 112).” Hester has learned to accept her daughter and love her as a gift from God. Pearl is basically the representation of adultery coming from Hester’s sin, constantly reminding her of what she did. Hester also shows that she is a very powerful woman when she is shunned by the community, yet goes through it all alone. She had the chance to tell who Pearl’s father was and make him share in the punishment with her, but instead she decided to stand on the scaffold for three hours and not reveal anything. Lastly, Hester is a very caring person because she is not a wealthy person herself, yet she goes and does charity work for the poor, even when they look down upon her.
Hester is different from the other women of the society because she had the opportunity to flee, but she didn’t. If the women were in her place, they probably would have