The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet LetterThe Scarlet Letter
It is easy to be a follower and it is another to be a leader, especially a leader of something that society disapproves of. Human nature and the law are always at battle in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. The law, which restrains humanity from being free-spirited and shameless, is constantly conflicting with nature, the human body, its mind and heart. Henry Thoreau would strongly agree that Hawthorne embraces passion and love and at the same time he fears society, guilt and the pain that comes with punishment. Thoreau would say that Hawthorne is an “agent of injustice”, (Resistance to Civil Government 1753). Hawthorne would not agree completely with Thoreau’s view of a “higher law”, but he would agree that people have passions, desires and feelings that have no definition or place in society and cause people to act out in ways that are unacceptable.
Where does one draw the line to what is right and what is wrong? Thoreau would say that it is where one wants to draw it. And that people make whatever they want of themselves; if society does not agree, then one must become an outcast never to be seen in public again. Hawthorne shows in his novel that people make mistakes and pay the price in the end. Even though Hester Prynne tries to justify her love for Arthur Dimmesdale through her art or passion somehow she can’t deny her sorrow. The scene in chapter 16 ( Signet Classic version p. 165), where Hester and Pearl are taking a walk in the forest and Pearl asks about the Black Man in the woods and Hester reply’s that she has met him once and that she hopes Pearl never has to meet him. Hester is experiencing sorrow and some fear that her daughter might one day understand. But Hester does not seem to regret anything that has happened. She does not lie but she doesn’t ever say the complete truth. This is another example of how Hawthorne deals with truth and guilt.
The law and society does not have a place for Hester, and Pearl has no place either through no fault of her own.
“Mother and daughter stood together in the same circle of seclusion from human society; and in the nature of the child seemed to be perpetuated those unquiet elements that had distracted Hester Prynne before Pearl’s birth, but had since begun to be soothed away by the softening influences of maternity.” (Chapter 6 pg. 84). It is great to see Hawthorne’s sensitive side come into play here. He softens the heart of Hester and shows the reader that Hester loves Pearl unconditionally.
Another view is of Hawthorne’s example of paying for ones punishments. Pearl is a constant reminder of Hester’s mistake, another way in which Hawthorne reminds us that people...
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