The Scarlet Letter,
a brilliantly designed novel, was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published
in 1850. It was penned during the Puritan uprise, and that influences a
significant part of this book.
Romantic heroes, or heroines,
possess unique traits, like melancholy, isolation, disregard for social norms,
freedom of choice and expression, regretting their sins, good morals, courage,
outstanding talents, character strength, and being an outcast of the society.
Hester Prynne, the female lead of The Scarlet Letter, can
be called a romantic heroine because she has all these characteristics.
Hester was accused of adultery at
the very beginning of the novel and was shunned and humiliated by society for
many years. She was beautiful but showed a strong character, who stood in a
“haughty” stance, even when she felt ashamed and humiliated from the inside.
She, alone, was not the only one involved in committing adultery, but only she
suffered the punishment and remained“alone, apart, a living critic of the
society”.
Pearl, Hester’s daughter, is a
constant reminder of her sin and the disgrace she suffered, but Pearl was “her
mother’s only treasure”. She named her daughter Pearl, precious, pure, and
innocent, untainted by the sins of those who bore her. Hester’s selflessness
and complete devotion to her daughter, as well as protecting the name of her
lover, showed her steadfastness and strong will.
Hester was humble and kind and showed
goodness to everyone, even those who rubbed her name in the mud throughout many
years of her life. The governor tried to take her child from her, but when he
was on his deathbed, Hester was the one who tended to him in his sickness and
kept him company.
Hester deviated from social
norms. Living in a Puritan society, with its strict, unbending rules, she had a
child out of wedlock, and instead of abandoning her daughter, she brought her
up and gave her the best life. People were not allowed to wear adorned clothing
during that time, but she even wore the brand of her sin, a letter “A” on her
chest, beautifully embroidered on her clothes, with “fantastic flourishes of
gold thread”.
Looking at the evidence mentioned
above, Hester can be called a romantic hero. Her rise from the ashes of her
dignity has made her an iconic heroine for the feminist movement growing during
that time.
The Scarlet Letter,
one of the best books ever written in America, can be called a novel written
during a famous literary movement called American Dark Romanticism. It is a
subcategory of the romantic movement, like transcendentalism.
Transcendentalism is optimistic,
meaning that a human is born kind and perfect; dark romanticism is pessimistic,
meaning that a person can commit a sin and indulge in evil. Dark romanticism
also includes nature, self-destruction, judgment, punishment, and human
fallibility.
First, it highlights the
essential theme of transcendentalism and dark romanticism, which is that human
beings are good but can commit sin. Subsequently, Dimmesdale was a good man; he
was a minister and a religious person but got himself involved with Hester in a
moment of weakness. Even though he lived in Puritan society and knew all the
consequences of committing adultery, he still indulged in it.
According to the Puritan beliefs,
Hester had sinned and received a judgment from God, meaning the church. The
church accused her of adultery and made her stand on the scaffold for three
hours before the townspeople. In addition, she was forced to wear a scarlet
letter, “A”, on her chest all her life. She knew that she had committed a sin
and suffered through the punishment alone.
Arthur Dimmesdale, the one who
was involved with Hester, lived a quiet life, stewing in his guilt. He had left
his daughter alone, and he was so ashamed of the sin he committed and feared
society’s judgment that he did not declare himself as Pearl’s father. The
burden of his crime ate him alive, ultimately leading to his demise.
Hawthorne connects the human
psyche and nature through his characters in The
Scarlet Letter. He shows them as morally grey,
who is not all-good or all-evil. Through Hester’s character, he shows that
oppression forces a person to commit sins. Oppression can also destroy the
upcoming generations, as shown through Pearl’s character, a rebellious child in
the early years of her life because her mother was shunned and she had no
father. It also indicates that a person cannot move away from their roots when
Hester moved abroad but came back to Boston, to the people who were cruel to
her.
Through Hawthorne’s brilliant penmanship and the knowledge of the human mind and intellect, and with his ability to captivate his audience through his words, he was able to produce a masterpiece of dark romantic literature. Through Hester’s character, he changed the overall conception of a romantic hero in the minds of the Americans.
The article is written by Tayyaba Noor, one of the contributors to the School of Literature.
