Redefining the 'A' :Relation between an Individual & the Society

                          

Name: Baraiya Bhavna P.

Roll No: 3

Sem: 3

Year: 2013-14

Submitted To:  Heenaba Zala

                          Department of English

                          Bhavnagar University

   

                          During the Puritan times in Massachusetts, adultery was the worse sin one could ever commit. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist, Hester Prynne, cheats on her husband (believing he was lost at sea) with a minister. The town becomes aware of her sin after realizing the birth of her child, Pearl. As a result, Hester must wear a scarlet letter "A" on her clothing so that the town can look down on her shameful action and recognize her as a woman who committed adultery.

                            Hester Prynne was an example of what women should not be, during this time, women were seen as inferior and men had total authority. Through her oppressions, Hester became a stronger woman, redefining the roles of society and the abilities of women.

                         In the novel, the women were strictly defined within a spectrum in order to label women as a whole. Hawthorne mentions that...

"Women derive pleasure,

incomprehensible to the other sex,

from the delicate toil of the needle"

                         The author exposes the hidden pleasures of women that cannot be expressed on public. The choice of diction within this quote further emphasizes the role of women. Quickly, the reader gets the impression that women are nothing in comparison to men, that they are fragile human beings, yet deep inside, they are hard workers who struggle to gain a voice. Hester does not have to work so hard in order to be recognized because of the sin she has committed. However, she does have to work hard to gain respect, which is something she earns through her hard work and warm heart. But at the end of it all, Hester is still a sinner,

"Thus the young and the pure

would be taught to look at her,

with the scarlet letter flaming

at her breast... as the figure,

the body, the reality of sin"

                       

                       Hester plays an example of what women should not be and what can happen if they do chose to follow Hester's footsteps. Hester stood through all her punishments; she took them like a man. Instead of running away from her consequences, the faced them and it only made her stronger.
                       

                      One of the most evident symbols in the novel is the scarlet letter, as the novel progresses, the meaning of the symbol changes. This letter not only signifies adultery but it also reveals Hester as a self-controlling woman, for she defines the letter embroidered on her chest instead of vise versa.

"The letter was a symbol of her calling.

Such helpfulness was found in her,

- so much power to do,

and power to sympathize,

- that many people refused to interpret

the scarlet A by its original signification.

They said that it meant Able"

                     

              Instead of being recognized as a sinner, society started to see her as a capable, strong woman. This shows how Hester is able to control over the person she is and what she does. She proves to society that she is a good person who does not have to be miserable in the process of her punishment. But whatever she did, Hester was still a sinner,

"in the lapse of the toilsome,

thoughtful, self-devoted years

that made up Hester's life,

the scarlet letter ceased to be

a stigma which attracted the world's

scorn and bitterness"

                         In other words, her sins still haunted her; society knew what she had committed. There was nothing Hester could possibly do because she was a woman. So although the letter on her chest was redefined by society, she was still a helpless woman, not even the man who helped her with this sin was there by her side to help.


                    Cautiously, Hawthorne advances the notion that if society is to be changed for the better, such change will be initiated by women. But because society has condemned Hester as a sinner, the good that she can do is greatly circumscribed. Her achievements in a social sense come about as by-products of her personal struggle to win a place in the society; and the fact that she wins her place at last indicates that society has been changed by her. Might there be in the future a reforming woman who had not been somehow stigmatized by society? Although in his later works Hawthorne was to answer this question negatively, in The Scarlet Letter the possibility, though faint, is there.

Conclution:

                     Here in ‘The Scarlet Letter’ an individuals tries his/her ‘wings of fire’ to fly but trapped or caught in social taboos. Hester is wild by nature, she has a power to change so the individuals always become victim of society.