The Scarlett Letter

For my first blog, I would like to discuss the Scarlett Letter and how it relates to Romanticism and Realism. Nathaniel Hawthorne the author wanted to bring to the attention of his readers how we base our beliefs and hold our fellow man accountable to religion. Romanticism related to a struggle between christianity and the question of the imperfections of mankind. Sin is basic to each man and woman alive. Along with sin we have a conscious and suffer guilt from whatever good or bad that we do.

Hester in the "Scarlet Letter" and the minister Dimmesdale both committed adultery. Hester and Dimmesdale were both lonly and sought each others company and created a child out of their love.

Hester was forced to wear an "A" in the beginning of the story. The letter "A" symbolizes adultery, but it also symbolizes many other things such as able, absent, abandonment, ashamed, etc. Her husband Chillingsworth was the absent husband. Given that Hester did profess to him that she did not love him, he did abandon her. Chillingsworth action of abandoning his wife left her to commit sin. Religion was used to control people and keep people moral. When religion is misused it can do more harm than good.

Hester was caught with child and without a husband. Romanticism writings were mainly about women and children, which we see with Hester and her child Pearl. Hester at first seems like the main character in the book, but actually Pearl is. Pearl the child born without a father has no identity and born in sin. Dimmesdale never professes his obligation or sin publicly until his death at the end wherein Pearl is given a true identity.

The Scarlett Letter is a book about a young beautiful woman abandoned by her husband who has an affair with a man of the cloth creating a child out of love. Their love was squandered by the oppression of the society where Hester and Dimmesdale resided. The hate that Hester’s countrymen regarded her with as they forced her to wear a symbol of her sin created a different world for Hester to live in. Although this banishment to live at the edge of the community next to the forest gave Hester freedom to live life as she sought, but at the same time she was ostracized from her community as a branded woman. Even towards the end of the story Hester continues to wear the "A" even though she does not have to. The "A" has become Hester's identity.

Which is ironic that Dimmesdale branded himself with the “A” to try to exonerate himself from his sin which it did not. Dimmesdale’s sin created an internal conflict within himself of good and evil which eventually ended his life.