Nathaniel Hawthorne challenges love’s true power in his novel The Scarlet Letter, a tale of adultery, sin, repentance, and emotion. Living in a Puritan colony in the 1630s, Hester Prynne had been separated from her husband on their journey from Europe to America. During the 3 years of separation, Hester had an affair with a secret lover, and a child was born. The colony realized what she had done and immediately convicted her of adultery and punished her by requiring her to wear an embroidered A on her clothes. Ironically, one of her punishers was Arthur Dimmesdale, with whom she had the affair. Hester had to face the community’s judgement every day and she developed a demeanor to help her get through. However, her new attitude eventually affects her true personality both positively and negatively.
Hester creates a persona when her punishment begins. The town superiors attempt to shame Hester in front of the whole community by forcing her to stand on the town scaffold with her baby. To the people’s confusion, as “Hester Prynne set forth towards the…
Dimmesdale experiences a world of hurt inflicted by Chillingworth, and Hester is aware of it and doesn’t try to stop it. Consequently, the reader is unsure if there is still a connection between Hester and Dimmesdale. On the other hand, the two are linked by “… the iron link of mutual crime, which neither he nor she could break. Like all other ties, it brought along with it its obligations” (Hawthorne, 145). Dimmesdale helped Hester in numerous ways, yet she watches him face seven years of emotional and physical torture and pain and failed to return the favor. Dimmesdale was miserable after each sermon because his true thoughts and feelings could not be shared and expressed to the public. Hester differed in how she was serene through her isolation. Hester’s lack of action demonstrates how her personality became...
