No Subject

[Savanna]

<br><br> In “The Scarlet Letter” there are two people who suffer significantly from the very beginning. The two characters are stuck in a trap of forbidden love and lust in which one suffers more than the other, a man, Arthur Dimmesdale, and a woman, Hester Prynne. Hester becomes pregnant which gives away her secret affair; however, the people do not know who the father is, Dimmesdale. Since they don’t know this, and because Dimmesdale is to spineless and puny to admit that he’s the father and take the heat along with Hester, Hester is the person that is most punished.<br> “What do we talk of marks and brands, whether on the bodice of her gown or the flesh of her forehead?" cried another female...This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die; Is there not law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray."(Chapt. 2) Before Hester is even able to defend herself to these people, the women of the town are talking about what a bad person she is. Hester is not totally punished however; she’s blessed with a beautiful girl. Or so it seems. For most people a child in a cold, lonely world would seem to be their only salvation, but that is not at all what Pearl is to Hester. Hester sees this child as her only treasure, which is why she is given the name Pearl, but she also sees her as part of her punishment. The child is incredibly cruel to her mother and the rest of the people in the world, she is often called an elf child. She asks her mother painful questions and teases her about the pain that it causes her, “ The child's own nature had something wrong in it which continually betokened that she had been born amiss--the effluence of her mother's lawless passion--and often impelled Hester to ask, in bitterness of heart, whether it were for ill or good that the poor little creature had been born at all.”(Chapt. 13) Not only is Hester cursed with a devil child, but she’s also the object of scorn and ridicule among the town’s people. She can’t go anywhere without the people shrinking away from her trying not to be so close to the evil Hester. Also, the town magistrates use Hester as an example in their sermons when they talk about sin. Making it impossible for Hester to go to church, so she’s totally alone, no husband, no friends, no lover, and no god. If only someone would get some pluck and own up to what he did. <br> Arthur Dimmesdale is the love of the town. Everybody clamors to this reverend like he’s the Savior himself. “The aged members of his flock, beholding Mr. Dimmesdale's frame so feeble, while they were themselves so rugged in their infirmity, believed that he would go heavenward before them, and enjoined it upon their children that their old bones should be buried close to their young pastor's holy grave.”(Chapt.11) Dimmesdale grows very ill as the story goes on and nobody knows why, the reason is his guilt. Because he tells nobody of what he did Dimmesdale conscience is practically eating him alive. This is the only time he suffers. He is loved, and looked up to, by everyone in the town. Dimmesdale tries several times to try and admit to what he did; however, nobody listens. Instead, he whips himself and stands at the stocks for hours at night trying to find some sort of penance. When he is so close to his deathbed he can almost taste it, Hester goes into the forest to intercept him on his way home from doing some work so that she can tell him something. When she sees how sickly he looks she isn’t overjoyed that he too is suffering like her, instead she pities him and tries to help. Hester tells him that he’s been living with her estranged husband, and he’s been trying to take revenge on Dimmesdale. Arthur is furious with Hester. Hester, the woman that has been going through everything she’s had to because Dimmesdale got her pregnant, and he gets upset with her. But Hester just apologizes, “’Oh, Arthur!’ cried she, ‘forgive me! In all things else, I have striven to be true! Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast, and did hold fast, through all extremity; save when thy good--thy life--thy fame--were put in question! Then I consented to a deception. But a lie is never good, even though death threaten on the other side!’”(Chapt. 17) Not only does she have to go through the shame of adultery by herself, but Dimmesdale makes her feel bad for keeping this secret from him, but at the same time he’s keeping an even larger secret from everybody in the town that reveres him as one of the holiest men in the whole world. Hester and Dimmesdale make a plan to run away together that makes Dimmesdale feel much better, “’ Begin all anew!’… ‘Thou shall not go alone!’ answered she, in a deep whisper. Then, all was spoken!”(Chapt. 17) It was set; they are going to be together.<br> Dimmesdale walks back into town feeling lighter than he’s felt for seven long years. He is scheduled to give an election speech the next morning, and when he’s walking into town in the parade, everyone notices how good he looks, how healthy and vibrant he is. He gave a speech that touched the heart and soul of every person in the town. While all the town’s people were gathered around the church to hear the sermon, Hester was, once again, by herself standing by the stocks, “Meanwhile Hester Prynne was standing beside the scaffold of the pillory, with the scarlet letter still burning on her breast!”(Chapt. 23) At the end of his speech, Dimmesdale walks out of the church looking sicklier than ever before. He decides that now would be the time to tell everyone that he is the father of Hester’s illegitimate child, now that he’s going to die. “’People of New England!’ cried he, with a voice that rose over them, high, solemn, and majestic--yet had always a tremor through it, and sometimes a shriek, struggling up out of a fathomless depth of remorse and woe—‘ye, that have loved me!--ye, that have deemed me holy!--behold me here, the one sinner of the world! At last--at last!--I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood, here, with this woman, whose arm, more than the little strength wherewith I have crept hitherward, sustains me at this dreadful moment, from grovelling down upon my face! Lo, the scarlet letter which Hester wears! Ye have all shuddered at it! Wherever her walk hath been--wherever, so miserably burdened, she may have hoped to find repose--it hath cast a lurid gleam of awe and horrible repugnance round about her. But there stood one in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye have not shuddered!’” And then he dies.<br> Hester suffers throughout the whole story alone. At the end Dimmesdale finally admits, but then he dies. Even after he dies people still don’t believe that he did it. Some believe that he just felt sorry for Hester, and since he knew that he was going to die, he decided he would try to help her, others felt that he was poisoned, and others felt that perhaps it was true. Never in the story did Hester have anyone there that could help her suffer. She was always single-handed, having to be brave for herself, her child, and her weak, selfish, corrupted lover. <br><br>I know it's not the best essay, but I hope that by reading it you can see just how unjust it was that Hester had to go through all of that by herself!!! "The Scarlet Letter" is one of the best books ever written if you understand all the symbolism and compare it to todays society. It's very interesting to see just how differnetly our world reacts to unwed mothers now as compared to then!!<br>