Hi. I need some help with this topic.
Why doesnt Hester take off the scarlet letter "A" and just leave her town?
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Hi. I need some help with this topic.
Why doesnt Hester take off the scarlet letter "A" and just leave her town?
Hope this reply is in time to help you out.
From chapter V:
It may seem marvellous, that, with the world before her,—kept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan settlement, so remote and so obscure,—free to return to her birthplace, or to any other European land, and there hide her character and identity under a new exterior, as completely as if emerging into another state of being,—and having also the passes of the dark, inscrutable forest open to her, where the wildness of her nature might assimilate itself with a people whose customs and life were alien from the law that had condemned her,—it may seem marvellous, that this woman should still call that place her home, where, and where only, she must needs be the type of shame. But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime; and still the more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it. Her sin, her ignominy, were the roots which she had struck into the soil. It was as if a new birth, with stronger assimilations than the first, had converted the forest-land, still so uncongenial to every other pilgrim and wanderer, into Hester Prynne’s wild and dreary, but life-long home. All other scenes of earth—even that village of rural England, where happy infancy and stainless maidenhood seemed yet to be in her mother’s keeping, like garments put off long ago—were foreign to her, in comparison. The chain that bound her here was of iron links, and galling to her inmost soul, but could never be broken.
The big line for me here is this one:
But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime; and still the more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it.
I think it's kind of a cop-out on Hawthorne's part, but basically he's saying that there's this almost supernatural force that compels people to stick around the places that bring them the most misery, because those are the places that define their lives. They become the only place the guilty soul can really call home. For Hester, it's partially out of a sense that she ought to stay to serve out her penance. She genuinely believes she's done wrong and ought to atone. You might just re-read that little section of the novel. It basically answers the question, although in kind of a roundabout way.
Yes, I do feel it is a cop out on Hawthorne's part, but it is true to the character. In order to fulfill/complete the punishment of her sin, Hester must remain in the town because she knows (or begins to realize) she must suffer before she can be forgiven [insert long discussion on how people are forgiven].
Anyway, Hester (and for that matter Dimmesdale as well) must stay in the town for that reason. When they attmept to leave (chapters 19-23), they are punished for trying to leave the town with the knowledge of Chillingworth's trickery as well as the inevitable death of Dimmesdale. They try to leave, and are no allowed to. Therefore, Hawthorne is portraying the idea that suffering is needed to be forgiven [repeat discussion above...]
Oh, and sorry for not getting to this in the first place, but (in virtually the same area the previous poster mentioned) on page 74 (for me, in chapter 5), this quote explains these ideas further:
"Here, [Hester] said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt; and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment"
Hope that helps! :bday_2:
Sorry, couldn't resist. (And I'm sorry, it's probably too late for your question. But hopefully this will help someone else soon-to-be-stuck-in-a-jam!)
Please remember that the prevailing religious sentiment in the USA at that time (and that of the Puritans) was of Calvinism. This means people believed certain things in life were irreversibly fated.
This prevailing attitude changed when Boston Unitarian clergyman Theodore Parker preached against the inevitability of Calvinist predestination. He and Hawthorne were well acquainted and were members of the Transcendentalists whose main teacher Ralph Waldo Emerson extolled the virtues of individualism and self reliance. This viewpoint became the prevailing sentiment and stimulated many to ''go West'' rather than to remain confined in a rigid and backward milieu.
I am not at all convinced Hawthorne was ''copping out''. Quite the contrary, he was portraying characters whose views were shaped by the prejudices and practices of their society. This in great contrast to the Emersonian society that was to emerge within his lifetime and prevail to this day.
Then there wouldn't be a story to tell! I'm sure she could have, but I think she wanted to repent for her sins. She seems to want to feel all the guilt and be punished because of her 'sin'. Also, a part of me feels that she wanted to give Dimmesdale a chance to own up to his part of it all and to see their child grow up...but then again, thats just me.Quote:
Originally Posted by surf_GuRl
''Scarlet Letter'' movie with beautiful Colleen Moore:
http://stage6.divx.com/The-Last-Stop...Scarlet-Letter