Author's Note: This is my essay on Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter. Spoiler Alert: In this essay I mention who the "baby-daddy" is!
Imagine that you live in a Puritan
Society, waiting for your husband to return, yet you remain young and
beautiful. You have always been a good citizen, followed the rules set by God.
And your reverend. You live a perfect Puritan life. Then, you commit a sin, you
fall short of the expectations set for you to live by. Now you, and your child,
are outcasts: underneath the shadow of your fellow adulterer, Reverend
Dimmesdale. He begs, and begs, for you
to admit it was he, who had helped her commit this sin, but you refuse. This is your punishment, and although the
circumstances prove otherwise, you are an admirable person.
Imagine
you are Hester Prynne, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter.
Hester Prynne is an admirable woman.
She is generous. She is bold. And most importantly she is a good single-mother.
Hester is been all of these things, even seven years after the first time she
wore the scarlet 'A' publically. Although, she is ridiculed constantly, she
chose to stay near the town she had known for so long, but on the out-skirts of
coarse. It was familiar to her, one of the only things left near her that
couldn’t "ruin" her life.
And because she had struggled in
society herself, Hester sewed clothes for the poor. Being a fantastic
seamstress, it was truly an act of kindness, especially sense she didn’t charge
them. This was an act to repay her sins, with God and herself. It made her feel
Godly. And like a good person again, until she remembered she bore a scarlet
letter upon her breast. The 'A' would
never truly leave her. But the acts of citizenship masked the pain, the letter
pressed. It lightened the load. It made her happy. It made her proud.
Although Hester is proud of her
donations, she isn't proud of the scarlet embroidery she must wear. Yet she
continues to be bold, taking the ridicule, and speaking up when appropriate. As
she walked from the prison door, she surely knew of what the gossips had said.
Their stares burned into her cheeks, showing her embarrassment. Although, she
walked quietly by them, not starting a dispute of any kind. On the other hand,
when Governor Bellingham threaten to take Pearl, Hester's daughter, into the
custody of another, Hester spoke of what the letter, and its shame, will teach
her daughter and ends up keeping Pearl in her custody.
Her fight for Pearl proves that she is a strong
single-mother. And that she allows Pearl to express her own opinion, whether
out of fear or respect. Although, Hester had began to believe Pearl was of the
Black Man (what Satan was referred to in the 17th century), she didn’t let that
possibility change the affection she had for Pearl. Yet Pearl could be a pain.
She always decorated the scarlet letter, and even kissed it at times. Even
though, Hester repeatedly mentioned it was bad. Pearl wanted to know why, and
like any child she wanted her way. But Hester knew better than to give her
wildly-spoken child all of the information.
Go back to imagining
you are Hester Prynne. An outcast. An adulteress. A generous yet bold woman. A
strong mother. A role model. There is no need to imagine anymore. We are all
Hester. We sin. We give. And we are admirable.
