Adultery. Ignominy. Isolation. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Puritan rules completely govern seventeenth-century Boston. The main character, Hester Prynne, comes in conflict with society because of these religious rules. For Puritans, it is frowned upon to have sexual encounters with anyone outside of that person’s marriage. And for Hester, her baby is the proof of those outlawed encounters. The conflict between society and Hester not only brings her ignominy, but nearly complete isolation as well.
The town gathers to gossip and frown at Hester while she begins her sentence: to stand on the scaffold with her illegitimate child. The thought of a woman having a child with a man who is not her husband is completely horrific to these “pure” Puritan minds. Puritan rules govern them so strongly that they hate this woman without knowing her or her reasons at all. To them, the reasons don’t matter; to them, love does not exist outside the marriage; to them, a family should begin with a husband and wife.
After her punishment on the scaffold, she is forced to wear the scarlet letter on her breast at all times. This letter is so everyone who sees her – even outside of Boston – will know that she committed adultery. Religion is so dominant in the seventeenth-century Boston that Hester’s adultery turns into a tale for ears around the world. Everyone knows of Hester Prynne and the scarlet letter. The strong Puritan values cause society to see the letter, not the woman behind it. Everywhere she goes, people stare at the symbol of adultery. Society treats her like a sickness – they avoid her at all costs as if her adultery will rub off on them somehow and they’ll become sinners too.
If not for her talent with embroidery, Hester would live in complete isolation with her daughter forever. Hester’s ability to do good and brush off the scowls allow her to be considered as “able” instead of “adulterer.” She was able to keep her head up high until the conflict she was forced into with society passed. She did not let Puritan religion judge and rule her fate forever – she made her fate by doing good and showing that the illegitimate child is not all that defines her.
The novel that begins with great hatred, conflict, and ignominy ends with resolved problems. The Puritans who chastised her for making decisions that conflicted with their religion, hailed her for her abilities to do good and make beautiful designs. The conflict that changed a life did not rule her fate.
