ELA Scarlet Letter

The novel “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a married woman named Hester Prynne who gets pregnant and is therefore an adulteress. She is consistently labeled a sinner. The town makes her wear an A on her chest so that people know what she did. The town shuns her, especially because she does not reveal the identity of the baby's father. Ironically, Hester’s baby’s father is the priest. He deals with this shame and guilt by self-harm. The book takes place in the middle of the seventeenth century in Boston, Massachusetts. All of these events occur before the book even begins. The book deals with the shaming of Hester and how she handles it. Shaming in the scarlet letter relates to the world today and how some people are treated.

            Shunning happens in the real world, but more subtly. Although people don’t have to wear a big A for adultery on their chest today they could still feel like they are being shammed or shunned subtly. Sometimes bullying is bad enough that children will move schools and/or move to different towns. This is a form of shunning. It may not be as out going as Hester’s punishments were but people’s feelings are still going to get hurt either way. Hester’s punishments were really horrible. “Come along, Madam Hester, and show your scarlet letter in the market place!” The scarlet letter was a letter of shame so when she walked out into the market place, people would yell shameful things at her. But, in the middle of the book, Hester starts doing these good deeds to recreate her letter A to mean something good. "Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge?" they would say to strangers. "It is our Hester, —the town's own Hester, —who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!" This is a form of forgiveness that the town owes her. In this time period, people usually forgive each other eventually.

Scarlet letter was written by Hawthorne but is told in the mind of a man who picked up the story of Hester and the A years after the incident. Hawthorne has created this character of a man who tells Hester’s story. Since the story is told in third person, we only can pick up how the town treats Hester and we don’t get enough of Hester’s feelings. "Ah, but," interposed, more softly, a young wife, holding a child by the hand, "let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart." This quote shows how the town’s people think of Hester but we never really go into Hester’s mind.

In conclusion, The Scarlet Letter does represent the world that we live in today. People were cruel to Hester. They shamed her and shunned her for cheating on her husband that didn’t really love her. Hester is portrayed as an independent woman and readers soon start to feel for her and put our selves in her shoes. There have been many incidences where students had to move schools or even towns because of bullying. This is sort of what happened to Hester. Hester was isolated with only Pearl as her company. The Scarlet Letter represents what happens in the world today.