Hester's Self-Conception In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Words: 535
Pages: 3
Open Document
How would you feel if you had to wear a badge of shame on your chest? After wearing the scarlet letter for so many years Hester's self-conception alters. As time passes, the letter begins to mean more than her troubles. Confined but not physically, she is not granted to extract the scarlet letter from her chest and restart a regular life. She welcomes her punishment and serves her term with as much honor and courage she can gather. The Scarlet Letter is signified to be a symbol of disgrace to Hester; but however, it develops into a strong badge of character for her. "She had wandered, without rules or guidance, into a moral wilderness. Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the …show more content…
Any dose of satisfaction was to be met with shame. Hester feels society wants to restrain any individuality she may obtain. "No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true." (Hawthorne 191) After wearing the scarlet letter for so many years Hester's self-conception alters. The letter is not a cover for her identity, it’s actually her identity now. This is why Hester comes back from living in England with Pearl and continues to wear the letter. This means she preserved it all this time, and she can only view herself in that situation as long as she is in America. Hester feels if she ends wearing the letter it will back up the impact it has in deciding in who she is. It will alone grant that society has jurisdiction over her life. The letter would prove to have successfully limiting her. Hester accepts to continue to wear the letter because she is driven to revamp its meaning through her actions and her own viewpoint- she wants to be the one who controls it message. And that means her past
Show More

Related Documents: Hester's Self-Conception In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

symbolism of colors Essay

Symbolism of Colors Nathaniel Hawthorne in the novel, The Scarlet Letter (1850), asserts that the color red represents passion and sin, the color black represents pure evil, and the color white represents light and change in The Scarlet Letter (1850). Hawthorne supports his assertion by illustrating the colors red in diverse manners and occurrences in the story such as the red rose bush and the red Scarlet Letter, the color black through the black weeds, and the color white when the white light…

Words 1149 - Pages 5