Free College Essays - The Effects of Sin on Hester in Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

The Scarlet Letter  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Effects of Sin on Hester Prynne Nathaniel Hawthorne believed his task was to analyze the effects of sin, whether thought or committed, on the human heart and mind. Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, deals with many themes, the most powerful being sin. In this novel, Hester Prynne becomes a highly respected person in a Puritan society by overcoming a constant reminder of her sin, a Scarlet letter A which she wears on her chest at all times. This object on "her bosom"; however, does the exact opposite of the initial purpose. Eventually, Hester reverses all the odds that are against here due to her courage, pride and effort. Hester went beyond the letter of the law and did everything asked of her in order to prove that she is "able." She comes from an impoverished but genteel English family, having lived in a "decayed house of gray stone, with a poverty stricken aspect, but retaining a half-obliterated sheild of arms over the portal, in token of antique gentility." But even without that specific indication of her high birth, the reader would know that Hester is a lady, from her bearing and pride. Especially in Chapter two, when she bravely faces the humiliation of the scaffold: "And never had Hester Prynne appeared more lady-like, in the antique interpretation of the term, than as she issued from the prison,"   Hester's daughter, Pearl, is "a blessing and is a reminder of her sin." As if the scarlet A were not enough punishment there "was a brat of that hellish breed" which would remind Hester of what had happened in the past. The "brat" could have been given away to Governor Bellingham yet Hester proclaimed that Pearl "is my happiness!...Ye shall not take her! I will die first!" Not a person in Boston, nor Hester herself thought highly of the little child and yet Hester still refused to let Pearl go. Hester carried the child around only because it was a direct reflection of her sin and to cast away her sin as freely as that to give it away would be unjust and unfair to Hester and Pearl. From now on Hester would continually and proudly be near Pearl. Hester would go against the grain in everything she did. Very rarely did she ever give up hope; never did she complete a job poorly.