Hester Prynne: The Search For A More Congenial

Hester Prynne: The Search For a More Congenial

Human Condition

"Do onto others as you want others to do onto you." Hester, the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter embraces this "golden rule" in an attempt to return from a newly found life of isolation and alienation brought upon her by her sin. Continually treating others with respect and dignity, Hester works as hard as physically and mentally possible to transform her image and escape the unhappy human condition in which she and her daughter are now forced to live. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne grasps the thematic idea of escape from the unhappy human condition of alienation and isolation, where one must experience the consequence of sin through repentance, and at times must follow the path of alienation, to experience the freedom of redemption. This is accomplished by the author's use of literary symbols, primarily the rose bush, the scarlet letter and the scaffold.

Hawthorne uses symbols throughout the text to illustrate Hester's painful alienation from the Puritan society and even from herself. One specific symbol used to demonstrate this unhappy human condition is the single rose bush that grew outside the prison. The only positive image in the whole setting, the rose bush has numerous yet indecisive meanings throughout the text, but is used primarily to display Hester's alienation and isolation.

But before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street was a grass plot much overgrown with burdock, pig-weed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison. But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose bush, covered in this month of June, with its delicate gems [...] ( 45).

This rose bush, in its brightness and beauty is a symbol of survival. It characterizes Hester and her alienation from the Puritan society. Hester is beautiful like a rose and is surrounded by the Puritans that look down upon her, in this metaphor, the weeds. The delicate gems produced by the vegetation also represent what Hester's sin sprouted, lovely Pearl who becomes an essential force in her journey back from alienation. Hester receives only the punishment of isolation; she could have just as easily been executed, for many wished a harsher punishment, yet Hester was allowed to live.

This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it merely survived out of stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally overshadowed it, -- or whether [...] believing, it sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Anne Hutchinson as she entered the prison door. ( 46).

The Puritans granted Hester life, as the rose bush has been preserved. She endures through the remainder of her existence in the "stern old wilderness" while remaining alienated among the weeds, representing the Puritans, as does the rose bush. This rose bush possibly "sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Anne Hutchison," a Puritan outcast and sinner in her own right, who became more holy than most, possibly paralleling Hester's journey to the depths of sorrow and back. In spite of the darkness of their situation they live in truth, pride, goodness and honor, openly confessing their sin, becoming martyr like while suffering in silence. The rose bush also represents hope of escape from this thorny human condition. "It [rose bush] may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow."( 46). This foreshadowing allows the reader to contemplate Hester's possible redemption from alienation and isolation, permitting a more congenial human condition. This rose bush is a bright beacon of hope, helping steer Hester away from the darkness of isolation.

Another, and more important symbol used in this work is the scarlet letter 'A.' This symbol is so dominant that the entire text revolves around and is entitled after it. Hester openly wears the scarlet letter as a symbol and confession that she is a sinner. This identification pushes Hester out of the norm of society; becoming an outcast while also eclipsing her beauty, womanly qualities and passion. '"Mother,'" said little Pearl, '"the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. [...] It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!"'(168). Hester is even seemingly alienated from the sunlight; she is not shone down upon because of what is on her bosom, and what it represents. Pearl is too young and naive at this point to understand the true meaning of the letter, but does perceive that the scarlet letter on her mother's chest as a lack of sunshine in her mother's life. This deficiency has been brought upon her because of her sin and subsequent alienation from society. As the novel continues, she will attempt to work her way back into the loop of societies acceptance. The scarlet letter, although making Hester an outcast and creating an unhappy human condition, helps to strengthen her as an individual molding her into an understanding person, loving mother and a continuing source of learning and inspiration for her daughter Pearl.

But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed, from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman. She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness. [...] The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, --stern and wild ones, --and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss. (182-183).

These lessons in shame and despair help to reinstate Hester