The Influence of Hester’s Loneliness in The   　　　　  Scarlet Letter on the Contemporary Female

The Influence of Hester’s Loneliness in The   　　　　  Scarlet Letter on the Contemporary Female

王红艳

呼和浩特市土默特左旗第一职业中学  010100

Hawthorne is a great novelist. The Scarlet Letter is his masterpiece which has been studied by many scholars. This part mainly introduces him and his works in brief which can lay the foundations for the whole thesis.

The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne’s masterpiece. After it was published in 1850, Hawthorne was considered the most accomplished American writer of fiction. The publication of The Scarlet Letter marks the maturity of Hawthorne in novel writing. “At the moment, he can use the creative symbols, ambiguous art, psychological serious structure unity and poetic language in The Scarlet Letter, from which he receives extensive attention from literature world”(Peng Aimin, 2006:5).

The story in The Scarlet Letter is about a triangle love affair among Hester·Prynne, Roger·Chillingworth and ArthurDi·mmesdale. It happens in the 17th century in Boston, Massachuset. An aging English scholar — Roger·Chillingworth sends his beautiful young wife — Hester to make their new home in New England. But on the way to New England, Chillingworth lost for some unknown reasons. It is said that he may have been lost at sea. While waiting for her husband, Hester fell in love with a clergy man, Arthur·Dimmesdale , and gave birth to a child named Pearl. Their love affair resulted in adultery so that Hester stood on the stocks before the meeting house. When asked about who was the baby’s father, Hester refused to reveal. As the punishment, “she has to be sentenced to three hours on the scaffold and wear a scarlet letter ‘A’ on her breast for a life time which stands for adultery”.(Liu Wanyu,2011:21) When her husband came back to the town, he was bewildered to see the scene where his wife was wearing the scarlet letter “A” on her chest, holding her illicit child in her arms. Her husband, Chillingworth whose heart was wounded, decided to seek out the adulterer and wreak vengeance on him. Chillinworth became gradually acquainted with Dimmesdale both as his parishioner and his doctor. To his surprise, he found that Dimmesdale was no longer the much-admired brilliant young clergyman, he was just the adulterer. Fearing to face the adultery, the clergyman hided his sin and compunction all the time, he wounded deeply both psychologically and physically. In addition to torment of Chillingworth, he became weaker and weaker.

On the other hand, Hester lived on the fringe of community and suffered the social critics. She still bore the punishment courageously, expiated her sin by doing good deeds so that people would change the attitudes to her and her baby. At one time, Hester planned to leave America to Europe where they can live together as a family. “But before the ship to sail, Dimmesdale preached his most eloquent sermon for the town’s people. Afterwards he impulsively mounted the scaffold with his lover and baby and confessed his sin in public. Pearl kissed him but he was dead”(Peng Aimin, 2006:7).

Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth died a year later. Pearl grew up to be married into a noble family of Europe, but her mother did not want to live with her together, therefore her mother lived in the fringe of the community alone to the death.

Hester’s loneliness was shown in different aspects. In order to analyze her loneliness, we should first get to know her personality and her living environment as well as life experience. It is necessary to state the reasons, expressions and results of Hester’s loneliness. Besides, Hester’s approach of facing loneliness is worth learning.

Hester Prynne was a lonely pursuer of love, which was shown in the attitude towards Arthur·Dimmesdale. Hester was a beautiful young woman, as the author’s description in The Scarlet Letter. “….tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale, she had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes”(Hawthorne, 2011:51). On the other hand, her beauty might be the roots that cause her misfortune. She lived in a noble family but, unfortunately, her parents let her marry an old scholar, Chillingworth, whom she did not like at all. From now on, her unlucky life began. After they were married, they decided to move to Boston. Her husband brought her there but he was lost and there was not any news about him in two years. During the time in Massachuset, Boston, she fell in love with the clergyman, Arthur·Dimmesdale, who was lack of courage to bear the responsibility and gave birth to their baby, Pearl. With the coming of Pearl, their love affair can not be hidden. According to puritan’s rules, if Hester told the public who was the baby’s father, she would be forgiven. To people’s surprise, she refused to do it. Namely she chose to bear it by herself. As the punishment, she had to wear the scarlet letter “A” on her chest all her life. Thus she had to bring up Pearl alone under the criticism of society. It is easily to know that how difficult the life was. She lived alone in the fringe of the town in an old and shabby cottage. The description of her life also revealed the humanity. Although she was punished and deserted, she still insisted her quality as human. For instance, she still longed for beauty. The red “A” on her chest was always done artistically. Besides, she also bought the expensive and beautiful clothes for her daughter to make up the little child.

In addition, Hester’s attitudes towards life showed her bravery and determination. She was so brave that we can see the woman image that would be admired. From the above analysis, we can see that Hester was a heroine under the pen of author. The sprits of heroine were shown on all aspects, such as her bravery to face all the difficulties coming from the adultery, her rebellion to the rules of Puritan. On the other hand, she was the representative of kindness, since she tried her best to help those who were in trouble. For example, she served to the sick, the poor. Time went away, what she had done had been seen by her neighbors. “In the face of subsequent behavior, the public memory of her initial sin has been dimmed, and the letter ‘A’ which originally stood for ‘Adultery’ is said by many to stand for ‘Able’”(Zhao li, 2010:145). Therefore, there are many spirits that is worth learning in Hester.

The reasons of Hester’s loneliness come from different kinds of aspects, and it can be pided into two mainly aspects: the objective reasons and the subjective reasons. It is well known that the one comes from Hester self; another comes from the conditions of the out world.

The objective reasons include Puritanism and Transcendentalism, “Puritanism has a profound effect on American culture. As a political, social, and cultural force, Puritanism lasted until around 1728” (Liu Wanyu, 2011:10) The story of The Scarlet Letter was set in Boston, where local people regarded Puritanism as the only standards of judgment. Besides the influence of Puritanism, another one is Transcendentalism which also had much effect on Hester. Transcendentalism emphasized more on closing to nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the leader of this movement, published an essay, “Nature” which is an experience of solitude, Hawthorne was deeply influenced by the Transcendentalism. As the heroine of The Scarlet Letter, Hester was also more or less influenced by the Transcendentalism to some extent.

Speaking from the subjective reasons, Hester’s parents, husband, lover even her daughter are all the causes of her loneliness. Hester lived happily with her parents until she grew up. Her parents let her marry an old, ugly, disabled man whom Hester has no feeling on. Since her marriage, she has no connection with her parents. Her husband did not understand her because of the age gap. Therefore, Hester was lonely due to the lack of the love from her parents and her husband. Lacking of true love of Dimmesdale also leaded to the loneliness Hester. When she settled in Boston, in which everything was foreign to her, she also felt lonely. With the loneliness of all kinds, they fell in love naturally. As a result, they had a baby, which revealed their secret of their love affair. “At that time, this love is regard as illegal, violating the clause of Puritan. The sin is committed by two persons, and the two must burden the punishment together” (Liu Wanyu, 2011:14). However, Hester chose to face all results alone to protect Dimmesdale who is not worth to fall in love. Dimmesdale who was a coward also brought the loneliness to Hester.

Because of her sin, the people around her keep away with her and despise her. “In all her intercourse with society, however, there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it. Every word and even the silence of those with whom she came in contact, implied and often expressed that she was banished and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere, or communicated with the common nature by other organs and scenes than the rest of human kind” (Hawthorne, 2011:89) At first, there was no way for her to communicate with other people because of the punishment. Over time, people have changed the prejudice to her, but she still refused to communicate with others.

At the beginning of the novel, we can see the lonely image of Hester, standing before the gate of the prison, holding her infant baby. In order to enrich her life, she did the following things as the expressions of her loneliness.

First, she rebelled against her husband; she fell in love with the clergyman Dimmesdale. The marriage between her and her husband should not be arranged because their was no true love. For the sake of he parents, she accepted it. Ultimately, she ran away from the unhappy marriage. Second, her short-spoken language also revealed her loneliness. With her pregnancy, the secret can no longer be hidden. “Although the punishment was severe, she never made much explanation and complaints but keep silent. Facing people’s abuse, she chose to tolerate all things silently, instead of arguing on the basis of reason” (Xu Jing, 2011:12).

Released from the prison, Hester lived in a small cottage far away from the town, which was abandoned by earlier settlers. In the novel the details show Hester’s loneliness from all kinds of aspects, such as the living conditions after released from the prison, the location of her house, the surroundings, even when her daughter got married, she still came back to the single house to live in.

All the expression of Hester suggests that she was lonely in her inner world. The result of the loneliness is that all the characters in the novel had some unhappy experience, especially Chillingworth and Demmisdale, they were not relieved until death. Because of Hester’ loneliness, her daughter did not have a happy childhood; her husband lived under the shadow of avenging; her lover died with a terribly guilty conscience. From the above, the results brought by the loneliness are negative, but on the other hand, it also has its positive aspects that Hester faced the difficulties bravely and we can learn something from her. After the secret was revealed, she chose to bear all the things that “adultery” brought. To some extent, she was so brave to face the difficulties though she suffered a lot coming from the inner world.

How does Hester’s loneliness influence contemporary females’ life? On the aspects of life, I would like to analyze from women themselves. Most of contemporary females have their job. After they finish the whole day work, they have to do the housework. If their husbands cannot understand them and help them to do something, they would feel easily helpless and lonely so that they would find their new ways to solve this loneliness and helplessness.

If they are in loneliness, they feel unhappy and depressed. The hurt will happen both in physical and mental health.

Under the pen of Hawthorne, Hester suffered a lot of loneliness, so she had an extramarital affair. Perhaps, the contemporary female will also have extramarital affair like Hester. They will also bring misfortune to the whole family. The recent convey found that the damage of loneliness caused by various reasons is not inferior to smoking and obesity. John·Cacioppo, an American psychologist, from Chicago University, said that “loneliness can weaken human immune system so that blood pressure rises, pressure increase, and even cause the depression”. Scientist also found that loneliness can damage will and determination, which is not beneficial to keep healthy life style. Female is no exception. As a coin has two sides, loneliness brings Hester another spirit—courage to rebel the conventional Puritanism for her freedom. Hester and contemporary female have a common feature, which is that they both want to make a living by themselves. Such a positive aspect should be advocated. After The Scarlet Letter was published, many scholars have studied image of female in it. I think the female image has largely affected many contemporary female.

To sum up, the influence on romantic relationship has both positive and negative aspects. It depends on how do you think of it.

When talked about family and child, it is not difficult for us to associate with women, because women are the indispensable member of a family. Women in a family have an important position where they are the mother of their children and the example of their children. Women have been the leaders of a family since ancient times , and women are responsible for the family trifles. So they have a close relation between others.

How does the loneliness influence family? It mainly makes a difference by women, so does children. Hester’s loneliness leads to her extramarital affair which has great influence on her family. When her husband found her crime, he was determined to find who was the adulterer and must give him some punishment. “When he discovers that Dimmesdale is the person he is seeking for, he takes crazy revenge on him”(Liu Wanyu, 2011:28). Actually speaking his psychology has serious problems. He lives in the crazy state and loses himself. Hester’s loneliness breaks down her family and brings huge damage to her husband making him be a revenge-seeker. Everyone has similar ideas, contemporary people are no exception. With the great pressure of work and life in present competitive society, people’s psychological problem can not be ignored, especially in the family. If a wife has the same experience as Hester, it will be difficult to say what would happen to the family.

As for the children, children are too young to bear the mishap of the family. Children are in growing time, and parents should prepare a good environment for their growing up. Just like Hester’s daughter, Pearl, she lived with her mother but lacked father’s love. We all know that what children coming from the single-parent family are like? Parents are the best teachers to their children. Family is the basic unit of the society, so family harmony is very important. It is also a response to build a harmonious society.

“The Scarlet Letter attained an immediate and lasting success because it addressed spiritual and moral issues from a unique American standpoint”(Liu Wanyu,2011:30). The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne’s masterpiece because its unique novel plot attracts readers. In the description of the novel, Hester experienced so many disasters, but she still fought with the convention and Puritanism for her own freedom and pursued for her true love. As a mother, she tried her best to give her daughter better living conditions. As to herself, lacking love she had to bear loneliness coming from physical and mental aspects. On the way to Boston, her husband lost. When living in Boston, she refused to speak out who was the adulterer, she had to live and bring up little Pearl lonely. More seriously, she had to face the scolding from the public, which is the most unbearable. Even so, her daughter was not only close to her, this is another kind of loneliness.

When facing loneliness, how should we do, what can we learn from Hester?

From Hester’s behaviors, we can see that she is a brave and staunch woman. When the adultery was revealed, she was calm and chose to bear the consequences by herself. From Hester, we learn that one should be brave and staunch when he or she was in difficulties, we learn that one should have the responsibilities for what she or he had done, and we learn that we should be kind......

In a word, Hester’s positive attitudes lead to the rebirth. Hester was confronted with her punishment bravely by doing good deeds; she changed the meaning of the scarlet letter “A” gradually,from “Adultery” to “Able” to “Angle”. From the novel, people learn that one can change their life better as long as he changes the attitudes toward life.

References

［1］Bian Jun, The Analysis of the Psychological Description in The Scarlet Letter,济南：科技信息,2010.8

［2］Liu Wanyu,A study of Loneliness in The Scarlet Letter, The Determine Effect of the Characters’ Attitudes towards Loneliness on Their Destiny,武汉：华中师范大学 2011

［3］Peng Aimin,On the Theme of Loneliness in The Scarlet Letter,武汉：武汉理工大学 2006