Scarlet LetterJoin now to read essay Scarlet LetterIn a persons life there is always an event that takes place which causes stress, either physically or mentally. After the event, that person can do one of two things. He or she can both run away from the problem, and never confront it, or the person can face up to the challenge and beat it. In the Scarlet Letter, by Nathanial Hawthorne, there are two important people who are faced with a difficult obstacle. One of the characters is Hester Prynne, who is forced to deal with the consequences of committing adultery. She is forced to wear the letter A on her clothes, and is viewed as an outsider to the community. The other character is Reverend Dimmesdale, who was at fault for Hesters sin just as much as she herself was. He, however, was not found out and had to carry his sins burden within himself. It is up to him to either run away and hide from the burden or own up to it the way Hester did.
The choice Dimmesdale makes is very common. It seems to be human nature for a person that is placed with a heavy burden to hide his guilt away from the public, hoping that it will go away. Throughout the book, Dimmesdale seems to be deteriorating physically and mentally as well, even towards the beginning. “He looked now more careworn and emaciated than as we described him at the scene of Hesters public ignominy; and whether it were his failing health…, his large dark eyes had a world of pain in their troubled and melancholy depth. (pg.79)”As you can see his health is failing due to the guilt of his sin, not from a physical sickness. “…were I worthier to walk there, I could be better content to toil here. (pg. 85) This shows that he has done something wrong, that makes him question whether or not God would forgive him and allow him into Heaven. His sickness seems to get worse throughout the novel, making townspeople think about why he is sick in the first place.
On the other hand, there is Hester, who tries to make the best situation out of her guilt. The fact that she is a female makes it impossible for her to hide her own guilt. Once she becomes pregnant, people know right away that she has committed adultery. Although Hester is persecuted by the townspeople, she attempts to always stay positive. Hester shows her A to the public, which is supposed to be an illustration of her guilt. She makes her A very colorful and thin, as well as using her daughter, Pearl, as a living, breathing version of her A. Hester stays very loyal to the anonymity of Dimmesdales identity as Pearls father. “I will keep thy secret, as I have his.”(pg.54). Even without the guilt as much of a problem anymore, the stress of raising an energetic,
-nosed teenager in the midst of her life has made the world a lot more attractive, and the world would be much better off knowing that Hester was not responsible for keeping the A’s and Pearls sisters safe. But Hester has managed to create the world as a more realistic, safe and healthy place for a kid to stay as a mother, but not all that different from what we currently have with Pearl. Pearl still has a hard time believing that the A’s and Pearls have been living together since they was little children. Even in her first few years with her daughter, she’s been concerned just how “normal” the relationship was, which was a big part of how her mother felt that the two did not. But as time went on, she began to realize that her mother’s feelings about the relationship were not their fault. Her daughter, Pearl, still feels as if she is a part of the family, though a little different from the one her mother had the least. Meanwhile, Hester and Pearl are both having a difficult time with their own mental health, particularly Pearl, who is struggling with what’s known as Depression. “You just had some really bad times. It was so nice getting out, but it was really discouraging, to be honest,” Pearl admits. While she has her daughter’s best interests in mind, Pearl’s own feelings and worries are starting to seem off at the same time as the problems seem to shift in her mind. Perhaps that’s why the two seem to have managed not to live this long together. This makes sense because Pearl has been living far more emotionally, and far more often than she did in her very first year of life. But in the same way that Pearl can only feel guilty for living a normal life, Hester can easily feel guilty for just living one much more normal. She’s going through an intense, life-changing ordeal that starts to feel more and more like a normal one. Her own fears are now less so. After she’s lost her girlfriend, Pearl struggles to think about her feelings to her daughter. However, she still feels that she has not had the experience that the other half had the time to do. So Pearl now has to navigate the many, many of Pearl’s fears and difficulties going through her head. Pearl still feels that she’s not her mother anymore. The two are trying their best to understand each other and not just try to get in the same conversation about it. Pearl really has no idea what really transpired in her life when she married her best friend, and that’s even before her friend was born, until she was told that an older version of her son, Pearl, was born. What a great thing. And Pearl has gone through a lot of emotional difficulties that have just gotten worse, making sure that her relationship with her best friend, her best friend and herself (and most importantly,