After Reading

The whole story of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is centered on this piece of scarlet cloth, with the shape of letter “A”, which had been wrought with wonderful skill of needlework, and might had sparkled brilliantly on one’s bosom. However, such extraordinary masterpiece has so special meanings and symbols that it burned the author’s hand at the touch of it and grasped the readers’ heart throughout the novel. The first, yet most obvious symbol of letter “A” is adultery, the crime that Hester committed and had been punished for. Her love affairs with Arthur Dimmesdale and the birth of an illegitimate child Pearl was viewed as ignominy. She was forced to stand on the scaffold of the pillory, an infant on her arm, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her,and concentrated on the scarlet letter, so fantastically embroidered upon her bosom. In the eyes of Puritans, from governors, clergyman, to matrons and children, Hester was a sinner, with the scarlet letter “A” as a mark of shame,which should be remained for the rest of her life as a punishment. As for Hester, she accepted her crime and the identity the society assigned for her, and spared no effort to make atonement for her sins. She lived in a mall thatched cottage, with no neighborhoods, earned her living by handiwork, and led the most plainest and ascetic life. Besides, she employed in making coarse garments for the poor and spared her money for charity.However, Hester had never yielded and she shaped others’ view on the interpretation of the letter at last. When insulted by John Wilson in public, and threatened by Chilingworth in the prison, she never gave in Pearl’s father’s name and chose to bear the shame and punishment on her own. Though the letter bore the meaning of ignominy, she exhausted her imagination and craftsmanship to make it illuminated on her bosom. She named the infant “Pearl”, cherished her with all she had, allowed her imaginative faculty its full play in the arrangement and decoration of the dresses the child wore, strived for her rights to breed her when the governor tried to take it away. These behaviors best reflect the most rebellious spirit and unrestricted thought, in which she questioned the whole system of society, and expected that women could be allowed to assume a fair and suitable situation. Her benefactions and ascetic life finally moved others. They refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. Instead, they said it meant Able and regarded it as something sacred as a cross on a nun’s bosom. Many years later, when she settled back to New England, local women, with wounds and sorrows, sought for her counsels and comforts. She was an angel in their eyes and served as a prophetess, who assured them that a new relation between man and woman is to be established on a surer ground of mutual happiness. All in all, the plot progressed with the shift of the meaning of scarlet letter and the identity society assigns to Hester, from the original mark of “Adultery”, and Hester’s “Atonement”, through her “Ability” and “Antagonism”, to the pure and spiritual “Angel”, full of love and “Affection”.