A Characteristics Analysis of Scarlett Letter Defying on Major Essay

A Characteristics Analysis of Scarlett Letter Defying on Major Characters - Essay Example Hawthorne as a moralist defines the novel an investigative journey of human decency. While also as a determinist and skeptic thinker of human psychology some romanticism somehow presents the novel is a notable one of its own kind of interpersonal conflict by the nature of relationship and chemistry of different choices of intimated looks. Hawthorne, not apprehensive with the causes of committed sin, seems to overlook the outcomes of practicing so. For Hawthorne, sin has a conditional perspective by an individual’s strength of feelings in the way of life he has to go. By his view, an individual should only feel guiltiness when he acts against the creator, nature morally and subjected to the highly exercised social code or general standards of morality. Indeed all the three main characters –Hester, Dimmesdale and Pearls- in Hawthorne’s â€Å"Scarlet Letter† are characterized with the psychological schisms that are based on the perception of their sin. Contra st between Hester’s and Puritan View of Sin and Adultery Unlike Dimmesdale, Hester is an evil in the society’s eye. Though Hester has been abandoned by the society because of her adultery, she never perceives her adultery as an offense against God. She consciously avoids such feeling of being isolated from creator as she believes her disloyal act not a typical sin against the creator. Hester Prynne is treated by the society of the time as a great sinner, an outcast an object of ridicule and contempt. This attitude of society makes her feel that the scarlet letter â€Å"A† is burning on her bosom. In all her intercourse with society there is nothing to give her the feeling that she belongs to it. She awakens only horror and repugnance in the minds of the townsfolk whose words of scorn and hatred often fall upon her â€Å"like a rough blow upon an ulcerated wound† (Hawthorne, 2005, p. 45). When strangers look curiously at the scarlet letter, â€Å"they bra nded it afresh into Hester’s soul† while â€Å"an accustomed eye had like wish its own anguish to inflict.† (Hawthorne, 2005, p. 67) It is extremely painful for the readers to read about the way Hester Prynne is treated by this puritanical society and there is no doubt that Hawthorne’s own sympathies are on the side of Hester. The attitudes of even the leading citizens like Governor Bellingham and the Reverend Mr. john Wilson, towards Hester’s guilt show patriachy. Hester possesses the distinctive womanly virtues such as passionate devotions of a wife and a mother. After she gets her sentence she remains physically meek. But mentally she remains defiant. Due to the pressure of the puritan society, she gradually moves away from a woman’s natural sphere. She does not accept adultery as a sin but she does accept it to be a violation of social norms and customs. She comprehends that Pearl’s existence is the violation of a great law but she continues to be submissive to that law but defiant to the society. She is still at odds with society when she suggests flight with Dimmesdale. Even at the time of the minister’s public confession, she hopes that she and Dimmesdale will be united in the next world. After the death of Dimmesdale, she has to start a new life. But she must learn about the impropriety of her past thinking, Mathews (1957) says, â€Å"But she must recognize the unsoundness of her past thinking and make inner expiation† (p. 282). In her humble cottage she takes the proper place of women, with a natural compassion and love for those who need her. Dichotomy in Arthur Dimmesdale’s Character Though Dimmesdale occupies a reverend position in the Boston society,