The Scarlet Letter: Hester's Guilt
Hester Prynne is the person forced to bear the truth of her inappropriate actions in public, symbolized by the scarlet letter she wears on her chest, in The Scarlet Letter. This treatment of Puritan society changes her entire world, and isolates her from everyone, but how exactly does she view herself? Hester, having lived among a Puritan doctrine for so long, cannot help but be influenced by it, and although she did what she did out of love, she does see her act as a sin. She feels what she did was wrong, and so she tries to seek a sort of forgiveness, by engaging herself in many acts of charity. The ultimate evidence that she holds her deeds as unrighteous, not only at the beginning but throughout the book, is the fact that she finds the only solution for her and Dimmesdale to be together, is for them to run away from the truth. Through all these actions, it is clear that Hester judges herself as a sinner, but not out of her own opinion, but out of the opinion of Puritan society as a whole. She is penitent and rather submissive to the puritan society, showing that even though she does judge herself, she does it according to her dogma, not her heart. Hester does not try to hide from herself the fact that what she did was a w
Clearly, she continues to judge herself according to Puritan society, so her only solution out of the past persecution, and persecution sure to follow if Dimmesdale reveals his true involvement with her, is to flee the society that holds her conduct against her. Her sense of dogma, although not overpowering her sense of affection, did find a way to impede her from continuing with a clear consciousness. After all, in this statement she fears the result of her past actions, and it being under the control of the Puritans, it requires not a sharp state of concentration to realize the way she judges her actions; by Puritan standards, not her own. This is clearly presented to the reader as a rather cognizant point, such as the sentence, "She knew that her deed had been evil; she could have no faith, therefore, that its result would be for good. Her only solution is to leave and start over, showing she admits to having done something wrong, after all, a person who does not owe, does not woe. She bows to God just as strongly as she bows to love. Hester Prynne does not see herself as a victim, she only acknowledges that she has engaged in an unrighteous act, and her punishment is just, she does not try to hide it from herself, and so she seeks forgiveness by being a penitent human being, and finally, she shows her utter acceptance of her everlasting shame by choosing the desertion of Boston, as the only way to escape her persecution, thusly admitting she sinned. In her eyes, she is doing what she must to cleanse herself, and feeling like she should to respect Puritan believes. This being stated, it appears that she is sorry for having hurt the society she lives in, but not for following her heart. She is sorry for sinning, but she can not bring herself to disprove of the thought of Dimmesdale and herself together. Hester does not feel spite towards the Puritans believing that they are overreacting, instead she feels that she has sinned, according to God's law.
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