Chapters 1-4 Response

Nathaniel Hawthorne begins the Scarlet Letter with a description of the Massachusetts Bay Colony prison and cemetery. As we discussed in class, both the prison and the cemetery are factors that instill fear and control into the daily lives of those who live in the strict Puritan society. Among the "bearded men in sad-colored garments, and gray, steeple-crowned hats" (45) and the heavy oak door, "studded with iron spikes" (45) lies a rose bush said to have "sprung up under the foot-steps of the sainted Anne Hutchinson" (46). Anne Hutchinson was a woman who was banned from the Puritan society for challenging the strict Puritan way of life. In the Puritans' minds she is a symbol of crime and sin similar to the protagonist of the novel, Hester Prynne. Both the rose and Hester have parallel qualities. Roses are thought of as beautiful and sweet but every rose has its thorns. The thorns make the roses dangerous and untouchable. Hester's beauty is apparent in her entrance because although she was trapped in an ominous dungeon for weeks before this day, she is described as "a figure of perfect elegance" (50). Hester Prynne emerges from the prison wearing the only thing comparable to the bright roses, a scarlet A standing for adultery. This scarlet color will most likely be a motif throughout the book; already mentioned in the roses and the letter as a symbol of standing out against a sea of conformity. Hawthorne develops his criticism for the Puritan customs through his description of the event happening on the day of Hester's time on the scaffold. He describes the men sitting around Hester while she is on the scaffold; "They were, doubtless, good men, just and sage. But, out of the whole human family, it would not have been easy to select the same number of wise and virtuous persons, who should be less capable of sitting in judgment on an erring woman's heart" (60). Hawthorne's description of the incapability of these men to fairly judge Hester displays the unfairness of the Puritan society. Each of these virtuous men as well as those watching Hester's punishment have sinned for it is human nature to sin. Even in a religious view human error began with the sins of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Although all of the onlookers have their own faults, they chose to reprimand Hester for hers and use her as a scapegoat for the society.

Above are the pictures of Hester Prynne and Virgin Mary. While standing on the scaffold Hester was compared to Mary,
"He might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, [...] something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world. Here, there was the taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life, working such effect, that the world was only the darker for this woman's beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne" (53).
Hester is portrayed as the Divine Maternity only in comparison to those who surround her. Compared to the sinners in the crowd around her, she is pure. Her beauty is described as shining around her making the rest of the world dark, as the Virgin Mary is often portrayed.