Isolation in The Scarlet Letter Essay Sample

“You can't please everyone. When you're too focused on living up to other people's standards, you aren't spending enough time raising your own” (Carr). In the book, Hester is ostracized by the Puritans for her unhideable sin. She is  isolated and treated as an outcast, and from the outside, Hester sees what no one else sees, what no one else wants to see. She develops a sense for detecting when someone is sinning, but unlike them, she has the decency to ignore it. Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter in order to illustrate that one often ignores their conscience to fit society's cruel standards and keep up their reputation.

Firstly, the Puritans' reaction to the scaffolding shows their lack of empathy and ignorance when dealing with those they like and those they do not. For example, when Hester stands on top of the scaffold after she has gotten out of the jail, the bystanding women say:

‘At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead. Madam Hester would have winced at that, I warrant me. But she,—the naughty baggage,—little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown! Why, look you, she may cover it with a brooch, or such like heathenish adornment, and so walk the streets as brave as ever!’(Hawthorne 57-58)

The women try to make her suffer even more even though if they were in her place they would not want that happening to them. They show no empathy,kindness, or even thought about what she is going through. Another example is when Dimmesdale’s glove was found on the scaffold, “‘It was found,’ said the sexton, ‘this morning, on the scaffold where evil-doers are set up to public shame. Satan dropped it there, I take it, intending a scurrilous jest against your reverence. But, indeed, he was blind and foolish, as he ever and always is. A pure hand needs no glove to cover it!’” (Hawthorne 192). The sexton does not think anything of Dimmesdale’s glove showing how oblivious the Puritans are. He even goes  as far to blame the finding on supernatural forces because he cannot fathom the minister going anywhere near the scaffold. Thereupon, the Puritans do not give everyone a fair chance. 

Subsequently, the Puritans have an inability to forgive both each other as well as themselves. For example, while walking through town, the Puritan children start to throw mud at them: 

As the two wayfarers came within the precincts of the town, the children of the Puritans looked up from their play,—or what passed for play with those sombre little urchins,—and spake gravely one to another:— ‘Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and, of a truth, moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter running along by her side! Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them!’ (Hawthorne 122)

The town's detest for Hester has even spread to their children, meaning parents are going around telling their children about a lady who wears an “A” as punishment for her crimes. This shows how Hester is not only not allowed forgiveness and closure from the townspeople but it gets so bad that she doesn’t let herself get forgiveness and closure due to her not speaking against the children. Another example is when Chillingworth finds the scar on Dimmesdale's chest: 

But, with what a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror! With what a ghastly rapture, as it were, too mighty to be expressed only by the eye and features, and therefore bursting forth through the whole ugliness of his figure, and making itself even riotously manifest by the extravagant gestures with which he threw up his arms towards the ceiling, and stamped his foot upon the floor! Had a man seen old Roger Chillingworth, at that moment of his ecstasy, he would have had no need to ask how Satan comports himself, when a precious human soul is lost to heaven, and won into his kingdom. But what distinguished the physician’s ecstasy from Satan’s was the trait of wonder in it! (Hawthorne 167-168)

 Dimmesdale put a permanent scar on himself due to the pain of committing sin. And continues to torture himself by staying around Chillingworth, he refuses to be empathetic towards even himself. Thus, the puritans struggle with forgiving themselves as well as others around them.

In addition, the Puritans also ignore their own sins in order to focus on others. For example, when Dimmesdale wants to get on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl, he finally confesses his sins to the world:

It is inconceivable, the agony with which this public veneration tortured him! It was his genuine impulse to adore the truth, and to reckon all things shadow-like, and utterly devoid of weight or value, that had not its divine essence as the life within their life. Then, what was he?—a substance?—or the dimmest of all shadows? He longed to speak out, from his own pulpit, at the full height of his voice, and tell the people what he was. ‘I, whom you behold in these black garments of the priesthood,—I, who ascend the sacred desk, and turn my pale face heavenward, taking upon myself to hold communion, in your behalf, with the Most High Omniscience,—I, in whose daily life you discern the sanctity of Enoch,—I, whose footsteps, as you suppose, leave a gleam along my earthly track, whereby the pilgrims that shall come after me may be guided to the regions of the blest,—I, who have laid the hand of baptism upon your children,—I, who have breathed the parting prayer over your dying friends, to whom the Amen sounded faintly from a world which they had quitted,—I, your pastor, whom you so reverence and trust, am utterly a pollution and a lie!’ (Hawthorne 174)

Dimmesdale has problems forgiving himself for both committing an act of sin but also for abandoning Hester. This lack of forgiveness, mostly aimed towards himself, shows how the puritans struggle to move on from major issues that happen in both their lives and even those around them. Another example is when Chillingworth starts poisoning Dimmesdale: 

Sometimes, a light glimmered out of the physician’s eyes, burning blue and ominous, like the reflection of a furnace, or, let us say, like one of those gleams of ghastly fire that darted from Bunyan’s awful doorway in the hillside, and quivered on the pilgrim’s face. The soil where this dark miner was working had perchance shown indications that encouraged him. ‘This man,’ said he, at one such moment, to himself, ‘pure as they deem him,—all spiritual as he seems,—hath inherited a strong animal nature from his father or his mother. Let us dig a little further in the direction of this vein!’ (Hawthorne 157)

Chillingworth judges Dimmesdale severely for his sin even though Hester, his wife who he supports, committed the same sin with him. This is hypocritical of Chillingworth and shows his lack of empathy. Consequently, this shows how the puritans ignore their issues, in order to please others as well as blame others. 

Overall, the standards enforced by puritan society often show peoples cruel lack of ethics and values used to stay relevant. The relevance is only temporary and in order to maintain it these people feel they have to continue to call or take it out on others. This creates a never ending cycle of discrimination and bullying, as well as, segregation sometimes. Perhaps society as a whole needs to rethink their values, ethics, values, and morality.