Hester Prynne and Christ Symbology Nathaniel Hawthorne's Research Paper

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Hester Prynne and Christ Symbology

Nathaniel Hawthorne's character of Hester Prynne in the novel The Scarlet Letter remains one of the most powerful literary figures of all time and much has been made about her critically throughout the decades. Literary critics have compared her as an early feminist leader and others have compared her to a magical superhero. This paper intends to discuss how Hawthorne actually works very hard to consistently develop Hester Prynne into Christ-like figure through description and deed. Hawthorne's development of Hester in this manner manifests as a scathing criticism towards the puritan religion as a whole.

Nathaniel Hawthorne began to make a strong case in asserting that Hester Prynne was indeed a Christ-like figure and elevated above the baseness of the New England Puritanical religion from his very first description of Hester Prynne. Hawthorne begins slowly, establishing that Hester is a commanding, regal figure: "The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam; and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes. She was ladylike, too, after the manner of the feminine gentility of those days; characterized by a certain state and dignity, rather than by the delicate, evanescent, and indescribable grace which is now recognized as its indication" (Hawthorne, 5). This description makes a powerful and moving case as a means of describing just how much more superior Hester was over the base residents of this colony. Yet, the description of Hester is so moving and so vivid, it almost imprints Hester with this ethereal quality, making her seem both stunning and other worldly. During Hester's walk to the scaffold, the residents of the town "were astonished, and even startled, to perceive how her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped" (Hawthorne 5). For a writer who chooses his words as precisely as Hawthorne, the fact that he chose to describe Hester as one who has a halo around her is absolutely no accident. By imprinting Hawthorne with this described halo, he's giving her the sense of being one who is exquisite and angelic and also purer and more important than the townspeople who surround her. This description makes her seem saintly. Even the perceived impact of the Scarlet Letter is something which only has an effect of bolstering her otherworldliness, making her seem even more saint-like: "It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself" (Hawthorne, 5).

In fact, the entire scene at the scaffold is clearly evocative of the crucifixion of Jesus on the Cross. There are some obviously similar elements such as both scenes had elements of public spectacle, and both figures were gawked at by others from below -- Christ on the cross and Hester on the scaffolding. However, both instances had certain aspects of hypocrisy in them of the onlookers engaging in the spectacle. The Jews who crucified Jesus and the Puritans who humiliated Hester, both believed themselves to exist on a higher moral ground. They were motivated by a sense of false self-righteousness and superiority. The believed themselves to be "good people" yet their actions obviously made it clear that they were anything but: "The witnesses of Hester Prynne's disgrace had not yet passed beyond their simplicity. They were stern enough to look upon her death, had that been the sentence, without a murmur at its severity, but had none of the heartlessness of another social state, which would find only a theme for jest in an exhibition like the present" (Hawthorne, 8). This excerpt makes a strong connection between Hester and Christ as Hawthorne points out the sheer depravity of these townspeople; he makes a strong case to explain that these people would absolutely not have bat an eyelash at the murder of a woman, the murder of a mother with child. Hawthorne shows without a doubt the disconnect these Puritan people have between fundamental values of human goodness and the realities of their behavior and the coldness and lack of empathy that they have for Hester Prynne. This profound lack of empathy is evocative of the Jews who crucified Jesus and who were able to watch a young man being crucified on the cross, without running in repulsion and horror of the sheer grotesqueness of the situation.

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Another aspect in the way that Hawthorne is able to instill Hester with a Christ-like evocativeness is the way in which he gives her a strong level of agency. Just as Christ is able to heal the sick and turn water into wine, Hester has her own agency. When the reader first meets her and the scarlet letter she is adorned with, "She has rewritten the letter, reworking the badge of shame into an object of beauty. She will rewrite the meaning of the letter as well: the town first reads the letter as "adulteress," but because 'Such helpfulness was found in her -- so much power to do, and power to sympathize… many people refused to interpret the Scarlet letter A by its original signification. They said it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength (110-111). Before the story ends, she will have rewritten it yet again as: 'Angel'" (Lewes, 162). While some scholars might argue that there is a certain level of transformation that Hester makes through the course of the novel, this is not correct. In reality, Hester has been a celestial character, a Christ-figure the entire time: it just takes the townspeople time to realize this and to see her goodness for what it is.

Another manner by which Hawthorne is able to establish Hester's sense of celestial goodness, a goodness which is evocative of Christ himself, is by her profound sense of non-judgement. Her character could have easily been consumed with bitterness regarding Dimmesdale; she could have easily regarded him with fury and disgust, calling him out on his cowardess. Instead, in a Christ-like manner she reserves judgment and is able to regard the minister with a certain degree of sympathy and empathy. As Hawthorne describes, "Little accustomed, in her long seclusion from society, to measure her ideas of right and wrong by any standard external to herself, Hester saw -- or seemed to see -- that there lay a responsibility upon her in reference to the clergyman, which she owned to no other, nor to the whole world besides. The links that united her to the rest of humankind -- links of flowers, or silk, or gold, or whatever the material -- had all been broken. Here was the iron link of mutual crime, which neither he nor she could break. Like all other ties, it brought along with it its obligations" (Ch13, p.1). In acknowledging this connection that Hester has to Dimmesdale, she is making an acknowledgment that he refuses (at least until the very end of the book). She forgives and seeks to help him when he has fundamentally abandoned her. This is something which even he is not capable of doing. However, for Hester and the ethereal goodness that has been instilled in her via Hawthorne, such behavior is second nature for her; it's nearly effortless.

This saint like behavior does not discriminate and Hester does not reserve it just for people who are close to her: like Christ himself, Hester opens her heart even to those who persecute her. "Hester, the narrator intones, 'had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment.' Instead, she 'comforted and counseled' others, in particular the troubled women of the community, assuring them that in heaven's own time, a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness.' While awaiting this utopia, Hester devotes her life to easing the pain of others" (Ryan, 161). This is nearly identical to Christ healing the sick and comforting the poor. Hester demonstrates a strong level of Christ-like abilities coupled with a willingness to give of herself to others even those who persecute her. Through this device, Hawthorne is making a scathing indictment of the puritan beliefs and values, as he's demonstrating that Hester, through love, forgiveness and compassion, was doing God's work more acutely than the Puritans, who were convinced of the fact that it was they who were doing God's work. The Puritan's of Hawthorn's book no doubt thought that the Scarlet Letter administered on Hester was benevolent as she was not placed in a stockade and spat upon or laughed at (ushistory.org). "The Puritans believed they were doing God's work. Hence, there was little room for compromise. Harsh punishment was inflicted on those who were seen….....

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