The scarlet letter in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work of the same name is a symbol that serves multiple purposes. The letter starts out as symbol of corruption and the need for penitence. But Hester transforms it into a symbol of her individuality and hardworking nature and then it becomes a symbol of her holiness. The transformation of the scarlet letter ultimately symbolizes a powerful reclamation of self on Hester’s part and also symbolizes how she proves the assumptions made about her to be wrong.
Hester is made to wear the scarlet letter as a symbol of her adultery. It is an act of penance for her. The color of the letter has many negative connotations. A “scarlet woman” is considered to be a sexually promiscuous woman. This goes all the way back to the Bible, where a woman dressed in scarlet sitting upon a scarlet beast was referred to as “mother of harlots and abominations of the earth” (Nelson).
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It is clear from this that Hester’s punishment is very gendered and entrenched in the idea that being sexually active is considered to be one of the worst things a woman can be and the ultimate “corruption”. After all, Hester believed her husband was dead. She was not betraying anyone, but merely expressing her sexual autonomy rather and choosing not to cling to the past. It was Hester being a sexual being rather than considering herself to be the eternal property of her dead husband that upset the Puritan community, not her supposed adultery. So the scarlet letter was meant to symbolize that Hester was a woman corrupted by sex who should be cowed into submission.
But rather than wear the symbol as a mark of shame, Hester transforms to symbol into something beautiful that is a mark of her own individuality. She makes the letter herself, and it is described as being so beautifully embroidered, artistic and full of splendor. It’s even described as being full of fertility and that is a term full of sexual implications.
Rather than hide, Hester wears her brand beautifully and looks at her audience without shame. She does not hide her sexuality, but infuses her fertility into the very letter that is supposed to condemn it. It is a subtle rebellion and an assertion of her individuality against a community that wants to punish her for it.
Hester further transforms the symbol by being a hardworking and charitable woman. Some members of the community even come to refuse to say the scarlet letter stands for adulterer, choosing to say that the A stands for “able”, referring to Hester’s ability to do good work. Through nothing more than being a good person, Hester is able to erase the stigma of her past behavior in the eyes of some of the community. She proves that being a sexual being does not mean she has bad character.
In fact, far from being a corrupted woman, Hester is quite pious. She tries to dissuade her husband from murder and she does not lie and hide her sexual liaison the way that Dimmesdale does. She martyrs herself for his sake. Eventually she becomes almost a holy figure thanks to her good character. The townspeople begin to see the scarlet letter as sacred, comparing it to a nun’s cross. When the letter “A” is later seen in the sky, it is thought to stand for “angel” rather than “adultery”. Hester has, through demonstrating that her character has nothing to do with her sexual activities, transformed a symbol of sexual shame to a symbol of empowered, holy womanhood. She even voluntarily takes up the symbol at the end of the book and the townspeople regard it with a kind of reverence. They seem to feel sorrowful for how they treated Hester.
In the end, Hester turned a symbol of sexual stigma into a symbol that proclaimed her personhood and goodness. She proved to the townspeople they were wrong about her character and reclaimed the symbol as a proof of the hardship she had overcome.
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Dover Publications, 1994. Print.
- Nelson, Thomas. “Revelation 17.” BibleGatway. Thomas Nelson Inc, 1982. Web. 27 Sep 2014.
