Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Difficulty Paper #2

The concept of evil in The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is very prevalent throughout the entire story. The symbols are everywhere and consistently changing. The symbol of "The Black Man" is placed on a few characters who are present. Chillingworth represents evil in that he is a perfect example of how man can fall to their weakness in green envy and anger. Anger is nature's temptation for man to give into. Dimmesdale represents "The Black Man" in that he cannot even acknowledge Pearl to be his daughter in public because he is so ashamed of her. Mistress Hibbins also represents "The Black Man" in that she is a witch who whispers secrets into her brother, Governor Bellingham's ear. Pearl is even looked at in the "black" perspective with the label of "Satan's child" due to the way she was conceived. Accordingly, she is the red that the letter "A" so prominently represents on Hester's clothes. Red starts off being this shameful, evil color which later turns into a symbol of the life and passion with which Hester and Dimmesdale created Pearl with. This is a realization that Hester has and Dimmesdale does not. She looks at Pearl and sees all of that truth and love in her that so few children really had due to how the parents were when conceiving them. There are myths about children who are conceived out of true love and passion in comparison to forced, unnatural creation. The "love" babies have full potential to feel and live in truth in many myths, where as a forced baby created without love might have issues with connecting to their inside emotions. Dark and light symbolism seems to be very prominent in this story even just in the lighting of the day. The darkness of the night represents the insides of the human soul and this is when events happen that humans actually want to happen deep down, but can't necessarily let other members of society be spectators of. It is night time when Hester and Dimmesdale get together secretly to frolic in love, it is night time that Mistress Higgins goes on her secret rides, and it is night time when Dimmesdale runs into Hester and Pearl on the scaffold and Pearl asks him to be there the next day in the sunlight with them and he refuses. She then continues to tell him he will never know the secret about Chillingworth if he does not come out with his own inner secrets that the darkness hides.

Difficulty Paper #1

When I first started reading The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I must have read about 30 pages before I had to stop, realize that I had no idea what I had just read, and that I had just skimmed over the words with my eyes whilst thinking about everything I needed to do that day. Once I had this frustrating realization, I went back to the beginning, and started over with a brighter light and some coffee in my stomach. The old English is very difficult for me to get hooked with more so than the actual understanding of it. Just because one could understand something does not mean that they soak it up. In reading about the setting of this book I came to remind myself of how much I loathe the Puritan culture and moral ways. All I see is CONTROL CONTROL CONTROL the masses. They bring shame and guilt to every day life, for an individual living in fear and embarrassment will always find ways to either cover it up or make it what is socially known as "better." In this novel, Hester carries her shame of her sin with her everywhere she walks with the "A" being sewn on to her. It has happened all throughout history where a woman has to be married to someone she does not love because of financial and/or status situations. When one is married to another whom they do not love, they are bound to find passion with someone else eventually. Hester just so happened to get pregnant and show proof of this fairly regular happening in history. I find it very interesting and refreshing that Hester chose a very unique route for her time by staying in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with the label she had when she had just as much of a choice to leave and not have to deal with people judging her and treating her differently. An even more surprising situation was the fact that Dimmesdale did not understand this idea of letting go of society's standards and judgments, and he is a man, but Hester, a woman, could create it for herself. Dimmesdale could not fathom the idea that it is important for one to master his own identity instead of letting a townspeople determine it for you. Hester was very intent on taking her sin that she made, and incorporating it into the person she is today. Although it made it easier on her to be outside of town, in the woods to have a bit of peace, it was still her job to separate herself from societal pressures. I like that the symbol "A" changes in the book from "Adultery" to "Able" because she was finally able to come to her own terms of what identity was, instead of a community's idea of her identity.

Annotated Bibliography

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: London, 2005.