Assignment Paper 10
American Literature
Ajit A. Kaliya
M.A. Sem. 3
Roll No.1
Enrollment No. 2069108420170013
Batch: 2016-18
Email- kaliyaajitbhai@gmail.com
Department Of English, MKBU
Department Of English, MKBU
'Scarlet letter' is a famous novel by
Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is a novel about a woman who has committed adultery and
how she punished by society. How she struggles in society. There is depiction
of nature also. What is nature's law? Does for nature also Hester's crime was
punishable? How do characters feel while they are society and when far away
from society in nature? We can find in novel that both are different. Mother Nature
is different from human nature. The things which are natural become crime in
society. All laws, rules and customs are made by humans. And it changes with
time. So, nature vs. Society becomes important theme in the 'Scarlet letter'
After custom house episode, when main character Hester' story begins we see that one woman is brought to the scaffold among the crowd. She was there for punishment. There is child in her hands. The crime was she had relationship with other man and now a child. No one knows who the father of the child was. This was unforgivable crime for the society. And people hate who have relationship without marriage. It is crime for society and not for nature. Desire of body is natural thing and Hester may have this vision and that's why even after people's hatred she lives with dignity. Society contrasts with nature. Society has laws, nature has no laws. Society binds, nature frees. Society punishes, nature forgives. Society gives stress, nature relives it.
This contrast is made clear from the very
first page, when the narrator contrasts the black flower of the prison that
punishes sin with the red rose bush that he imagines forgives those sentenced
to die. The theme of nature continues with the forest outside Boston. Which is
described as an unchristianized, lawless region. In the dark forest would,
passionate and persecuted people like Hester, Pearl, Mistress Hibbins and the
Indians can escape from the strict, repressive morality of puritan society. In society, is also the only place where
Hester can reunite with Dimmesdale when Hester moves to the outskirts of
Boston, the narrator says she would have fit in the forest. Hester's choice to
live on the border of society and nature represents her internal conflict. She
can't thrive entire within the constraints of Puritanism, but because of her
attachment to society and to Dimmesdale, she also can't flee. (litcharts.com)
Thus here writer praises nature by saying
it unchristianized and lawless region. It accepts all without any discrimination.
With the use of Hester Prynne and her
daughter Pearl Hawthorn successfully proves that a relationship with nature,
which embodies purity and freedom, can draw one’s mind away from the corruption
and enslavement of a cruel society. Hester Prynne the main character of The
Scarlet Letter is plagued with the adulteress “A” throughout the novel. Her
Puritan society shuns, scorns, and talks negatively about her behind her back and
to her face. Aware of society’s lack of acceptance of her sin Hester looks to
nature for her own sense of security and freedom. “She had wandered without
rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast and as intricate as the
untamed Forrest…Her intellect and heart had their home as it were in desert places
where it roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods.” The forest for
Hester was freedom from the “A” that society damned upon her. In the forest she
had the ability to take off the “A” and be her natural self. Chapter 18 states,
“She undid her clasp that fastened the scarlet letter and taking it from her bosom
through it among the withered leaves.” After taking off the letter in her place
of freedom she was clean of society’s evil eye against her. “O exquisite
relief! She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom. (123HelpMe.com)
In the forest natural laws are supreme and
so Hester and Dimmesdale commit their adultery there, black man makes his home
and Mistress Hibbins practice her witchcraft. These things are abandoned by
society. (studymoose.com) Hester and Dimmesdale
meets in jungle and there they decide to leave Boston. Hester who even never
removed 'A' in house removed her A for the first time. It symbolizes that in
nature there is no crime and no punishment. She was criminal on society, not in
jungle.
Pearl also can be considered as representing nature. She has not yet aware about society's laws. For her meaning of A is different. Meanings, rules, morality all are different from person to person. So natural laws are universal laws. When left alone on the beach, pearl pelts small birds with pebbles for amusement. However when she injures one she grieves to have done harm to a little being that was as wild as sea breeze. Pearl learns an important lesson about right and wrong by using nature and her own conscience. The remorse she feels leaves a lasting impression far more powerful than punishment from authority. Nature provides clear examples for children to learn from and on which to base their morals. From society child gains vices more than morals while from nature they learn good things. By learning from nature children can use their conscience instead of the rules of authority to learn the difference between right and wrong. Left alone in the forest, pearl interacts with various animals which accept her because they all recognized a kindred wilderness in the human child. This wildness refers to pearl's natural childhood environment free from the pollution of society. (gradesaver.com)
Another symbol coming from the forest are
the Indians. They live in the forest and only periodically come under the
jurisdiction of moral laws by entering a city or town. Because of this their
actions and ideas can be interpreted to represent the position of natural law.
In the instance when they interpret the meaning of the scarlet letter during
the election day sermon their interpretation that the wearer of this
brilliantly embroidered badge must needs be a personage of high dignity among
her people, is the exact opposite of what the symbol was originally intended to
mean. The symbol for nature in this case considers the scarlet letter a boon.
In contrast, the scarlet letter was originally intended to be a punishment
having the effect of a spell, taking her out of ordinary relations with
humanity and including her in a sphere by herself. This was the original
function which the moral law dictated the letter should serve. It is human’s
nature that they ignore all the virtues and see only vices. (studymoose.com) Indians from jungle
see Hester's virtues and she becomes holy figure for them. Hester is a good
woman who helps everyone. But only because of one event of her life, everybody
started to hate her.
In the novel both mother nature and human
nature are presented. But human nature dominates Mother Nature because we have
to live in society. Who cannot bear the rule of society they want to go far
away from society and live in jungle and mountains. Hawthorne regards natural
laws by asserting the dominant position and influence of the human laws. By
noticing when and how Hawthorne offers the truth to the reader such as when
Hester lied to Pearl in the forest setting or when Chillingworth's character is
revealed under the scrutiny of heavenly light, the human laws are dominant.
Even the chief symbol of the book, the Scarlet letter has a meaning imposed
solely by the human laws. In all of these instances the human laws prove that
they are stronger and more pervasive than the natural laws. (studymoose.com) Some questions arise
that does for nature also adultery is crime? In the novel when Dimmesdale,
Hester and Pearl were standing on scaffold on one night, they see a meteor
falling down and it created ‘A’ shape in the sky. Does it mean nature also
wants to say that they have committed adultery. Other thing is about ‘A’ on
Dimmesdale’s chest. Nobody know from where the letter came? Had it carved by
him or was it naturally came out as punishment of his sin. But in the end of
the novel when Hester comes back she had still wear the ‘A’ but now no one hate
her. By charitable work she gets respect and after death she is buried next to
Dimmesdale. It is showed that whatever Hester had done was not wrong and
virtues should be praised in the society.
Works Cited
123HelpMe.com. Nature vs. Society
in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter . 27 October 2017
<http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=84866>.
gradesaver.com.
Law of nature versus man in scarlet letter. 27 October 2017 <http://www.gradesaver.com/the-scarlet-letter/essays/law-of-nature-versus-man-in-the-scarlet-letter>.
litcharts.com.
Nature theme analysis. 27 October 2017
<https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-scarlet-letter/themes/nature>.
studymoose.com.
moral law vs natural law in scarlet letter. 13 July 2016. 27 October
2017
<https://studymoose.com/moral-law-vs-natural-law-in-the-scarlet-letter-essay>.
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