Hesters Ambivalence in The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

Hesters Ambivalence in The reddish Letter             Throughout Nathaniel Hawthornes book The Scarlet Letter, Hesters attitudes toward her adultery are ambivalent.  This ambivalence is shown by breaking the book into 3 different parts.  In each part her attitudes change significantly.             Hester starts by see her act as a sin that she is sorry for committing.  She changes and no yearlong feels sorry for the sin.  Finally, Hester sees the act as not sinful, that she regrets committing it.             In the first part, covering the first six chapters, Hester thinks of her act as a sin.  In chapter four she tells her husband that it was her fault for committing adultery when she says, I control greatly wronged thee (79).  In chapter six Hawthorne writes that  Hester knows her deed had been curse (92).  This evil deed, in Hesters eyes, causes Pearl to act sinful, so Hester feels overwhelming guilt.  At this point Hester feels that her actions were evil and were her fault, t herefore she is sorry for committing adultery.             In chapter five Hesters attitudes are the same but Hawthorne shows that these attitudes are not stable and are susceptible to change.  Hester moves to a cottage on the outskirts of Boston, but because her sentence does not restrict her to the limits of the Puritan settlement, Hester could give to Europe to start over.  She decides to stay because she put to works herself believe that the town has been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment (84).  This belief gives the impression that she views her action as a sin and feels a need to further punish herself.  But this belief only covers her actual feelings. To the contrary, as Hawthorne describes,  her real dry lan d for staying is that There dwelt, there trod the feet of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union, that, unrecognized on earth, would bring them together before the bar of final judgment, and make their that marriage altar, for a joint futurity of endless retribution (84).  This tittle-tattle means that the real reason for her staying is that Reverend Dimmsdale, the father of her child, lives there and she hopes to someday marry him.