by Nathaniel
Hawthorne
(Themes - Alienation)
Most
of the characters of The Scarlet Letter are remembered in their isolation only.
Hester, with Pearl (who does not seem to be human) in her daily rounds to the
village and back; the minister with his hand over his heart and his secret
tortures and suffering; the physician stooping and collecting herbs, or at the
fires in his laboratories. Loneliness seems to be the cure blighting their
lives. The curse of isolation is the direct consequence of the sin of main
characters. Hester and Dimmesdale are isolated by their original sin, Chillingworth
by his hatred and his sin which violated the sanctity of the human heart. Hawthorne’s
own terror of loneliness seems to have been transferred to these characters.
Hester’s
isolation is a mark of her social out-caste. The Scarlet Letter creates the
distance between her and people but it also assures her intellectual and moral
growth. She transcends her separation from society by good deeds and the
companionship of miserable people.
So
far as Dimmesdale is concerned his sensitivity to his sin leads to suffering
and private torture. His sin acceptable to his admiring congregation. He feels
suffocated in this atmosphere of repression.
Chillingworth’s
isolation is essentially a result of his shedding the humanity, his willful
defiance of God in violation of the sanctity of the human heart against advice
of the people.
Even
Pearl is isolated from the society of the Puritan children due to her mother’s
sin. She is a lonely child who plays with inanimate objects or with animals and
repressiveness of the Puritan society. In chapter XXII we see Hester, Pearl,
Dimmesdale and Chillingworth isolated from each other by the crowd. Thus, we
can say that The Scarlet Letter is an exercise of the theme of isolation.
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