Hester's Downfall
Ellen Ashley


In society people have gotten the want to put other people down and make them feel inferior than everyone else. This is not anything new. It's been going on for many, many years. By doing this it can really make a person feel terrible about themselves. This is exactly what the Puritans tried to do to Hester Prynne by forcing her to wear the scarlet letter. Hawthorne was making Hester the "scapegoat" of the novel. She was the one who got recognized for her wrongdoing when I'm sure many other people in that town did it too.
Hester makes a mistake by committing adultery. To punish her, the Puritans force her to permanently wear the scarlet letter A to signify what she did. This publicly humiliates her and that is just the goal. Hester's spirit is immediately broken. She is embarrassed and feels like she will lose control.
"But under the leaden infliction which it was her doom to endure, she felt, at moments, as if she must needs shriek out with the full power of lungs and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the ground, or else go mad at once" (55).
Clearly it is already beginning to take a toll on her. It will only get worse.
Hester gets more and more secluded as the book goes on. She lives in a cottage a little ways out of town. Also she doesn't speak to anyone when she does go into town and she got to a point where she would put her hair up in a bonnet and not let one pretty dark lock be shown. That shows that she doesn't take pride in herself or think that she is worthy of even the slightest thing like saying hello to someone. She is so ashamed that it makes her not happy. "Hester's first motion had been to cover her bosom with her clasped hands" (94). Hester doesn't even want it to be shown at times. Her shame and guilt will soon become more than she can handle.
Not only is she ashamed and miserable, she is also lonely. "Her only real comfort was when the child lay in the placidity of sleep. Then she was sure of her..." (89). After everyone has abandoned her and treated her badly, Hester finds comfort in knowing that her daughter is there. Hester feels alone but knows she has a daughter and that she does have someone in the world that loves her. Though this doesn't always mend her broken heart.
No one can blame Hester for the way that she's feeling. She lives outside of town and is looked down upon by everybody. It is no wonder that she is lonely, ashamed, and sad. People need to learn that making others feel badly about themselves and putting them down doesn't do any good for anybody. Society needs to change its old ways for the future.