Conflicting Views of Hester Prynne

In the opening chapters of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne immediately established a contrast between his view of Hester Prynne and that which he established as the Puritans? view. The Puritans were given a harsh, unyielding, and negative view of Hester?she sinned, and was therefore bad. Hawthorne, on the other hand, painted a much more colorful portrait of Hester with his exposition, one that the reader could not help but sympathize with. This contrast was exhibited through several events in the first few chapters.
Hawthorne established that the Puritans held Hester in contempt extremely quickly in the course of the novel. The first example of this came in Chapter 2, when a group of Puritan gossips discussed what they felt to be the leniency of Hester?s punishment. They wasted no time in condemning Hester for her sinning ways, and one went so far as to say that she should be killed, lest the wives and daughters of the community follow her example. The contempt is further developed when Hester emerges from the prison to the prying eyes of the community. Her strength and conviction in spite of the crowd just drove the hatred further?she sinned, and to the crowd, she appeared to be strangely proud of it. The negative view of Hester is shared by many of the town leaders; a fact that became much more evident as her public interrogation progressed in Chapter 3. The head interrogator, while at first sounding somewhat understanding, quickly lost his temper when Hester would not cooperate with their questioning and proceeded to exemplify Hester as the embodiment of Hell?s power. That speech was a turning point in the overall feeling toward Hester and her deed. Not only was Hester a sinner, but she was also inherently evil because of her actions.
Hawthorne clearly did not hold this view. The physical descriptions of Hester flesh out a delicate, elegant, and radiantly beautiful young woman; the epitome of ladylike grace, not evil and sin. Hawthorne suggests with her journey to the pillory that not only is she beautiful and ladylike, but also fiercely proud and strong willed. The horror of ostracism in front of an entire community isn?t something to be taken lightly, and Hester bore the weight of it by herself. Hawthorne further contrasts Hester?s character with the view that the Puritans have of her by suggesting she was analogous to the Divine Mother in stance and radiance when she got up on the pillory to endure her punishment. The power of this image was great; and set the viewpoints exactly at odds?the Puritans thought she was the embodiment of evil, but their very punishment set her up as the Madonna herself. In later chapters, Hawthorne explored Hester?s own reaction to her sin and fleshed out her character more completely. Hester knew what she did was wrong, and was fighting her own internal battle with insanity as a result. He put a very strong moral fiber into Hester, and this in turn instilled in her a very strong sense of guilt. She didn?t see fit to derive pleasure from sewing, which was perhaps her only means of escape from the harsh reality of Puritan scorn, because in her mind, joy was sin. In short, Hawthorne developed a colorful and delicate view of Hester with his exposition?one starkly contrasted with the evil, contemptuous view that the Puritans held of her.
Hawthorne did this for an obvious reason. The marked contrast set in place throughout the first chapters polarized the story quickly and forced the reader to take a position on Hester. Hawthorne then manipulated the contrast to establish sympathy for her. This was accomplished on two levels. The actual descriptions themselves tipped the balance in Hester?s favor a great deal?a beautiful, delicate woman is going to garner more sympathy than a society of harsh, rigid religious idealists. The amount of description also established sympathy for Hester. Hawthorne breathed life into her and made her human for the reader. He did no such thing for the Puritans, instead giving them a one-dimensional collective personality. As a result, it was far easier to feel sympathy for Hester. Thus did Hawthorne firmly provide roots to the plot and establish a precedent for the novel that perhaps can best be described by the rosebush of the first chapter: even the harshest, most unforgiving environments sometimes yield beautiful flowers.