The Sin of Omission and Commission in the Scarlet Letter

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January 22, 2018
The Sin of Omission and Commission in the Scarlet Letter
The story of the Scarlet Letter is perhaps one of the most well-known stories in Western literature. It narrates the life of Hester Prynne and her infant daughter Pearl, who were both living in Boston during the seventeenth century. Mainly, the scarlet letter refers to the “A” symbol that was attached to Prynne’s breast, denoting that she was an “adulterer” (Nagy and Hawthorne 1995). It was meant to be a symbol of shame and guilt that she would have to bear every single day of her and her infant’s life. Nevertheless, as the story progresses it would be apparent that rather than being a symbol of incapacity and sin, the letter attached to her breast has then transmogrified into something symbolic, which connotes her being “Able” instead. Specifically, instead of criticizing adultery, I believe that the Scarlet Letter is mainly about the themes pertaining to the importance of independence, passion, and hard work as compared to the recurring theme of the era which heavily suggests their need to depend on men. In order to understand the said literature let us look at the particular quote from Chapter XVIII of the story.
"She had wandered, without rule or guidance, into a moral wilderness. Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. The scarl...