Hester Prynne In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'

The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a book of love, lust, passion, and punishment. The main character Hester Prynne is right in the middle of all of these things, along with being in the middle of a rocky relationship with her husband. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the reader the consequences of being part of an unfair relationship. It is the society's comfort zone, having males dominate. Males have always been thought to be stronger, braver, and more able. They should dominate society, and the women should follow. But in The Scarlet Letter, Hester goes against the patriarchal society, and does what she wants. For that she is punished.
Hester Prynne is the main character of the book, and her husband is Chillingsworth, an old, broken down man. In the book, Hester commits adultery with Dimmsdale, the town's minister. By giving the reader insight to Hester and Chillingsworth's relationship, the reader can see why Hester may have committed the horrible sin of
adultery. Hester and Chillingsworth had a bad relationship. Hester was young and beautiful, Chillingsworth was old and stale. A young woman wants true love. She wants someone she can love and someone who will love her back. Chillingsworth wasn't able to offer her those things. Together they did not mix well.
According to psychologists, there are two different people in an unequal or unfair relationship. There is the overbenefitted and the underbenefitted. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester is the underbenefitted and Chillingsworth is the overbenefitted. Hester, unfortunately, was not getting the benefit of the relationship. Hester was young, and young women want love, someone handsome that they can fall in love with. They want someone who will love them for who they are, not based on social standing, or treat them with respect, not as inadequate objects. According to studies done by Elaine Hatfield and colleagues, in unequal relationships, the underbenefitted tends to feel more stress. They are the victims of inequality. They don't benefit from the relationship at all. For example Hester had nothing to win from her relationship with Chillingsworth. Yes Chillingsworth could provide a good life for Hester. Chillingsworth was a well respected man and many women probably would have been happy with him. But Hester didn't choose Chillingsworth, he chose her. They say that the underbenefitted should feel angry, but it didn't seem like Hester showed anger. She dealt with her problem in a different way, by committing adultery. It could be said that Hester committed adultery because she didn't feel loved.
Chillingsworth was the overbenefitted in the relationship.
Chillingsworth had nothing to lose but everything to gain from his marriage to Hester. He was an old man married to a beautiful young girl; of course he was the overbenefitted of the relationship. He didn't deserve Hester, yet he had her. The overbenefitted of the relationship feels less stress and he benefits from the relationship, but he should also feel guilt. Chillingsworth knew that Hester wasn't happy, but he continued the relationship anyways. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne tells the reader how Chillingsworth feels guilty for being married to Hester. Chillingsworth realized that Hester didn't really want a marriage with him; she was more forced into it. Society was pushing her to marry him. She didn't have much of a choice. Hester deserved someone young, whom she loved, and who would love her back as well. Hester just needed to feel loved and cared for, but she
didn't.
The main effect of this inequality in relationships is exactly what Hester did, adultery. The individual who feels the relationship is unfair is the one less likely to stay committed. Hester thought the relationship was unfair, so she wasn't committed. She committed adultery with Dimmsdale, someone who she would eventually love and have a child with. Hester didn't commit adultery out of revenge or hatred. She did it to feel loved, to feel like she had someone who cared for her.
The society punishes Hester severely for her act of adultery. She is forced to wear the scarlet "A" on her chest and stand on a platform in front of the entire town. In today's society, adultery is frowned upon, but punishment is not taken that far. It could be that they punished Hester not for the act of adultery, but for going against the rules of society. Hester breeched society's comfort zone. What Hester did was out of the norm. Women just don't cheat on their husbands. If one woman is able to do it and gets away with it then why shouldn't other women be able to do it as well? If women had the freedom to cheat on their husbands the husbands would have to cater to their wife's every need and wants just to keep them around. Marriages would actually mean something. They would be filled with love and happiness, not dread and despair. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne shows us the inequalities in Hester and Chillingsworth's marriage. He also shows us how Hester dealt with those inequalities and the unfairness of it. but it seems as though Hawthorne almost has sympathy for Hester and commends her for her act. He portrays her as completely happy and content with her life even though, in the eyes of society, she committed a horrible sin. By committing adultery Hester proved to Chillingsworth that she wasn't going to take it anymore. Hawthorne shows us how Hester went against society to do what she wanted. She was punished for it greatly, but being punished doesn't reverse what has been done. Hester and Chillingsworth had an unequal marriage and both of them knew it, but it was Hester that did something about it.