Isolation In The Scarlet Letter

Isolation: An Internal Struggle In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, the main characters face the theme of isolation. Every single one of them deals with it internally, however, two of them must face it externally as well. To feel isolated is like standing in a crowded room, constantly filling with familiar faces but yet the feeling of emptiness or aloneness still lingers. It’s a battle with humanity as well as your own mind; in a particular case in The Scarlet Letter it drove a man crazy. Being driven crazy was a problem in Roger Chillingworth’s life. He returned from Europe and found the news of his wife’s betrayal of committing adultery. Chillingworth began a man hunt, he made it his absolute mission to hunt down the other
Arthur Dimmesdale was the other man in Hester’s life and fathered her baby girl, Pearl. Even though Hester was a target to the townspeople and lived with the embarrassment every day, Arthur did not. None of the townspeople knew that Arthur was the baby’s father until the end of the book. This aspect of guilt and shame grows over time in Arthur’s mind and drives him insane. It causes him to do traumatic things to himself just as on page 217 the text reads, “Dimmesdale thus communed with himself, and struck his forehead with his hand.” This is clear that Arthur was respected by all the townspeople because he spoke the word of the God but Arthur knows that he was not pure and did commit a horrible sin. Sense he was not strong enough to come clean to the townspeople he allowed this guilt to run his life. Over time, his internal conflict allowed him to become emotionally separated from all the other
She was a prime person who lived with isolation everyday of her life. Starting with the scarlet letter that had to be worn on all of her clothes, the “A” represented sin and out casted her from all of the other young women in the town. The town disowned her and for the longest time would have nothing to do with her because of her crime. Over time, the town grew semi fond of her because she was an amazing seamstress, however they would not allow her to embroider any wedding vales. This is because she committed adultery, a crime sinning against marriage. Also, she was banned from living inside of the town, they gave her an abandoned cottage on the outskirts of town to live and raise her daughter