Thursday, June 18, 2015

What is the meaning of the lline,"the scarlet letter has not done its office"?The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This phrase comes from Chapter XIII of The Scarlet Letter,
a chapter that many have perceived Hester as, like Ann Hutchinson, a rising feminist. 
For, while she has subjugated her independence of thought to the care and safety of her
child, she has not achieved repentance for her sin with a renewal of Puritan faith. 
Instead, she feels a cold despair, wondering if


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it were for ill or good that the poor little
creaature had been born at
all.



In fact, the same
question arises in Hester's mind regarding "the whole race of womanhood." She ponders
the "hopeless task" of independence for women who must abandon the priorities of the
heart if they are to be able to achieve any recognition as individuals and who must see
an entire reform of society if there are to be "mightier reforms."  Certainly, they
cannot be a part of the Puritan community with its denial of the spirit of woman. 
Ironically, then, it is Hester's mark of the scarlet letter and isolation from the
Puritan community that has drawn her farther away from the thought of her sect as it has
afforded her the distance and independence necessary to such ponderings.  Indeed, the
scarlet letter has not done its office of molding Hester into a true
Puritan.

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