Nathaniel Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter - 1850 Words

And now the story of a woman; a woman whose story is repeated so often - it ingrained on our collective imagination. She s an archetype. She is Eve. She s Juno. She the good woman gone bad. She is Hester Prynne. As part of NPR s series, In Character, my colleague, Andrea Seabrook, shows how this Puritan woman is still very much alive today. ANDREA SEABROOK: Hester Prynne is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne s magnum opus The Scarlet Letter. Any serious literary scholar will tell you that she is one of the first strong women in American literature and is still among the most important. She s veiled(ph) and complex and deep. So much so, says Professor Jamie Barlowe of the University of Toledo, that her character is much bigger†¦show more content†¦She holds her infant daughter born in prison to her chest, and a bright, red letter A burns on Hester s breast. She has committed adultery -- a sin so terrible in Puritan, Boston of the 1600s that she could have been hanged. Having to wear the scarlet letter is considered by some an easy sentence. Now, here s the second thing you find out about Hester Prynne. She is silent. She refuses to speak the name of the man with whom she committed adultery. Listen to this scene, enacted in a 1979 Public Television version of The Scarlet Letter. (Soundbite of The Scarlet Letter) Unidentified Man: Woman, try to impress not beyond the limits heaven s mercy, speak out the name. That (Unintelligible) repentance may avail to take the scarlet letter off her breast(ph). Unidentified Woman #2 (Actress): (As Hester Prynne) (Unintelligible) it s too deeply burnt(ph), if you cannot take it off (unintelligible) his agony as well as mine. Unidentified Man: Speak, woman. Speak and give your child a father. Unidentified Woman #2: (As Hester Prynne) I will not speak. SEABROOK: This is our first glimpse at the inherent contradictions of Hester s character. God has made her beautiful, but she is a terrible sinner. She wears the shameful letter A on her breast, but she (unintelligible) embroidered it too. She accepts her punishment, but she refuses to name the father of her