Self Deception In The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, in the tale of sin, revenge, and punishment, Hester Prynne involves herself in self-deception due to being caught up in a fraudulent interpretation of her sin and lives in an opaque concept of a better life. Hawthorne 's emotional and psychological drama revolves around Hester Prynne, who is convicted of adultery in colonial Boston by the civil and Puritan authorities. She is condemned to wear the scarlet letter "A" on her chest as a permanent sign of her sin. Consequently, Hester is complicated by her own interpretation of the letter and is embittered by the fact that she deems her punishment and the trials of her punishment will disappear along with the removal of the Scarlet Letter revealed by the characterization of her attitude in the novel. In the beginning, Hester attempts to prove that she does not care about what other people think, but later becomes paranoid and wants to escape from being the product of wrongdoing that the town perceives her as.

In the Market-Place, the Puritan women anticipate outside the prison pretentiously and viciously converse about Hester Prynne, forcing Hester to wear the “A” without fear as a cover for her refusal to accept her fate of adultery. Hester, a woman of pride and beauty, emerges from the prison. One woman mentions, “But she, ––the naughty baggage, ––little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown! Why, look you, she may cover it with a brooch, or such like heathenish