Scarlet Letter and a Pair of Eyes

A detailed Summary of Scarlet Letter and a Pair of Eyes

In Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne seems to intimate that what Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmsdale shared wasn't quite as sinful as is supposed. The real sin seems to lie in the marriage of Hester with Chillingworth. Similarly, "A Pair of Eyes; or Modern Magic" by Louisa May Alcott also portrays the marriage between Max Erdmann and Agatha Eure in a sinful light. Though Hawthorne takes the route of abandoning the marriage for infidelity, Alcott focuses on the union and examines what becomes of a decaying marriage: both authors concludes that a marriage derived out of anything less than love is doomed to failure. By doing so, Alcott derives a different reason for the failure of the marriage structure than Hawthorne's.

Hawthorne manipulates the fact that beauty is something which is universally pleasant and the reader will sympathize with "beautiful" things. The notion of "beauty" seems to be a measurement of Hester's "goodness". Upon first mention of Hester, Hawthorne sets this precedence which will be applied throughout the novel. Upon emerging from the prison walls, Hester was "characterized by a certain state of dignity, rather than by delicate, evanescent, and indescribable race, which is now recognized as its indication. And never

Everything about the adultery-the punishment, the emblem, the product-all suggest this "sin" is not a sin. The reader, like the townspeople, expect Hester's time in prison to have a detrimental impact both physically and mentally on her, however, this has had the opposite effect. On the other hand, Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth, is very much wasting away. In Hester's conversation with Roger, he confesses to her "Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relationship with my decay." (69), implying that he was as more at fault than she for the adultery because his was the "first wrong". Hawthorne offers that Chillingworth's "decay" is what was wrong with their marriage. In essence, the festering came before the bad deed, and does not end until his death. This goes against the natural progression that first the evil occurs before the rotting begins.

Pearl's aspect was imbued with a spell of infinite variety; in this one child there were many children, comprehending the full scope between the wild-flower prettiness of a peasant-baby, and the pomp, in little, of an infant princess. Throughout all, however, there was a trait of passion, a certain depth of hue, which she never lost; and if, in any of her changes, she had grown fainter or paler, she would have ceased to be herself;--it would have been no longer Pearl! (85)

Max's "one" companion is someone who is devoid of everything human. Alcott is suggesting that neither Agatha nor Max's friends nor even art is suitable for Max. Though Max needed Agatha to further his career, she was never considered his companion, and as she yearns for his companionship, he could not provide it. Ironically, Max receives what he strives for: someone who does not see, feel, and show love. It seems the son is every bit the embodiment of Max's ambitions: devoid of feeling, blind to others, and answering to nobody but himself-almost a sculpture, to be seen but not heard. On the other hand, Pearl also embodies her mother's defining trait: passion.

Agatha also decays in the marriage, though her decay is a result of the marriage itself. "I saw my wife lying in a deep chair, wan and wasted as if with suffering of soul and body," (195). The marriage was the product of Louis's greed. Though the above example shows Agatha as a spent soul, it should be noted that her suffering wasn't the result of providing for Louis, rather, his neglect. Agatha loved Louis; Chillingworth didn't love Hester. It seems that the marriage between Agatha and Louis was a greater evil than that of Roger and Hester. Where Agatha and Louis both suffer immense grief, Hester finds solace in her work and her child. Pearl is a vibrant child, her nature is "this never-failing vivacity of spirits; she had not the disease of sadness, which almost all children in these latter days, inherit, with the scrofula, from the troubles of their ancestors," (176). In stark contrast, Agatha's child is "dumb, blind and imbecile" (197).

I, too, was an artist then and dreamed aspiring dreams here, but was

Some common words found in the essay are:
Roger Chillingworth, Hester Prynne, Ironically Max, Max Agatha, Arthur Pearl, Hester Chillingworth, Max Agatha's, Agatha Louis, Pair Eyes, Arthur Dimmsdale, hester arthur, pearl product, arthur dimmsdale, max agatha, trait passion, union hester, scarlet letter, union hester arthur, hester prynne, prynne arthur dimmsdale, pair eyes, distinction pearl product, prynne arthur, hester prynne arthur,

Approximate Word count = 2063
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English