Making a room for her own self

Making a Room For Her Own Self: A Study of The Motion
Picture Scarlet Letter with a Feminist Rationale.

The Scarlet Letter – The Novel has been critiqued by many as a
document of crime and punishment.
But the point which drew all eyes, and, as it were, transfigured
The wearer,-so that both men and women, who had been
Familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne, were now impressed
as if they beheld her for the first time,-was that SCARLET
LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her
bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary
relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by
herself.

Nathaniel Hawthorne,
The Scarlet Letter
Wearing the scarlet letter is meant to bring her ridicule and
humiliation. The Novel progresses further as she has to face the
ordeals of what some have called the moment of indiscretion.
Hawthorne‟s novel is more of an emotional and a psychological
document, set in the 17th century puritan American society at Boston.
The chief female protagonist is adulterous, a sinner who has to wear
the badge of shame – though she removes it in the middle of the
novel. Hawthorne has left certain questions in the mind of the readers
that have been interpreted and critiqued since then. Important ones
like: The question of the anatomy of the letter „A‟, The Hester –
World – Nature – Society – Situation question has many converging
and diverging channels.
Hester‟s charm, beauty and elegance have puritanical shades of black
and white. She is beautiful with her long black hair reflecting the
sunlight gleam, her attractive eyes and cool countenance, her grace

unmatched. Yet the fall from grace is inevitable after the punishment
is announced upon her, as she looks withered out – though physically
but not psychologically or spiritually.
Puritanical irony pervades the novel with paradoxes and dichotomies
of shame, sin, fall, cowardice, guilt and envy versus strength,
fortitude, compassion and honesty.
Hester values her morality, her ideas and her honesty above everyone
else. Her battle is not with her own self but with the others. She stands
all alone at one side of the battle field with her fortitude and the
society on the other. Her individuality is at stake but she wins in the
end after a long journey of struggle.

The spatial and the temporal in the book strikes the universal as it
talks of human nature, nature of the universe, human society and
nature as an entity in itself. The puritanical lesson is arrived with the
idea that wisdom is attained through a long sequence of the sin-
repentance-punishment trio. Mistakes in life teach lessons. Hester
learns from her mistake. She is shown to live a gracious life after that.
She becomes a respected woman, a legend in the Boston colony. She
draws even with her life and society at last and lives long and
peacefully. On the other hand Chillingworth kills himself as his heart
and mind and will corrode with hatred, revenge and envy. Also
Dimmesdale is all consumed by guilt and shame as he finally
surrenders and dies after he has made a public confession and
declaration of his shame.

The Scarlet Letter, the motion picture is a treat to the senses. It is a
fairly considerable attractive piece of art. Demi Moore is stunning as
Hester Prynne, Garry Oldman as Dimmesdale who looks like a
college rockstar is convincing and Robert Duvall as Chillingworth is

reasonable as a gone-native. The 1995 adaptation is director Roland
Joffe‟s story. It has digressed from the original and ironically won the
„ Worst Remake or Sequel‟ at the Golden Raspberry Awards. The
film is a treat to the eye as shot in the British Columbia on Vancouver
Island in and around Campbell River, Lupin falls, Myra falls in 1994.
The cinematography is austere as the town is meant to resemble a
puritan new England town in the mid 17th century. The grey of the
buildings on the dock street talk about the unexplored „grey‟ in the
backdrop of the puritan black and white shades of the novel as even
used the light of the film.

The music score enhances the contours of the growth of symbols and
the characters as well as the settings of the contrasts. John Barry‟s
music the final selection plays a significant role in the movie to be
rated as its pertinent USPs.
The film earned a number of negative criticisms ironically. Especially
as it has ended. On this Demi Moore commented to which I subscribe.
“In truth, not very many people have read the book. The ultimate
message of Hester Prynne would have been lost if we‟d stayed with
the original end.”

„The love making scene‟ and the mulatto slave girl exploring her body
in the bath tub with a communion with the scarlet bird is the most
“cherished scene”. It would be right to mention here Hester as a
„Stalwart English Lass‟ with her „free spirited ringlets‟ was married to
an older man Robert Duvall who she had never loved. (Owen
Glieberman)
The same critic calls the scarlet bird in the movie „symbol of a
symbol‟ an appropriate mascot. The fiery climactic action in the end

where the American settlers are pitted against the noble natives leaves
a lot of ponder upon as the Hollywood endeavour depicts. Demi
Moore as Hester Prynne makes quite sense:
“ Almost anyone would agree that Hester Prynne, the puritan feminist
martyr of the 17th century American society suffers to an outrageous
degree for her adulterous crime, her punishment extreme even by
puritan standard, can‟t help but strike the modern audience as
borderline medieval in its cruelty.” (Gliebermann)
The question is however an open ended question and it remains. The
message remains, be it from the 17th Century puritan or the 21st
century globalised world, the woman, in this case Hester Prynne in all
her sensuality, sensibility and pride remains spiritually bound to the
society that shuns her. Also, even Hawthorne says that the letter “A”
worn as a disgrace later transforms from Adultery to “Angel” in a
spiritual, mystical sense and “Able” in a more rational sense. The
choice that Hester makes leads to her courage, strength and her
growth as a human being. The book as well the movie is both „parable
of a puritan American societal repression and universally any societal
repression that would rip apart even the freest of souls.
Demi Moore portrays Prynne‟s „Smirking with superiority at her
white bearded governors and jailors convincingly. Her scenes with
Olderman are aptly soft and soothing and she “cries beautifully‟‟ and
with fortitude. Dimmesdale portrays the soul-quandary as Olderman
looks a „ shell-shocked flower bud‟, Duwall as Chillingworth in the
novel shows up as a gone-case native out of his mind in search of his
wife‟s love, obsessed with and consumed by envy and guilt mixed
with guile.

The diversions in the movie enhance the emotion and their impact on
the audience. As the Narration goes, it is through the eyes of Pearl, a
female narrator as writing, interpreting and analysing the central text
of the movie Hester Prynne and the other significant symbolic texts
emerge. The amount of time travelled is also different but it is
portrayed convincingly in the movie. Another movie critic Michael
Arnold says that „the 1850 novel is a „Social Commentary that is still
relevant today.‟ The film sheds light on questions that are left
unanswered in the novel. For example who was Hester Prynne before
she arrives in America? How was she married to Chillingworth ?
Dimmesdale‟s Background and his affair? And likewise. Retaining
the structure as given by Hawthorne it strategically adds the technique
of flashback which gives completeness to the plot. Demi Moore
realizes the character of Hester Prynne, she thinks for herself, she is
concerned about the role of women in the society, she ponders over
the human nature, her thoughts about divinity are un-hypocritical, she
grows ever more compassionate, she is a loving mother, a law abiding
citizen, she is a woman of her own dreams, of her own rational mind.
Her actions speak louder than words. She does not „demonise her
oppressors „and lives well with grace and dignity. Why she falls for
Dimmesdale is perhaps more convincing in the movie than while
reading the book. The film tells a more complete story. I wouldn‟t
quite agree when a critic says „sorely got lost in translation‟, which
might sound like a more politically correct view of the movie.
The antipathy between the maleness and the femaleness has prevailed
since time immemorial. The rational knowledge behind this
antagonistic culture has been pursued. Simone de Beauvoir in „The
Second Sex‟ has suggested that „Male activity‟, in prevailing over the
„confused forces of life‟, has subdued both Nature and Woman.‟ This
has a long history in the self-definitions of almost all the cultures.

“In her nature lies the healing power which replaces that which has
been used up, the beneficial rest in which everything immoderate
confines itself, the eternal Same, by which the excessive and the
surplus regulate themselves. In her, the future generations dreams.
Woman is more closely related to Nature than man and in all her
essentials she remains ever herself. Culture is with her always
something external, a something which does not touch the kernel that
is eternally faithful to Nature.” (Nietzsche)

The movie “The Scarlet letter” apart from being puritanical statement
is also a rational feminist statement where Hester is just out of a
Virginia Woolf text as she carves a niche for herself, as she tries hard
to make a room for herself in the predominantly man‟s world right
from the very beginning of the story as she defiantly declares. “I
intend to find a house of my own as soon as possible.” Then she
constantly takes access to her resources, grows creatively with her
Virginian „Androgynous mind‟ and finally blossoms as a heroine. The
three stages as I have tried to delineate are. First, her “Access to
Education”, Second, the growth of her androgynous creative mind,
lastly her blossoming into a more universal character
Hester needs to establish an identity of her own; „with a freedom to
worship without fear of persecution‟ though from the Bay‟s
Governors‟ point of view she is headstrong. She perhaps has to pass
„the test of loyalty‟ „the test of spirit‟ with faith and prudence which
she is going to pass in the end.

What happens with her free spirit is evident as “A highly gifted girl
who had tried to use her gift would have been so thwarted and
hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled asunder by her own
contrary instincts, that she must have lost her health and sanity to
certainty‟‟(Woolf). Hester is righteous, she visits the church, she
„talks to God‟, her religion is not just ceremony, and it‟s not just
„imagination of mottos‟. For her religion is the true spirit, the inner
voice, she stands true to her values, for which she is even dubbed as
blasphemous and ironically and hypocritically persecuted. She is a
true libertarian.
Woolf says “There is no gate, no bolt that you can set upon the
freedom of the mind.” „The Scarlet letter‟ is about fascination and
passion; it portrays the invigorating life that a woman needs to live be
it physically, psychologically, emotionally or spiritually. The series of
events that take place in Hester‟s life are a challenge for her to grow
in body and in spirit in all its totality. Right from the point where she
conducts her business transactions saying: “Why isn‟t my money no
good to you Sir?” when asked why her father or brother are not doing
business for her. She is truly an androgynous mind as she rides the
horse while going to the church and even better than the Pastor. “I can
ride, I shall manage.” She is witty and intelligent in replying to
Dimmesdale when he remarks “Your tongue knows no rules Ms.
Prynne.” By saying, “and if it did Reverend, what purpose would it
serve?” When other women of her times „stay at home and cook, sew,
clean and raise children,‟ her „incandescent mind‟ loves to be in the
library and read and exchange books, and she prefers to listen to the
„passion of her heart‟ as rightly put by Harriot, “ Let men tremble at
who wins the hand of the maid but possesses not the full passion of
her heart.”

Hetser married to the Old Chillingworth never loved him, she was no
more the child who was married to him. She prayed, even as she
dreaded, she struggled against the love that grew stronger with each
passing day. She rises high on the pedestal as she declares “I love and
honour the man who has fathered this child and say what you will, he
will be my true husband for life.” But her right to stand up to the
hypocrisy is denied. She constantly struggles between freedom and
bondage. On being adjudged blasphemous Hester speaks her mind
unequivocally “I believe I have sinned in your eyes but who‟s to
know if God shares the same views.” She stands by Harriot, who is to
be punished for being declared as a witch, Hester defends Harriot
thus: “She has committed no crime beyond speaking her own mind.”
She even reprimands the governors, “Satan is not at work here among
women, but if he is here, then perhaps he is among you men.” As
Woolf has posited,‟ Men have historically belittled women as a means
of asserting their own superiority...they, threatened by the thought of
losing their power reduce women to enlarge themselves.‟ Virginia
Woolf‟s metaphoric conceit of light comes to play in the action, her
“incandescence‟‟ genius illumines the reality...allows her “to light a
torch in that vast chamber where nobody has yet been...”
Hawthorne in the 19th C is in consonance with Virgina Woolf –
Hester creates a room of one‟s own in „The Scarlet Letter‟, Pearl is
the narrator, she writes as she narrates, even Harriot along with Hester
are heroines that blossom and create a place for themselves. The
rationale of marriage of the minds in the sensuality and the passion,
incandescently leads to the creative logical end in the movie.

Making a room for her own self

Making a room for her own self

More Related Content

What's hot

Viewers also liked

Similar to Making a room for her own self

Making a room for her own self