"Categorizing Classic": The Cottagecore Home of Hester Prynne
- Indiana Humniski
- Nov 20, 2021
- 5 min read
Updated: Dec 22, 2022
The Scarlet Letter's Hester Prynne. Her woodland location of religious banishment...does Hawthorne's setting echo the "woodland vibes" of today's trends?
Article Edited: December 22nd, 2022
"Solitude was my only consolation" - Mary Shelley
Hester Prynne: The "Antagonist" of Adultery
Hester Prynne exists as Nathaniel Hawthorne's representation of sin, iconically adorned with a scarlet "A" embroidered on her chest. This sentencing includes being banished from the settlement due to her affair resulting in a pregnancy fathered by the town's pastor, Arthur Dimmesdale. The reader knows this, but the settlement actually doesn't. When Hester refuses to name the father, the blame falls upon her shoulders and onto her child as well. Both are pushed into isolation out of the colony.
My First Impressions:
When I first began reading "The Scarlet Letter", I went in with an open mind, but didn't expect to find connections to the modern world's trends in a mid-19th century novel.
I expected certain assumed themes to be present and applicable to current life. Of course, the current term of "slut-shaming" would be a common tie between the modern world and this novel, but a small moment really stuck out in my mind - the description of the cottage Hester lives in. I initially rated the novel a score of approximately 7/10, but the short passage about her cottage brought up the score significantly.
Hester's Home:
Location: The outskirts of the settlement, on the edge of town to avoid scrutiny.
Significance: If Hester were allowed to continue living within the same town that condemned her actions, the verdict would seem unresolved. Her actions would be monitored at every move, as she has fallen from favour, to say the least.
In this excerpt, Hawthorne describes what would await a curious child spying on her small thatched cottage:
"...behold her plying her needle at the cottage-window, or standing in the door-way, or laboring in her little garden, or coming forth along the pathway that led town-ward; and, discerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would scamper off, with a strange, contagious fear."
This same "contagious fear" grips the society that forced her out due to her pregnancy out of wedlock. This Puritan's capital fear of sin (and furthermore, fear of sinners)
is embedded into the community which Hester has been excommunicated from, or some may say, the community which she escaped from. This description is incredibly effective, showcasing the way these beliefs were subconsciously (or consciously) passed down through generations. With this, Nathaniel Hawthorne nods to the continuation of this cycle, bred by fear.
The condemnation of sexual freedom is a long, well-watered cycle to set out to break. The only way for Hawthorne to display a physical representation of Hester's abandonment from the community would be through careful use of setting.
due to this literary choice, the cottage existence was written into the "classics".
To Be Or Not To Be... A Feminist:
Many would actually argue that Hester Prynne not only began the cottagecore aesthetic, but was also was a feminist character before feminism was "invented".
The betrayal she faces from the community stems from a religious background, fuelled by the governing forces of the colony (mainly dictated by pious men). She exists in a town run by men like Arthur Dimmesdale, the town's pastor and father of Hester's child.
While still watched by these men reflecting the eyes of God, there is no way that Hester could have thrived while contained within the community that condemned her.
Read more on this specific analysis:
With the unexpected freedom granted due to her excommunication from the village, other freedoms follow...
Creative Freedom... With One Exception
Though she leaves the town not of her own free will, the freedom she finds once she leaves couldn't have been achieved if she stayed in the confines of the village borders. Whether this is feminist freedom or not, there are small victories from her isolation. She is freed economically, working off of her sewing skills to earn enough money to sustain her lifestyle. She lives on her own accord as she earns her own living, uncommon for the time period as the novel is set in 1850.
She sews beautifully for the same people who defamed her, with one exception:
"But it is not recorded that, in a single instance, her skill was called in aid to embroider the white veil which was to cover the pure blushes of a bride."
Regardless of the talent she possesses, she isn't justified enough in the eyes of that society to touch the sanctity of a wedding veil. Perhaps, a fear of her tainting the marriage built this exception. The woman who was the antithesis of a virgin bride being employed to craft a veil, pretty ironic. Hopefully, this same ideology has not followed us into 2021, though her home's overgrown-garden-goddess description DEFINITELY has.
Hawthorne's Prophecy in 2021:
Not to diminish prior exploration of Hester's feminist origins, it is worthy to mention: Good Ol' Nate Hawthorne predicted a trend, the rise of a new woodland aesthetic.
This vine-woven image of Hawthorne's own thatched roofs, sprawling wildflower gardens, and return to simple pastimes has become more desirable as of late - accelerated by the necessary isolation due to COVID-19. With the return to tasks of the home like breadmaking, embroidery, and creating sustenance farms for families- the rise of these traditional skills came back into the conversation. Yet, under a new name.
The Huffington post interviewed Katherine Livesey, an English writer, on the subject of defining this aesthetic called "cottagecore", predicted by the novel:
“I would describe it as an aesthetic based upon a quiet, simple life filled with good, wholesome food, animals to care for, a garden to tend to, clothes that feel whimsical and a deep-rooted appreciation for nature and the natural world... brought together a group of people who still love the ‘old ways,’ while still having the progressive values of modern life.”
Read the full article here:
Hawthorne's description of Hester's banishment almost perfectly suits the trend, which shocked me while I was first reading it. Due to it's rise in pop culture, the algorithms of Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok were following suit by providing ample images and videos of women with sewing needles, braided hair, and flowing linen skirts. When I read Hawthorne's words, I wasn't expecting my social media feed to be reflected in the words before me. I knew that the topics of gender roles, promiscuity, and isolation would transfer easily into a modern day interpretation - but I did NOT expect this forest-fairy lifestyle revival of 2021 to mimic the banishment of Hester Prynne.
It is an odd prophecy to come back into fruition years down the line, but Hester Prynne's livelihood is now back in the limelight. The only issue, these "progressive values of modern life" were obviously not followed in her case. It was an interesting link to the revival of this way-of-living with the same descriptions of Hawthorne but additionally the necessary freedoms of today. His incredibly descriptive writing allows the picture to be painted across the mind of the reader, especially when that reader is familiar with the mirrored trend of the modern day.
I am left to reiterate the necessity of these progressive freedoms that ensure the freedom for women to be treated as equals, regardless of the fear-mongering in novels such as "The Scarlet Letter". Hawthorne's setting is still in style, the disgusting treatment of characters such as Hester Prynne is NOT.
A Question For The Classroom:
I'm left to wonder, dear reader, would the classes of 2021 also link this aesthetic to her way-of-life in the cottage placed by Hawthorne?
Now, I would love to give you the answer, but I simply do not know yet!
Until then, we can acknowledge Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author who accidentally predicted the cottagecore lifestyle revival... 171 years after his novel's publication!
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