Pesaresi 1 Julia PesaresiBurns3rd
Period Pre-Ap English 20 February 96 Solitude and Isolation: Three of
Hawthorne's works Solitude and isolation are immense, powerful, and
overcoming feelings. They possess the ability to destroy a person's life
by overwhelming it with gloom and darkness. Isolate is defined: to place
or keep by itself, separate from others (Webster 381). Solitude is "the
state of being alone" (Webster 655). Nathaniel Hawthorne uses these
themes of solitude and isolation for the characters in several of his works.
"Hawthorne is interested only in those beings, of exceptional
temperament or destiny, who are alone in the world " (Discovering
Authors). Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Goodman Brown, and
Beatrice Rappaccini are all persons "whom some crime or misunderstood
virtue, or misfortune, has set them by themselves or in a worse
companionship of solitude (Discovering Authors). Hawthorne devoted
many stories to isolated characters - one's who stand alone with no one
to look to for love or support. "For Hawthorne, this condition of moral and
social isolation is the worst evil that can befall a man" (Adams 73). Each
of the characters above are separated from
Pesaresi 2 the world because of
some sin or evil. Their separation is a painful, devastating feelings. The
themes of solitude and isolation are depicted in Nathaniel Hawthorne's
The Scarlet Letter, "Young Goodman Brown, "and "Rappaccini's
Daughter." At the age of four, Nathaniel Hawthorne's father died,
devastating his mother and destroying his family forever. He later recalls
how his mother and sisters would "take their meals in their rooms, and my
mother has eaten alone ever since my father's death" (Martin 10).
Naturally, Hawthorne's mother's isolated life contributed to his personal
solitude and to his stories of solitude. Although he never reached the
point she did, his life too became one of separation and loneliness.
When he was nine, a severe foot injury reduced his physical activity for
almost two years and excluded him from many activities with other

out of this solitary period. The adulteress act of Hester Prynne and
Arthur Dimmesdale, in The Scarlet Letter, forces the two to live in
isolation for the rest of their lives. "Hester and Dimmesdale sin and are
isolated by that sin" (Ringe 90). Hester Prynne, "alone and independent
by decree " (Martin 118), spends all her time in her tiny home with only
her baby, Pearl. After the first scaffold scene, both Hester and
Dimmesdale "begin to work out their penance in isolation" (Ringe 90).
Hester feels so guilty and sinful that she wants to be away from the world.
"[She] becomes absorbed with a morbid meddling of conscience, and
continues to focus her attention on self when she feels that none is so
guilty as she" (Ringe 90). The scarlet letter "A" that she must wear,
makes her " an outcast from social joy forever (Stoddard 8). However,
this "[shame, despair, and solitude] made her strong and taught her much
amiss" (Martin 21). Being on her own teaches Hester a great deal.
unfortunately, "the price of her new intelligence is isolation" (Ringe 91).
Through this Pesaresi 5 isolation
from the community, Hester acquires an intellect which enables her to
look at human institutions with a fresh point of view (Ringe 91). She
becomes more caring and helps by " performing small services for [the
community] " (Lewis 21). Hester's only friend is Dimmesdale, whom she
can no longer be with. She is completely alone with no friends or
companions. She has been living on the "outskirts of town," attempting to
cling to the community by performing small services for it (Lewis 21),
though: In all her intercourse with society, there was
nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it. Every
gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom
she came in contact, implied that she was banished, and as
much alone as if she inhabited another sphere (Arvin 13).The
community's "social ostracism made her into a type of moral solitude"
(Levin 22). Hester Prynne becomes a lonely woman, isolated from

is forever blind to the world as it normally presents itself" (Martin 81).
Things that were once ordinary and plain are now suspicious. The vision
"turns his world inside out and compels him to live and die in a gloom
born of his inverted sense of moral reality" (Martin 87). The most
immediately apparent reason for Brown's final state of mind is that he has
been required to face and acknowledge the evil in himself and others,
including his young wife, so as to be able to recognize the good, and has
failed the test" (Adams 72). Admitting that even his innocent wife, Faith, is
sinful is too much for Brown to accept. After the meeting, he is so
dumbfounded by the fact that all are evil that is "condemns him to a
lifetime of faithfulness" (Levy 118). The book is "about Brown's doubt, his
discovery of the possibility of universal evil" (Martin 81). He becomes a
distrustful, miserable man until his death. In "Rappaccini's
Daughter," Beatrice Rappaccini has been
Pesaresi 8impregnated with
poison since her birth. This poison, deadly to all others, is like her sister.
unfortunately, because it is deadly, she too becomes harmful. This
means she must remain within the walls of her garden with the poisonous
plant. "A very large concern of the tale is that Beatrice is imprisoned"
(Martin 88). This imprisonment results in her being cut from
"most human relationships" (Benzo 142). Giovanni, the one person who
meets and falls in love with Beatrice, describes in her face a look of
"desolate separation" (Benzo 145). Both being in the garden and filled
with poison causes her to live a life of complete solitude and isolation.
"This isolation causes Beatrice her greatest sorrow" (Benzo 142).
"Beatrice is toxic: flowers wither in her hand and lizards and insects
die when exposed to her breath" (Bunge 68). Contact with other humans
will cause the other person to become poisoned also - as Giovanni did.
Rappaccini laughed at Giovanni, "he now stands apart from common man
as thou dost, Beatrice , from ordinary women (Martin 91). Beatrice is a

experiences of isolation. Having an isolated mother and being a writer, it
is not so unusual for him to have lived such a separate life. "The life of a
serious writer is likely to be in a large part lonely" (Stewart 37). The
lonely Nathaniel Hawthorne creates his greatest works using two familiar
themes - solitude and isolation.