Tragic Heroines: Hester Prynne and Tess Compared

Introduction: Two Novels, Two Tragic Heroines

This essay examines two celebrated works of nineteenth-century literature — The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy — with a focus on comparing and contrasting the main characters of each novel. Each of these women is strong and determined, but each has also sinned, and in their respective times, that sin carried devastating consequences. Both Hester Prynne and Tess are therefore tragic heroines. They may triumph for a time, but in the end their lives are defined by tragedy, and each author leaves the reader with a moral lesson to consider.

Societal Constraints and the Double Standard of Sin

Both women symbolize the social mores and constraints of their era, and this is one of the central qualities that makes them tragic heroines. Their authors sought to expose the effect of strict societal restrictions on people of the day, particularly women. Only one of them survives to the end of her story, but this does not make Hester Prynne any less tragic. Hester and her daughter Pearl live a life estranged from the other villagers because of the scarlet "A" Hester is forced to wear as punishment for her sin of adultery. Hawthorne makes clear that she is a good woman who simply made a costly mistake. She is an excellent mother, as this passage illustrates:

"Hester Prynne, nevertheless, the loving mother of this one child, ran little risk of erring on the side of undue severity. Mindful, however, of her own errors and misfortunes, she early sought to impose a tender but strict control over the infant immortality that was committed to her charge" (Hawthorne 134).

Yet she is more than a mother — she is a woman with desires and needs, none of which are met as she lives alone and alienated from those around her. What may be even more tragic is that she must pay for her sin alone. The Reverend Dimmesdale, Hester's partner in sin, is never publicly exposed. He suffers in his own way, but he is never ostracized or alienated as Hester is. Hester is branded a "harlot" by the community and must spend the rest of her life publicly atoning for her transgressions, while the man involved is never sought out or punished.

Clearly, the strict Puritanical mores of the day placed all blame for a fall from grace on the woman, and the same holds true for Tess. Even though she was raped, she remains the "fallen woman" and ultimately pays with her sanity and her life. Hester may be stronger than Tess, but that does not make her fate any less tragic. Her life is spent alone — especially after Pearl eventually leaves — and, as anyone who has endured a lifetime of solitude knows, that loneliness is a tragedy in itself.

Pearl's Punishment and the Injustice of Puritan Ideology

Perhaps the most distressing element of Hester and Pearl's lives is the seclusion caused by their total rejection by the community. Pearl grows up in isolation, denied the companionship of other children. In effect, the community punishes Pearl for her mother's sin, which deepens the moral injustice of their shared loneliness. Pearl did nothing wrong, yet she must pay for her mother's transgression according to Puritan ideology. Hawthorne clearly illustrates how unreasonable this arrangement is, and how the punishment is itself as morally and ethically corrupt as the sin it was meant to condemn.

Strength, Determination, and Social Repression

Both women are strong and determined. Hester demonstrates her strength by standing up to the village and raising her child alone. Tess shows strength and determination in her struggle to forge something more meaningful out of her humble origins. In today's world, each woman would have far greater opportunities to live a better and more fulfilling life — and that contrast is itself part of the tragedy of their stories.

Tess' story is anything but the happy ending of a romance novel; her entire life epitomizes tragedy. Like Hawthorne, Hardy was making a pointed statement about the society of his day. He frequently wrote about the repression of England's lower-class women, and this novel continues that tradition. Throughout the narrative, Hardy portrays Tess as the victim of those around her and of a society that persecuted its women. His anger at his society's treatment of women is unmistakable throughout the tale. That Tess dies at the gallows is the definitive tragedy, making her the definitive tragic heroine. She committed murder, but she cannot be held fully accountable — the social mores surrounding her life and actions drove her to despair. Hers is the ultimate account of a decent woman pulled into sin by the malice of those around her.

Hardy illustrates that Tess was condemned by the social order from the very first pages of the book, and that she never had a real chance of escaping her fate. He begins painting her as a tragic figure early on and sustains that portrait throughout, writing: "In the ill-judged execution of the well-judged plan of things the call seldom produces the comer, the man to love rarely coincides with the hour for loving" (Hardy 46). The reader can already see that Tess will not emerge from her experiences unscathed, and that a man will be the instrument of her undoing.

Conclusion: The Lasting Weight of Society's Judgment

Both of these heroines are tragic figures in their own right. Hester Prynne proves that a heroine does not have to die to be tragic. Sometimes the real tragedy is being compelled to go on living in a society that will never forgive or forget.

References

Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Complete Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, ed. George Parsons Lathrop (Riverside Edition), 12 vols. Boston, 1890.