Beginning of Essay
Throughout his book The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne is preoccupied with the relationship between the individual and society. Hester's sin and subsequent condemnation alienate her. No where is this alienation more apparent than in Chapter 5, "Hester at her ....

Middle of Essay
.... forces herself to live plainly and simply. She "strove to cast ["passionate and desperate joy"] from her." She loves to sew, as women such as herself "derive a pleasure…from the delicate toil of the needle," but she feels she does not deserve the gratification. Though sewing could be "soothing, the passion of her life …Like all other joys, she rejected it as a sin." Hester no longer feels worthy to wear the finery she is capable of sewing for herself. All of the "gorgeously beautiful" things she has "a taste for" are sold to others, they "found nothing… in…her life to exercise [themselves] upon." Instead of applying her time towards " ....