| ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER In her late singular interview with Mr. Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced. His nerve seemed absolutely destroyed. His moral force was abased into more than childish weakness. It grovelled helpless on the ground, even while his intellectual faculties retained their pristine strength, or had perhaps acquired a morbid energy, which disease only could have given them. With her knowledge of a train of circumstances hidden from all others, she could readily infer that, besides the legitimate action of his own conscience, a terrible machinery had been brought to bear, and was still operating, on Mr. Dimmesdale's well-being and repose. Knowing what this poor fallen man had once been, her whole soul was moved by the shuddering terror with which he had appealed to her—the outcast woman—for against his instinctively discovered enemy. She decided, moreover, that he had a right to her utmost aid. Little accustomed, in her long seclusion from society, to measure her ideas of right and wrong by any standard external to herself, Hester saw—or seemed to see—that there lay a responsibility upon her in reference to the clergyman, which she owned to no other, nor to the whole world besides. The links that united her to the rest of humankind—links of flowers, or silk, or gold, or whatever the material—had all been broken. Here was the iron link of mutual crime, which neither he nor she could break. Like all other ties, it brought along with it its obligations. Hester Prynne did not now occupy precisely the same position in which we beheld her during the earlier periods of her ignominy. Years had come and gone. Pearl was now seven years old. Her mother, with the scarlet letter on her breast, glittering in its fantastic embroidery, had long been a familiar object to the townspeople. As is apt to be the case when a person stands out in any prominence before the community, and, at the same time, interferes neither with public nor individual interests and convenience, a species of general regard had ultimately grown up in reference to Hester Prynne. It is to the credit of human nature that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility. In this matter of Hester Prynne there was neither irritation nor irksomeness. She never battled with the public, but submitted uncomplainingly to its worst usage; she made no claim upon it in requital for what she suffered; she did not weigh upon its sympathies. Then, also, the blameless purity of her life during all these years in which she had been set apart to infamy was reckoned largely in her favour. With nothing now to lose, in the sight of mankind, and with no hope, and seemingly no wish, of gaining anything, it could only be a genuine regard for virtue that had brought back the poor wanderer to its paths.
It was perceived, too, that while Hester never put forward even the humblest title to share in the world's privileges—further than to breathe the common air and earn daily bread for little Pearl and herself by the faithful labour of her hands—she was quick to acknowledge her sisterhood with the race of man whenever benefits were to be conferred. None so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty, even though the bitter-hearted pauper threw back a gibe in requital of the food brought regularly to his door, or the garments wrought for him by the fingers that could have embroidered a monarch's robe. None so self-devoted as Hester when pestilence stalked through the town. In all seasons of calamity, indeed, whether general or of individuals, the outcast of society at once found her place. She came, not as a guest, but as a rightful inmate, into the household that was darkened by trouble, as if its gloomy twilight were a medium in which she was entitled to hold intercourse with her fellow-creature. There glimmered the embroidered letter, with comfort in its unearthly ray. Elsewhere the token of sin, it was the taper of the sick chamber. It had even thrown its gleam, in the sufferer's bard extremity, across the verge of time. It had shown him where to set his foot, while the light of earth was fast becoming dim, and ere the light of futurity could reach him. In such emergencies Hester's nature showed itself warm and rich—a well-spring of human tenderness, unfailing to every real demand, and inexhaustible by the largest. Her breast, with its badge of shame, was but the softer pillow for the head that needed one. She was self-ordained a Sister of Mercy, or, we may rather say, the world's heavy hand had so ordained her, when neither the world nor she looked forward to this result. The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her—so much power to do, and power to sympathise—that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength.
It was only the darkened house that could contain her. When sunshine came again, she was not there. Her shadow had faded across the threshold. The helpful inmate had departed, without one backward glance to gather up the meed of gratitude, if any were in the hearts of those whom she had served so zealously. Meeting them in the street, she never raised her head to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter, and ed on. This might be pride, but was so like humility, that it produced all the softening influence of the latter quality on the public mind. The public is despotic in its temper; it is capable of denying common justice when too strenuously demanded as a right; but quite as frequently it awards more than justice, when the appeal is made, as despots love to have it made, entirely to its generosity. Interpreting Hester Prynne's deportment as an appeal of this nature, society was inclined to show its former victim a more benign countenance than she cared to be favoured with, or, perchance, than she deserved.
The rulers, and the wise and learned men of the community, were longer in acknowledging the influence of Hester's good qualities than the people. The prejudices which they shared in common with the latter were fortified in themselves by an iron frame-work of reasoning, that made it a far tougher labour to expel them. Day by day, nevertheless, their sour and rigid wrinkles were relaxing into something which, in the due course of years, might grow to be an expression of almost benevolence. Thus it was with the men of rank, on whom their eminent position imposed the guardianship of the public morals. Individuals in private life, meanwhile, had quite forgiven Hester Prynne for her frailty; nay, more, they had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as the token, not of that one sin for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since. "Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge?" they would say to strangers. "It is our Hester—the town's own Hester—who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!" Then, it is true, the propensity of human nature to tell the very worst of itself, when embodied in the person of another, would constrain them to whisper the black scandal of bygone years. It was none the less a fact, however, that in the eyes of the very men who spoke thus, the scarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nun's bosom. It imparted to the wearer a kind of sacredness, which enabled her to walk securely amid all peril. Had she fallen among thieves, it would have kept her safe. It was reported, and believed by many, that an Indian had drawn his arrow against the badge, and that the missile struck it, and fell harmless to the ground. |
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OTRO MODO DE JUZGAR a ESTER EN su ltima y singular entrevista con el Sr. Dimmesdale, se qued Ester completamente sorprendida al ver el estado a que se hallaba reducido el ministro. Sus nervios parecan del todo arruinados: su fuerza moral era la de un nio: andaba arrastrando los pasos, aun cuando sus facultades intelectuales conservaban su prstina fuerza, o haban adquirido acaso una mrbida energa, que solamente pudo haberles comunicado la enfermedad. Conociendo ella toda la cadena de circunstancias que eran un profundo secreto para los otros, poda inferir que, adems de la accin legtima de su propia conciencia, se haba empleado, y se empleaba todava contra el reposo y bienestar del Sr. Dimmesdale, una maquinaria terrible y misteriosa. Conociendo tambin lo que haba sido en otros tiempos este pobre hombre, ahora cado, su alma se llen de compasin al recordar el hondo sentimiento de terror con que le pidi a ella,—la mujer despreciada,—que lo protegiese contra un enemigo que instintivamente haba descubierto; y decidi que el ministro tena el derecho de esperar de su parte todo el auxilio posible. Poco acostumbrada, en su largo aislamiento y estado de segregacin de la sociedad, a medir sus ideas de lo justo o de lo injusto segn el rasero comn, Ester vio, o crey ver, que haba en ella una responsabilidad respecto a Dimmesdale, superior a la que tena para con el mundo entero. Los lazos que a este ltimo la ligaron, cualquiera que hubiese sido su naturaleza, estaban todos destruidos. Por el contrario, respecto al ministro exista el frreo lazo del crimen mutuo, que ni l ni ella podan romper, y que, como todos los otros lazos, traa aparejadas consigo obligaciones ineludibles.
Ester no ocupaba ya precisamente la misma posicin que en los primeros tiempos de su ignominia. Los aos se haban ido sucediendo, y Perla contaba ya siete de edad. Su madre, con la letra escarlata en el pecho, brillando con su fantstico bordado, era ahora una figura muy conocida en la poblacin; y como no se mezclaba en los asuntos pblicos o privados de nadie, en nada ni para nada, se haba ido formando una especie de consideracin general hacia Ester. En honra de la naturaleza humana puede decirse que, excepto cuando interviene el egosmo, est ms dispuesta a amar que a odiar. El odio, por medio de un procedimiento silencioso y gradual, se puede transformar hasta en amor, siempre que a ello no se opongan nuevas causas que mantengan vivo el sentimiento primero de hostilidad. En el caso de Ester Prynne, no haba ocurrido nada que lo agravase, porque jams ella se declar en contra del pblico, sino que se someti, sin quejarse, a todo lo que ste quiso hacer, sin demandar nada en recompensa de sus sufrimientos. Hay que agregar la pureza inmaculada de su vida durante todos estos aos en que se haba visto segregada del trato social y declarada infame, y esa circunstancia influy mucho en favor suyo. No teniendo ahora nada que perder para con el mundo, y sin esperanzas, y acaso tampoco sin deseos de ganar alguna cosa, su vuelta a la senda austera del deber slo podra atribuirse a un verdadero amor de la virtud.
Se haba notado igualmente que si bien Ester jams reclam la ms mnima participacin en los bienes y beneficios del mundo, excepto respirar el aire comn a todos y ganar el sustento para Perlita y para ella misma con la labor de sus manos,—sin embargo, siempre se hallaba dispuesta a servir a sus semejantes, cuando la ocasin se presentaba. No haba nadie que con tanta prontitud y buena voluntad compartiera sus escasas provisiones con el pobre, aun cuando ste, en recompensa de los alimentos llevados con toda regularidad a su puerta, o de los vestidos trabajados por aquellos dedos que habran podido bordar el manto de un monarca, le pagase con un sarcasmo o una palabra ofensiva. En tiempos de calamidad general, de epidemia, o de escasez, nadie haba tan llena de abnegacin como Ester: en los hogares invadidos por la desgracia, all entraba ella, no como husped intruso e inoportuno, sino como quien tiene pleno derecho a hacerlo; cual si las sombras que esparce el dolor fueran el medio ms adecuado para poder tratar con sus semejantes. All brillaba la letra escarlata a manera de luz que derrama consuelo y bienestar: smbolo del pecado en todas partes, en la cabecera del enfermo era emblema de caridad y conmiseracin. En casos tales, la naturaleza de Ester se mostraba con todo el calor que le era innato, y con aquella ternura y suavidad que nunca dejaban de producir el efecto deseado en los afligidos que a ella acudan. Su seno, con el signo de ignominia que en l luca, puede decirse que era el regazo donde poda reposar en calma la cabeza del infortunado. Era una hermana de la caridad, ordenada por s misma, o mejor dicho, ordenada por la ruda mano del mundo, cuando ni ste, ni ella, podan prever semejante resultado. La letra escarlata fue el smbolo de su vocacin. Ester se volvi tan til, despleg tal facultad de hacer el bien y de identificarse con los dolores ajenos, que muchas personas se negaron a dar a la A escarlata su significado primitivo de "Adltera," y decan que en realidad significaba—"Abnegacin." Tales eran las virtudes manifestadas por Ester Prynne!
Slo las moradas en que el infortunio haba arrojado un velo sombro, eran las que podan retenerla; desde el instante en que comenzaban a iluminarlas los rayos de la felicidad, Ester desapareca. El husped caritativo y servicial se alejaba, sin dar siquiera una mirada de despedida en que recoger el tributo de gratitud que le era debido, si es que exista alguna en los corazones de aquellos a quienes haba servido con tanto celo. Al encontrarlos en la calle, jams levantaba la cabeza para recibir su saludo; y si alguno se diriga a ella resueltamente, entonces indicaba en silencio la letra escarlata con un dedo, y continuaba su camino. Esto podra atribuirse a orgullo, pero se asemejaba tanto a la humildad, que produca en el espritu del pblico todo el efecto conciliador de esta virtud. El temperamento del pblico es en lo general desptico, y capaz de denegar la justicia ms evidente, cuando se demanda con demasiada exigencia como de derecho; pero concede frecuentemente ms de lo que se pide, si, como sucede con los dspotas, se apela enteramente a su generosidad. Interpretando la conducta de Ester como una apelacin de esta naturaleza, la sociedad se hallaba inclinada a tratar a su antigua vctima con mayor benignidad de la que ella misma deseaba o tal vez mereca.
Los gobernantes de aquella comunidad tardaron ms tiempo que el pueblo en reconocer la influencia de las buenas cualidades de Ester. Las preocupaciones que compartan en comn con aquel, adquiran en ellos mayor fuerza merced a una serie de razonamientos que dificultaba en extremo la tarea de desentenderse de dichas prevenciones. Sin embargo, da tras da, sus rostros avinagrados y rgidos se fueron desarrugando y adquiriendo algo que, con el transcurso de los tiempos, se podra tomar por una expresin de benevolencia. As aconteca tambin con los hombres de alto copete, que se consideraban los guardianes de la moralidad pblica. Los individuos privados haban perdonado ya completamente a Ester Prynne su fragilidad; an ms, haban empezado a considerar la letra escarlata, no como el signo que denunciaba una falta, tan larga y duramente expiada, sino como el smbolo de sus muchas y buenas acciones. "Veis esa mujer con la divisa bordada?"—decan a los extraos. "Es nuestra Ester, la Ester de nuestra poblacin, tan compasiva con los pobres, tan servicial con los enfermos, tan consoladora para los afligidos." Cierto es que entonces la propensin de la naturaleza humana a referir lo malo cuando se trata de otro, les impela tambin a contar en voz baja el escndalo de otros tiempos. Y a pesar de todo, era un hecho real que a los ojos de las mismas personas que as hablaban, la letra escarlata produca un efecto parecido al de la cruz en el pecho de una monja, comunicando a la que la llevaba una especie de santidad, que le permita atravesar con toda seguridad por en medio de cualquier clase de peligro. Si hubiera cado entre ladrones, la habra protegido. Se deca, y muchos lo crean, que un indio dispar una vez una flecha contra la letra, y que, al tocarla, cay la flecha al suelo hecha pedazos, sin haberle causado el menor dao a la letra. |
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