According to them, adultery is the biggest sin and if anyone was found committing this kind of sin then they will be punished and have to wear “A” on their dress for committing the shameful act. In the novel, Hester lifted the weight of the scarlet letter on her shoulders because the Puritan community forced her to wear the letter “A”. This demonstrates the importance of geography and demonstrating the community’s religious viewpoints because of its place. If the story had taken place somewhere else then Hester would not have to through this agony. Geography is the device that makes the story.
The Scarlet Letter In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester makes the right decision to remain in the town because by doing so she serves an example of why Puritan rationale is defective, and the town is where Dimmesdale lives. Puritan logic is fallible because Hester is accused of her sin; meanwhile, others in the town are also guilty of sin. For example, when Hester is exiting the jail to begin her ignominy, the town gossips brand her with denunciative labels, such as “naughty baggage” and “brazen hussy.” Hester lives in seclusion, and “a small vacant area” is always around her that no one is inclined to enter.
By wearing the “A,” Hester was publicly humiliated, however, her development in character causes a change in the meaning of the Scarlet Letter, which leads her to taking pride in the letter as it grows a part of her. After Hester’s sin the Puritan community places a false
She receives three punishments from the townspeople, who claim they will free her from her sin. The community orders Hester to go to jail, wear a scarlet letter on her chest, and stand on the town scaffold for hours. Hester wears her scarlet letter proudly on her chest, and endures much suffering because of her public ridicule. Hester is “kept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan settlement” after she was released from prison, but she chooses to stay (Hawthorne 71). Later, Hester’s child, Pearl, symbolizes the Puritan view of Hester.
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn, children play a variety of roles. They are presented as more perceptive and honest than adults because children learn from society and the people around them. The people around them play important roles in the child's development because they influence how that child thinks. Children are the perfect representation of the corruption and goodness in society. A quote from WEB Dubois says, "Children learn from what you are than what you teach," This is evident in The Scarlet Letter.
Morality in The Scarlet Letter In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne commits what is deemed an immoral act in Puritan society. She perpetrates adultery and the people of the town condemn her for this. This is undoubtedly a sin, blackening a supposedly pure town; however, the Puritans lack of forgiveness attributes to staining the society even more so. The Puritans prove to be the most unethical since they punish Hester, try to take her child and attempt to shun her.
Hester deals with an array of obstacles caused by her sin throughout her life. The Puritan government castigate Hester by forcing her to wear a badge of shame at all times, the scarlet letter. This is not the only tangible symbol of her sin,
The townspeople “[began] to look upon the scarlet letter as a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” This quote exemplifies how sin is not a death sentence for Hester. Through hard work and charity it allowed the rigid Puritan society to see her as something different, and as someone who would not let society define who she was. Hester, thus, was not only able to change herself, but also the image in which society viewed her by working hard to benefit the public. Likewise, the scarlet letter which was supposed to represent sin was instead “fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.”
Not a single community matches the requirements of an ideal society. Whether its structural foundations lay in democracies, tyrannies, communist governments, or even in the most prestigious Christian family, they all possess some flaw or another. Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of America’s greatest novelists, gives readers an example of how the Godly Puritan present themselves as an imperfect civilization, much like any other group of people in existence. Deeply touched by his past, he writes a book that would change the course of history itself. He makes use of different characters and themes to not only reveal his emotions regarding the Puritans’ lifestyle, but also to give insight on several important attributes to humanity.
Hypocrisy is defined as the practice of claiming to have moral standards of beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform. Multiple characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter clearly fit this definition. The characters of the novel are forced into hypocrisy to satisfy the expectations of society and to avoid their fear of living the rest of their lives with ignominy. The characters are often times hypocritical without realizing they are.
Put your mind to the general welfare of the population of this town. If people were to move on from the unnecessarystress and anxiety that the "sinful" woman has caused, our town could achieve peace! Hence, it is imperative that the lady Hester's current punishment of strict jailtime be repealed and the consequences that the scarlet letter itself holds be our justice. In essence, it is important to look at both of the consequential punishments in question; from an outside perspective. The true matter of importance here is the people's welfare.
In the “Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays hypocrisy of the Puritan society, where the protagonist Hester Prynne face many consequences of her actions and the how she tries to redeem herself to the society. During the seventeenth puritans believe that it is their mission to punish the ones who do not follow God’s word and it is their job to stop those from sinning. Therefore, the hypercritical puritan society punishes Hester harshly for committing adultery, but in Hester’s mind, she believes that what she did was not a sin but acts of love for her man. Eventually, she redeems herself by turning her crime into an advantage to help those in need, yet the Puritan society still view her as a “naughty bagger.” (Hawthorne 78)
valeria garza pd. 8 The Scarlet Letter redesigned ending A few days later rumors were going around if the town took the demon infant “its” behaviour would not change and most likely take revenge on the townspeople. With a breath of relief I look down on the hyperactive child dancing along the street when I suddenly I felt a tug on my basket. I turn to look and say a man in a hooded robe ,but i could not identify his features with the hood covering most of his face.
(Hall, 127). This idea of a fair and just society was the centerpiece of Puritan society, and it subsequently led to the virtue of community over the individual which was previously discussed. When it comes to The Scarlet Letter, the ideology that Puritan morality is fundamental to everything is truly front and center. Hester’s struggle due to her past sin is a perfect example of this; The ministry attempted to purify and protect the community by excluding Hester from societal affairs, even going as far as attempting to strip Hester of her custody of Pearl. Overall, Hester’s forced
Amanda Vicente The Scarlet Letter Reading Response AP English Language Period J 16 August 2016 Journal Entry 1: Chapters 1-2 In The Scarlet Letter, the author sets a mood from the beginning of the book. The setting is old and beat up in front of an aged wooden prison with judgmental Puritans ready to tear a women apart. The Puritans are hypocrites and the author portrays that in the story.
