Judgements And Punishment In Scarlet Letter
The novel “The Scarlet Letter” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a very intense read. The novel questions the beliefs, rules, judgements and perceptions of someone’s transgressions. Should someone be punished by society for a sin that affects no one but their own person? Does society have the right to judge a person for said sin? What if two people commit the same sin and yet only one is judged? These are the deep rooted questions asked and explored in “The Scarlet Letter”.
The novel takes place in a 17th century puritan community. Hester Prynne has been found guilty of being an adultress and must now wear a red scarlet “A” on her breast for the rest of her life, to show the world that she has transgressed. The adultery resulted in the birth of a child named Pearl.
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Hawthorne seems to be showing the reader the difference between the two extremes. Hester who lives daily with not only the scarlet “A” on her chest, but the child she bore of the adulterous union, Arthur, for 7 years, is not faced with the scorn and shunning of society. He is rather a revered and loved deacon. However, his sin tortures him daily to the point of almost madness and he eventually is faced with confronting his part. Hawthorne tells of this torture in such an imaginative and engaging way that one can almost feel the pain that Dimmesdale endured. The struggle between good and evil, right and wrong, confession of wrongdoing or the hiding of such is a theme that rings throughout the novel. Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, holds his anger and hatred deep inside. He spends the 7 years of the story bent on revenge. This takes a toll on his physical being. While Hester openly wears the scarlet “A” on her chest, and deals with the scorn and scrutiny of the community, Chillingworth hides his revenge. This hidden agenda, this anger, this hatred only serves to hurt him in the
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878 Words | 4 PagesThe book “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a complex novel that has underlying themes of sin and the responsibility for sin. The novel takes place in a Puritanical society, but two people, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, fornicate with each other, even though Hester is married to someone else. Only Hester is punished, so Dimmesdale keeps his guilt inside, not revealing it to anyone. Hester’s husband, Chillingworth, then proceeds to ruin Hester’s partner in crime, corrupting his soul and being the ultimate cause for his death. Hester, on the other hand, leads a relatively happy life after she had repented for her sin.
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791 Words | 4 PagesPunishment of Puritans for their sins occurred harshly and frequently, and these punishments ranged from fines, branding, and severe whippings to hanging and death. Many of these penalties involved public humiliation of some kind, which made it extremely difficult for townspeople to accept by their peers after they had sinned. Because the Puritans believed religion was immensely important, the community was often reluctant to allow citizens that exhibited sinful behavior to achieve redemption (Cox). However, in the case of Hester Prynne, an adulterer in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter, the townspeople eagerly made amends with her. This novel narrates the life of Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and courageously accepted the repercussions
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1213 Words | 5 PagesThis shows that Hester does not necessarily need to worry about what the people of Boston think of her or how she needs to redeem herself in order to fit back into the society. When Hawthorne says “The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end!” he is showing how there is no way for Hester to change her society. She should have love and joy, but instead she is faced with guilt, which leads to her downfall. Along with this, Hawthorne demonstrates how the people of Boston are actually the sinners while Hester and Dimmesdale represent the Angel and the Saint of the city.
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1146 Words | 5 PagesThe narrator portrays him as an intelligent but angry old man that does not have any interest in his wife any longer unless it is plotting revenge. One theme in this chapter is something that can slowly destroy people mentally, guilt. The irony that took place in this story is that Chillingworth is trying to find the father of his wife's child. The main theme in chapter three and four is obeying the law of the people and if failed to be done it will end in punishment. Journal Entry 3: Chapters 5-6 For the rest of Hester’s life she will be forced to wear a red embroidered “A” at all times on her clothes.
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719 Words | 3 PagesEven though the Puritans may have designated the letter as a representation of sin, Hester’s renewed sense of pride does not want society to define the A for her. Rather Hester wants to define it herself and by doing so she develops responsibility and power over her own actions. Because Hester has the power to change who she is, she also has the power to change what the Scarlet Letter represents. By letting the letter be “embroidered with gold thread” readers are able to see how for Hester sin is not something to be fearful of; furthermore, it allows one to see how Hester has developed into an independent individual who accepts who she is and the situation she is presented with. Hester’s lover unfortunately
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936 Words | 4 PagesIn 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)
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1646 Words | 7 PagesImagine living in a place where one small sin could define who you are for the rest of your life. That is what happened in The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. The novel is set in a seventeenth-century Puritan community in Boston, Massachusetts. A young woman by the name of Hester Prynne commits a small act of adultery and is shamed for the rest of her life, by wearing a scarlet letter “A” on her breast. The book is centered around the theme of justice and judgement.
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