Sin in puritan times was not taken lightly. Ignominy was how sinners were punished, and in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist Hester Prynne was no exception. She was publicly shamed, and forced to wear the letter “A” on her chest. Everything that was meant to be ugly in Hester’s life, turned into something beautiful.
In the beginning of the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne introduces the main character Hester Prynne, a young, beautiful member of a Puritan society being punished for her sin of love, not lust. The opening chapters introduce the reader to gossips who deem her original punishment, death, too harsh and contrary to Puritan beliefs that unborn babies should be given a chance at life. Instead, Hester and her child are to be alienated and shunned. In addition she is to wear the letter ‘A’ (which stands for ‘adultery’) on her chest which will forever display her as a symbol of shame for her sin. Though a very resilient figure who soon overcomes this pain, Hester’s isolation takes a negative toll on her life.
In puritan society, adultery is a severe sin worthy of heavy punishment. Despite receiving the harsh sentence of having to wear a scarlet letter A on her chest for the rest of her life, Hester’s sin is the least of those of the main characters in the novel. In chapter five, Hawthorne says this of Hester, “Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast, ⏤at her, the child of honorable parents, ⏤at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman, ⏤at her, who had once been innocent, ⏤as the figure, the body, the reality of sin” (71). Because of her crime of
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman, commits adultery with Reverend Dimmesdale. As a form of punishment, the judge forces Hester to wear a scarlet letter to signify her wrongdoing. The purpose of the scarlet letter is to correct Hester’s conduct. With the symbol of the scarlet letter, Hester’s Puritan community publicly judges and ridicules her. Today, judges sometimes still use public shaming as a form of punishment.
Although publicly admitting to sin can be a challenging task, time will heal the initial pain. Hester Prynne, of the Scarlet Letter, lives this lesson as she commits the sin of adultery. Her punishment for the sin is to wear the letter “A” on her bosom until she is allowed to remove it by the Puritan authorities wishes. Initially, Hester feels guilt and shame as she wears it. As Hester’s character grows in strength, she overcomes the letter’s original purpose of punishment.
The Scarlet Letter Arguement According to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the author argues that sin and suffering exists even in a utopian society. To illustrate, Hester prynne commits the sin of adultery.
“The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Smith 1). The Bible, which is the foundation for many religions, says this about the punishment for sins in Ezekiel 18:20. Hester Prynne, the protagonist of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, gets punished for infidelity by the donning of a scarlet letter “A” for eternity.
The Scarlet Letter questions the human fallacy regarding sin and knowledge. The novel asks its readers whether they believe in their ability to comprehend the difference between right and wrong. Through the depiction of the prude mindset of the Puritan society - exaggerated in a way which truly emphasizes the idea of this fallacy, readers receive this question shockingly to where the message is indirectly concise, yet easily translated. Biblically, sin represents a lack of proper execution of one's knowledge.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne clearly exemplifies the hypocrisy of the Puritan society. Hester Prynne is punished to wear the scarlet letter “A” on her chest for committing adultery. Adultery is an immense sin to the Puritan society. Hester is publicly shamed while there are other Puritans who have possibly committed a similar sin as she had.
It was Maureen Johnson who stated that “guilt is a weight that will crush you whether you deserve it or not,” but is the weight ever really lifted? In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, young Hester Prynne is tried in court and convicted of having committed adultery. Her punishment, one of public humiliation, is to wear a scarlet red “A” on her clothes for the rest of her days. “Adulterer” is a title that eventually fades away, even in the strict Puritan community that she lives in, however the guilt she places upon herself remains. This guilt also affects the relationship she has with her daughter, Pearl, even years after.
The Scarlet Letter is set in a strict Puritan city in the seventeenth century in Boston. At this point in history, Puritans believed that people were born as sinners. They often characterized human nature as sinful and that salvation can only be achieved through God’s grace and sympathy. As a result of their dreadful outlook on human life, Puritans often emphasized / upheld strict rules over their society where sins, such as adultery, could be punished by death. The Scarlet Letter is about a married woman named Hester who has committed adultery and is now forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her chest.
In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne bestows upon Hester Prynne a character of unparalleled strength with a high capacity for moral reflection. Hester’s strong actions and reflectively eye opening thoughts foreshadow a brilliant light at the end of this dark tunnel of a tale where she will pick a “sweet moral blossom” (Hawthorne 42) that has been nurtured by her excruciating struggle and has finally bloomed. When Hester is officially convicted of her act of adultery, she is forced to wear a scarlet “A” upon her chest as punishment and a symbol of shame that she must live with for the rest of her life; she was then forced to stand on display for her fellow Puritan townspeople and let everyone view her “sin”. However, to the spectators’ amazement, Hester stood before them “with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed” (46).
The Scarlet Letter The most critically acclaimed novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne is The Scarlet Letter. Set in the 17th century Puritan New England, The Scarlet Letter is a Christian fictional book that deals with the repercussions of sin. This novel revolves around a certain Hester Prynne who committed adultery. Because of her sin, she was condemned to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her person for the rest of her days. However, adultery is only one of the many sins discussed in this book.
Effect of Sin and the Chance of Redemption Sin is a powerful action that has an everlasting consequence of guilt. Once done, the person wants to forget about his felonious actions; however, hopefully a person’s conscience is a constant, nagging reminder. In order to be free of the constant pain, redemption is pursued for even the person who sinned in public or private. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne proves that the truth of sin eventually need to be confronted in order for a person to stop suffering.
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)
