Breaking Of Charity In The Scarlet Letter

The Breaking of Charity Arthur Miller, in an excerpt from "In a Sense I Went Naked to Salem," used the phrase "breaking of charity." From the given examples, this phrase means the changing of positive emotions into negative emotions. Said examples were lovers turning into enemies and parents disowning their child. In "The Scarlet Letter," Nathaniel Hawthorne uses multiple characters and how they are treated/how they feel as examples of "breaking of charity." Much like Miller's example of parents disowning their child, the town disowned Hester Prynne after her sin became publicly known. Not only did they disown her, they constantly gossiped about her. For example, on page 54, a woman said, "This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die." The townspeople discussed how Prynne should have a harsher punishment, such as physical pain or even death. Before Hester's sin became a public one, she was not particularly popular, but she was not hated. This change of emotions and thoughts of Hester Prynne

An example given by Miller was lovers turning into enemies, which is exactly what happened to Chillingworth and Prynne. Chillingworth dissapeared for a couple years and when he returned, he arrived to see his wife cheated on him and had a baby with another man. Although they may not be enemies, there is no longer love, if there ever was any, and there was some sort of small scale hatred between them. Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," is a useful example of the phrase "breaking of charity" because of the events and emotions certain characters experience. Lovers become enemies, a whole town begins to shun one character and someone begins to deeply hate themself. That is how "The Scarlet Letter," is related to Arthur Miller's phrase "breaking of