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Fairness In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter

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“Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.” (190) These “teachers” had guided Hester, one of the main characters in the book Scarlet Letter, to become who she needed to be. In addition to following these guidelines, Hester finds herself a representation of what is wrong with religion. She is forced into following these concepts due to a society that could not accept her. The Puritans, a group of religious dictators, claimed Hester’s love for another man besides her presumably dead husband was a sin. They forced her to wear an “A” to distinguish her as an adulteress in hopes that unending shame would teach her a lesson. Hester must learn to adapt as a …show more content…

This use of an unreliable structure makes laws and regulations unfair. This concept of fairness is a desired trait in the Puritan religion because they give all lives a chance at Heaven. This chance is demonstrated in the text when it says, “It is because of the stain which that letter indicates, that we would transfer thy child to other hands.” (104) This is telling about how the governor is offering Pearl “freedom” from Hester. This is giving her a chance to get away from the embarrassment that Hester must carry with her based upon the idea that she is still young and they can somehow find a way to save her. In addition to the human emotion conflict, while the women are unrightfully gossiping about Hester, one woman says, “Her husband may be at the bottom of the sea- they have not been bold to put in force the extremity of our righteous law against her.” (59) This is informing the reader that the punishment Hester received was considered lighter in that her husband, Roger Chillingworth, was presumed dead. This is letting sorrow and pity fall into place of Hester’s punishment, inevitably making it worse than previously

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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.

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941 Words | 4 Pages

We are all sinners, no matter how hard we try to hide our faults, they always seem to come back, one way or another. Written in the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us Hester Prynne and how one sin can change her life completely. Hester Prynne changes a great deal throughout The Scarlet Letter. Through the view of the Puritans, Hester is an intense sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life committing the highest act of sin, adultery. For committing such a sinful act, Hester must wear the scarlet letter while also having to bear stares from those that gossip about her.

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791 Words | 4 Pages

Considering the townspeople’s reactions toward Hester’s sin of adultery, it can be concluded that in the Puritan era, religion was of utmost importance, and the Puritans met sins with extremely harsh punishments. Because the majority of the Puritan town viewed Hester as a disgrace, she became “Lonely . . . and without a friend on earth” (56). This made it effortless for the inhabitants of the town to continue to insult and degrade Hester because they did not care to learn her true personality. While a few civilians had sympathy for Hester, the town mostly regarded her as shameful and

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1270 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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470 Words | 2 Pages

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester is exiled from her community because of her sins. Although everyone in the town sins, it is the way Hester’s were presented to them that makes her seem so wrong. They could not accept their faults, so instead, oppressed Hester and Pearl. “Thus the young and pure Would be taught to look At her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast,... -as the figure I the body.

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1863 Words | 8 Pages

Through this process, she developed a strong sense of self and learned to reject the limitations society imposed on her because she was a woman. Hester started to doubt the tight gender roles and suppression of female independence that were a result of Puritanical principles. Hester resisted being reduced to nothing more than her sin, despite the Puritan community's efforts to silence and shame her. Hester is described as wild in her personality, imagination, intellect, and will, due to the fact that he holds both feminine and masculine attributes. She doesn't conform to Puritan society, and through the isolation from society, she was able to think for herself and form feminist

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943 Words | 4 Pages

In the Scarlet Letter, one sees a depiction of an extraordinarily cruel justice system that is pursued with a religious zeal. Turning over of particularly mischievous children to public authorities as depicted in the Scarlet Letter was commonplace. However, Hester’s

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There has been much debate over the idea of the American colonies separating and becoming independent from Great Britain. The colonies as a whole agree with the idea that it would be much more advantageous to become our own independent country and be able to freely make decisions for the colonies welfare. That is why it has come to my better judgment to agree with the colonies decision to become independent from the British. I believe in this decision because it is very important for a county’s people to have protection. Protection is something the American colonies do not have at the moment and I do not see Great Britain providing this protection for them.

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In The Scarlet Letter, during that time period, the Puritans believed in a strict governance of religion in their society. Hester was scrutinized for her actions as, “the heads of the church and state stand together on the balcony, watching Hester on the scaffold” (53). Because of the relationship the government and the church had with one another, the church’s views influenced what was considered a crime and what punishments should be administered. Hester disregards their notions because by committing adultery, Hester is focusing on herself and not placing an emphasis on the church. Hester is

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1939 Words | 8 Pages

(p.167) So in the end she is not submissive to Chillingworth, just like she is not submissive to the Puritan authorities in the long run because she adheres to a higher law. " The scarlet letter had not done its office." (p.166) It was supposed to reduce Hester and put her in her proper place, but instead it has made her a revolutionary. The inequality she experiences causes Hester to speculate on the existing balance of power and impel her to find alternatives to traditional patriarchal society.

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719 Words | 3 Pages

Even 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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920 Words | 4 Pages

(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

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571 Words | 3 Pages

Puritan intolerance toward sin was shown during Hester’s first appearance. A group of women were dissatisfied with Hester’s punishment. The punishment was to wear the letter “A”, standing for adulterer, on her chest for the rest of

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959 Words | 4 Pages

Receiving the scarlet letter changed every aspect of Hester’s life. Especially at the start of the story, the letter symbolized the solitude and great suffering Hester faced just because of a letter placed on her bosom. The “A” also depicted how no one viewed Hester the same way as before her peccant actions. “…she saw that, owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance” (Hawthorne 109). The pejorative community Hester lived in never saw Hester as the beautiful, young woman she was, but now, as a horrible fiend.

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936 Words | 4 Pages

The Puritan society thinks that it was their job to punish people who committed crime severely because they believe they were doing god’s work. They persecuted Hester for committing adultery while they are blinded by

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