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Impact of puritans on american society
Impact of puritans on american society
The Influence of Puritans on American Character
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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.
Hester has to wear a letter A on her chest for her punishment of adultery. In The Scarlet Letter, the meaning and significance of the letter A is altered as the novel goes on. Hester, the townspeople, and Pearl all have views of the letter that change. Through their views of the letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author, reveals what his view on the letter is. Hester’s view of
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is seen as a disgrace for the town. The “A” on Hester’s chest forces her to feel like she has no independence, since she is not seen like a typical person; she does not feel like she
The Meanings of the Letter One simple letter can have multiple distinct meanings. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the letter “A” has many representations. Hester Prynne, one of the main characters, has to wear the letter “A” on her chest because she committed adultery. Hester is a married woman whose husband went missing.
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.
In the Puritan society, the community does not usually see people break laws, so when Hester commits adultery, it is so severe. Hester is humiliated in front of the whole community and told to wear the A because the community wants her to feel her shame. In Chorley’s article he states, “The Scarlet Letter is a badge of Hester Prynne’s shame…” (Chorley 184). In this quote he is saying that the A is to illustrate how severe of a law she broke in her community and to make her feel bad for breaking the law.
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is set in 17th century Boston, during the Puritan era. The novel illustrates the Puritan’s grave religious rules; however, it is rather a criticism of their belief. The Puritans in the novel believe that men are in a higher position than women; they are the leaders of the households, so they have a right to make all important decisions, while women just exist to take responsibility of housework and children. This biased family setting establishes the way women are treated and how earthly sins are grimly punished in Puritan society. In The Scarlet Letter, the letter “A” has various meanings depending upon different contexts; it not only projects the obvious meaning of adultery, but also changes into a sign of isolation, and finally becomes a symbol of ability.
In The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he focuses the story on Hester Prynne, a woman who has committed adultery and conceived a girl, Pearl, as a consequence. As retribution, Hester is forced to carry a scarlet letter on her bosom. The letter “A” initially denotes her act of adultery, however, as the story progresses, the symbol’s meaning transforms, standing for “Able;” ironically, what was intended to bring shame on Hester brought her strength. Similarly, this letter “I” represents my flaws which are my indecisiveness, inhibitions, and idiosyncratic self, but more so insecurities than anything else. To extend, insecurities inhibits my self-expression and inclination to take charge of situations concerning myself.
(52) To Hester, the scarlet letter on her chest simply symbolizes the sin of adultery and is able to flaunt it as if it were a beautiful thing in front of the citizens of her town. However, to the Puritan society, it not only symbolizes the shame and sin of adultery but also how Hester is now only an adulterer, nothing more nor nothing less. The Puritan society, especially the men who issued the scarlet letter as a punishment to her, has disregarded other aspects of Hester Prynne’s life such as her motherhood, not being a charitous woman or an embroiderer, only an adulterer. This can be recognized within several parts of the novel of how the Puritan figures consistently discriminate against certain rights and beliefs as a result of her sin In many cases, throughout the world’s history, Mothers are appreciated and recognized as one, and how they raise the future. However, if the Puritan society in The Scarlet Letter does acknowledge Hester as a mother, they associate it with her sin and how awful of a mother she must be as a result of her
The letter A stands for the sin of adultery as Hester has it, “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A” (Hawthorne 47). Hawthorne shows very clearly that Hester acknowledges that
The Virtuous Woman Hester Prynne The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne focuses on the early Puritan settlement of Boston and a woman named Hester Prynne. Hawthorne has this character face having a child out of wedlock and hatred from society. In this case then, is Hester Prynne a virtuous woman or not?
There are various examples of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, but one of them wraps the whole story together: the meaning of the scarlet letter A. In this passage, Hester Prynne wears an embroidered letter A on her bosom as punishment. At first the A stood for “adulterer”, but the townspeople later gained respect for her and said “Such helpfulness was found in her-so much power to do and to sympathize-that many people refused to interpret the scarlet “A” by its original significance. They said it meant ‘Able’” (Hawthorne 107).
Hawthorne describes the letter: “in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done, and with so much
The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne has known to become his masterwork and is thus far his most illustrious novel. A tale of sin and its gruesome consequences, one’s temptation to passionately love, revenge and guilt, and most importantly the immense repercussions of social stigmatizing and public shaming are all profoundly implicated throughout this story Over the course of twenty-four chapters, Hawthorne illustrates the life of Hester Prynne, the female protagonist who has been brutally condemned by the Puritan society to wear an “A” on her bosom as a symbol for adultery, the horrible sin she has committed. Nkechi Diallo, commonly known as Rachel Dolezal, a former civil rights activist and former president
With Hester changing her ways and helping the poor, the community changed, “They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 168). While the community originally viewed the “A” as a symbol of sin, they began to see it too as a symbol of being “Able” because all that Hester Prynne had overcome. The Scarlet Letter had many examples of symbolism, but none were more significant that the letter “A”
