Hester Prynne's Case

“Hester Prynne’s Case: Justice Then and Now”

The Scarlet Letter, a book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne during the mid-1800s, is about an adulterous woman’s life in Boston; during the early mid-17th century in New England, the Puritans already had imposed strict laws for the people to acquiesce. Many centuries later, penalties for adultery became less severe; in fact twenty-nine out of fifty states of America don’t federally admonish their residents for adultery. If Hester Prynne, the adulterous from the novel, lived during the late nineties or the third millennium— now a more liberal society— she could have had a more lenient punishment or could have gotten off scot-free without having to endure the punishment and shame she endured during the 1750s.

In the United States’ states where adultery is federally penalized, a spouse has to

After the Puritans indicted Hester Prynne for adultery, they passed the verdict, ordering Hester Prynne to eternally wear the scarlet letter A, which stands for “Adultery.” Wearing the letter on the beast part of her clothes served to remind Hester Prynne of her sin, and the shame she brought on herself; along with that, future immigrants to Boston would also know Hester Prynne was an adulterous just by noticing the scarlet letter on her clothes. In contrast to punishment for adultery during Hester Prynne’s time, some states have strict punishment for adultery, while some have lenient punishment— even though “Adultery is rarely prosecuted as a criminal offense.” One of the States that harshly penalizes adultery is Massachusetts; in Massachusetts an individual decreed guilty of adultery can be sentenced to a maximum of three years. A state stricter than Massachusetts is Wisconsin where punishment for adultery $10,000 or 3 ½ years of imprisonment, but in some cases a judge has the right to give both