Hester's Adoption Of Sin

Puritan faith emerged during the early seventeenth century when a group of separatist rejected the principles of the Church of England and seeked to purify the new faith relying their ideals on God’s ultimate decision over human beings, strong participation and relationship with the church, and strict interpretation of the Bible. The idea of puritanism, in other words, doomed ones existence into the belief that a person was either a saint that followed the church strictly or a sinner that lived under pagan principles. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a saint is a person who is officially recognized by the Church as being very holy because of the way he or she lived and a sinner is someone who has done something wrong according to

Hester herself recognizes her sin as well and truly adopts it when she conceives Pearl. Even though she accepts it in that sense, she still wouldn’t tell who the father is, expressing fear of what the people might say or do. This made her a true sinner because she kept the complete truth to herself and avoids the reality that her sin bring s at first. Hester tried to make the scarlet “A” as beautiful as she could to try to tell the people that she didn’t care and was “proud of her sin” but truly she despised it. As the novel progresses the author begins to transform her into a respectable and even model to follow in society. She begins to be slowly accepted by society, accept her sin, and most importantly become a very important part of who she was. Hester’s life of seclusion show how determined and patient she was towards her sin. The same exclusion form society help her meditate her sin and deeply analyze what she had done. Even though the initial purpose of the seclusion was to punish her for her sins, she eventually takes it as a way to become a better person and not care what people thought of

Hester Prynne, the protagonist of the story, not only receives forgiveness from God, but also receives admiration from the people. Throughout the novel we view a shift form sin, a closed puritan society, and punishment to a society that accepted and gave an opportunity to the sinner, Hester. We see how Hester transforms into a confident person which adopted her sin as who she actually was and fought for her position in society. Hawthorne accurately points out throughout The Scarlet Letter that, sin can be forgiven and it can even bring transformation to someone’s