Hester's Decisions In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

We can all agree that today's world affects our decisions. The extent of the effect varies depending on what time period people live in. Not only do outside forces affect our decisions in the real world, but we can also see people's decisions getting swayed depending on the time period in literature also. A field of study that examines decisions based on time period in literature is called new historicism. New historicism is shown greatly in the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This book contains many new historic events. This essay will go into detail about how Hester’s sin, Hester’s outcast, Hester’s humiliations, and Dimmesdale's role as minister are all events that affect the decisions characters made in the book. Without Hester’s sin in the book, there would be no story. The book circulates around Hester and her life after her sin. The time period in which this book was set shapes the book and formulates its events. In Puritan America, sin was considered a severe act; because Hester is living in this time

People opinions are affected by what they believe in based on the time period. These opinions cause Hester much pain and suffering. The fact that Hester instantly became an outcast after the birth of her baby made from sin is due to the time period. People in this time era believed that those who sinned were bad people and Hester had no one to talk to. Hester was publically humiliated in the form of wearing letters and standing on the scaffold. Punishments like these were used in the time period of when the book was written and Puritan America. These two time periods affect events in the book as well as characters decisions. The book The Scarlet Letter is highly new historic. Although Nathaniel Hawthorne has shared the story of Hester, there are many things that have happened to people in the past that we do not know