These two aspects are so intertwined with puritan life, that it was required to go to Church every day or face a public whipping. The fear that leaders of the Puritan community instilled in their followers served as a deterrent against disobeying the Church. It is this same fear which ensures Hester’s silence, so that the father, Minister Dimmesdale, can be shielded from the inevitable
In the book The scarlet letter , Nathaniel Hawthorne questions the reader by questioning whether it is okay to punish sinners since we all have committed sins. Scarlet letter takes place in massachustes in new england in the time of colonization of the new world.at the time massachustes is very religious and the church has alot of power over the people, they control almost evry aspect of their life and punish thoose who commit sins. Dimmesdale is the head of the church in salem massachusetts and he is defined by how people admired him and how people liked him, this traits affect the theme and other characters in the story because it makes dimmesdale look pure and sin free making people make wrong assumption and decisions when it come to dimmesdale. At the beginning of the book Dimmesdale is liked by his community and is well respected.
By negatively depicting the Puritans with his depressing diction, Hawthorne establishes a scornful tone that highlights the Puritan’s
Being put in a time allotment where theocracies were plenteous, the novel contains numerous religious components that are then repudiated with the reason that it is being done for the sake of the Lord. All things considered, every one of the characters argued to be loyal adherents of the congregation and its statement, however all, yet Hester, ended up being to be deceiving themselves and the town. Hawthorne's incorporation of this incongruity is crucial to the section in light of the fact that it shows that regardless of how immaculate and honest one may show up, they might just be guarding a profound, dull mystery. Like the renowned saying goes, never judge a book by its
Inside the World of Hawthorne During the time period of the 1800’s, Puritans obeyed their censorious moral beliefs, focusing on worship of one’s God. Honor, honesty, and virtue were heavy traits that Puritans could be defined as. Within the seventeenth century, it was unlikely for Puritans to break the laws, and commit severe crimes; one of the most disapproving being adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American author during the 1800’s published one of the most impactful novels describing Puritan society and the downfall of characters who have committed the sin, adultery. His work takes readers on a journey through a different time period, style of living, and laws that people in today’s society do not have a connection with.
He didn’t like that he had Puritan ancestry, he was ashamed of it. Hawthorne was a transcendentalist and he made the main character, Hester Prynne one too. This shows how he truly felt and his views on his ancestors. Puritans and transcendentalists were two different groups of people. However, both were clearly used in The
Nathaniel Hawthorne delivers a biased account of the hypocritical actions displayed by Puritanical societies. As a man of faith, Hawthorne knows scripture and religious rules participants are to follow. He argues that the citizens of Boston are hypocritical in their treatment of fellow citizens. They are often portrayed excessively punishing those who are publically disgraced and hiding their own flaws.
When you think of a Puritan society, what comes to your mind? Perfect, flawless, and a religion based on following God? Well, that is what it says on paper, but is it really that perfect? Throughout the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne jabs at the Puritans in an attempt to portray just how flawed they really are. After reading the book, you want to think that Hawthorne is telling the story of sinning in a Puritan society.
In the article “Three Orders: Natural, Moral and Symbolic” by Hyatt Howe Waggoner analyzes how three of the main importances of “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne are natural, moral, and symbolic components of the story. “The Scarlet Letter” is a figurative novel that has a lot of comparisons to the natural, moral, and symbolic pieces of the Puritan community. Hawthorne uses several different items to represent natural, moral and symbolic pieces in his novel. Waggoner’s article shows that Chillingworth is closely in relation to the weeds and black flowers in the cemetery, the letter Hester wears around her chest is close in relation to the red rose, and Pearl is exceedingly close in relation to the wild rose bush next to the prison.
Hawthorne wanted his readers to understand that two people who have sinned can seek forgiveness and receive it. Throughout the story many stereotypes are expressed and Hawthorne used the listed stereotypes to express the idea that all people, both pure of heart and evil of soul, commit sins. When Hester, a beautiful, young woman and Dimmesdale a minister have an affair, thus committing a sin, they both provide an example of a cliche that good people make poor decisions. Hawthorne used Hester and Dimmesdale as stereotypes to prove that all people, no matter the morale or disposition, commit
Hawthorne uses several similes to express the magnitude of Dimmesdale’s deception of the Puritan churchgoers, comparing Dimmesdale’s face to one that has “the light of heaven beaming from it”. In this comparison, Hawthorne asserts that the churchgoers not only respect Dimmesdale, but they idolize him, making his pain and guilt worse by reminding him of his deception. He also compares Dimmesdale’s words to those of the Holy Spirit, who descends from heaven during the Christian Pentecost, which is ironically a sort of “grace” for sinners such as Dimmesdale. Additionally, Hawthorne uses strong diction with a connotation of guilt and shame, such as “misery”,”delusion”,”ruined”, and “polluted” to accurately describe how Dimmesdale’s sin and resulting moral hypocrisy has been weighing him down. Hawthorne then uses a rhetorical question in which he juxtaposes Dimmesdale’s “ruined” and “polluted” soul and the “redeemed” and “purified” ones of his audience to imply that due to the hypocrisy brought on by his sin, Dimmesdale doesn’t think that he has the right to be a minister or to be a holy figure to the Puritans.
This shows that Hester does not necessarily need to worry about what the people of Boston think of her or how she needs to redeem herself in order to fit back into the society. When Hawthorne says “The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end!” he is showing how there is no way for Hester to change her society. She should have love and joy, but instead she is faced with guilt, which leads to her downfall. Along with this, Hawthorne demonstrates how the people of Boston are actually the sinners while Hester and Dimmesdale represent the Angel and the Saint of the city.
However, he also uses these allusions to create a new side to his narrative as evident when he describes Hester’s resilience, and to create a new element in the plot as evident in his description of Dimmesdale’s penance and need for redemption. Therefore, Hawthorne demonstrates an effective use of allusions to craft a religious and detailed narrative for The Scarlet Letter by reviewing on parallels between the Bible and the novel’s main characters. There’s more to The Scarlet Letter than these allusions though, and there are many questions to answer about this book. These questions may never be answered fully, but by reading the novel itself, we might find the right places to start searching for answers and formulate our own opinions on the matter. What’s important from this novel is the realistic warning about what might happens when an individual place themselves too highly among others, a message Hawthorne writes to warn against the fervor of transcendentalism of his time.
As an anti-transcendentalist, Hawthorne was critical of the transcendentalist belief in the inherent goodness of humanity and nature. Hawthorne chronicles, “On the outskirts of the town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage” (Hawthorne 94). By placing Hester's cabin at the edge of the town, halfway between the ordered, civilized community and the wild, untamed forest, Hawthorne shows that Hester embodies this balance between the civilized and the natural, the good and the evil. The forest, as a symbol of freedom and escape from Puritan society, represents Hester's desire to break free from the strict social expectations placed on her. On the other hand, the town represents Hester's need for connection and acceptance within society, as well as her guilt and shame over her sin.
The Scarlet Letter, a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, functions as an evaluation of Puritan ideas, customs, and culture during the 17th century. Through this evaluation, we can get a good idea of what core values and beliefs the Puritans possessed, as well as the actions they take in cases of adversity brought about by “sinners”. Some Puritan virtues created stark divisions between groups of people, some of which led to discrimination under certain circumstances. One of the most prominent of these is the treatment and standards of men and women, a concept that surfaced during some of the major points in The Scarlet Letter. The divisions that were created by Puritan standards of men and women played a great role in shaping the plot of The Scarlet Letter, determining the fate of many of the characters.
