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Imperfection In The Scarlet Letter

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Hawthorne’s Puritan Imperfection

Hawthorne uses symbolism throughout his book The scarlet letter to get his theme of imperfection, by using objects, people and or nature. Using the wild rose bush, hester cabin and pearl as symbols of imperfection in a puritan society. The idea of a puritan society is that religion is law, you have to live a hellish life on earth to go to heaven. Any earthly pleasure is a sin in puritan society. Hawthorne is also an antitranscendentalist which means he believes that society is good and keeps people in line, yet mature is bad gives people the idea they can be free and run wild. Nathaniel HAwthorne explains 1600s puritan society imperfection throughout The Scarlet Letter.

First, Hawthorne uses the …show more content…

Hester has finished her full prison sentence and is now free. However, she does not leave the town, instead she lives in a cabin that is split between society and the forest. This symbolizes that Hester is on the verge of good and evil because Hawthorne believes that Society is good and humans would run wild without the laws of society that keep them in check. That nature is evil and if it was up to humans that they would run savage and kill and rape, and steal. “ Hester Prynne, therefore, did not flee. On the outskirts of town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitations, there was a small thatched cottage. . . abandoned because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation”. (Hawthorne 74) This symbolize as that Hester is going to live out her guilt it is where she sinned, where her husband is, where her baby was born and husband is. Meanwhile the story went on with Hester getting older and ugly and Pearl getting older and beautiful. Pearls father confess his sin and dies the same die. Hester’s husband died because he no longer had a reason to live and he withered away. Hester and Pearl move back to the old world and Pearl growing into a beautiful women who is rich. There story almost becomes a myth , Pearl never returns and Hester’s cabin turns into another abandoned house. “ The cottage by the sea-shore, where

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