Prejudice In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

From the dawn of the human age, moving silently and boundless through time, was prejudice. Spanning enduringly throughout the centuries from the Nazis and the Jews, the Apartheid in South Africa, to the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr, prejudice was a major factor that influenced many world events, which had an infinite impact on novelists and their books. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s inclusion of biblical allusions and anecdotes in The Scarlet Letter reveals prejudice in Puritan society while also reflecting his personal experience with the community.

Hawthorne was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts, a town with a long history of Puritanism and religious extremism. This undoubtedly influenced his writing and his views on prejudice

Hester had to take the responsibilities and the consequences of adultery, even though Dimmesdale should have equal, if not more, punishment, seeing that he was the head of the church. When Hester stands in front of a jury and endures tremendous hatred from individuals within the audience who believed that Hester has brought shame to society, she declared, “Ye cannot take it off, and would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!” (Hawthorne 39). Another way in which the theme of patriarchy is present in the novel is through the character of Roger Chillingworth. He sees Hester as being solely responsible for their marital problems and is not willing to forgive or understand her actions. It was in chapter 4 that it was found out that Chillingworth did not love Hester, where he admitted, “...I felt no love, nor feigned any” (Hawthorne 84). Hester was tricked into a marriage that she didn’t want to be wanted in the first place, and was expected to stay loyal even after her husband disappeared. It was explicitly stated in the Bible in multiple instances, especially 1 Corinthians 7:39 and Romans 7:3 (KJV), that “a wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord,” and “accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if

This is shown when Hester was repeatedly shunned and ridiculed by her fellow townspeople, who saw her as a symbol of sin and moral corruption. The men in the novel, particularly the ministers and judges, were shown to be deeply misogynistic, treating them with contempt and disdain. This goes back to the beginning of the novel where Hester was forced to stand on a scaffold and display the scarlet letter for all to see. The men in the town gathered around her and heaped insults and abuse upon her, while the women looked on in silence, seemingly unable to defend or support her. Another example of a victim of misogyny in The Scarlet Letter was Pearl, the daughter of Hester, and because of her mother’s sin, Pearl was mistreated by members of the community as she was seen as the product of her mother’s infidelity. In chapter eight, Master Wilson admonishes Pearl with great solemnity, saying, “Pearl, thou must take heed to instruction, that so, in due season, thou mayest wear in thy bosom the pearl of great price” (Hawthorne 133). Just as the merchant in the parable of Matthew 13:45-46 (KJV) sells all