Scarlet Letter Women In Today's Society

In today’s society, humans look down on each other for their wrongdoings. These wrongs include adultery and acting as a coward. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts society’s oppressive actions toward Hester Prynne because she committed adultery; as well as Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale’s internal struggle against his own cowardliness. Hester is shunned and looked down upon because of her sin, just as women in today’s society are for committing the same act. Dimmesdale is petrified of speaking up and owning his wrongdoings; Dimmesdale sees himself as a coward, just as men in the same predicament feel. Women in today’s society of often contemned because of adulterous acts. In the novel, Hester was also treated the same. The Scarlet Letter shows how other women feel about Hester and her sin by stating: “This woman has brought shame to all of us, and she ought to die” (1). Puritan women in the novel saw adultery as a terrible sin, just as women today shame others who have committed the act. Now, women will turn against an adulterous friend, just as the women in Boston did

In the novel, the women gossiping about Hester say: “The magistrates may be God-fearing but they are too merciful” (1). Those women believed that Hester should be stamped with the letter A and put to death. Women today are not as harsh, however, they do view adultery with more disgrace than men. For example, women censure other women for committing adultery more than men do. These women see it as a shameful act to the entire sex and criticize adulterers heavily. Men, on the other hand, offer more forgiveness toward women for adultery. In The Scarlet Letter, the Boston women reproach Hester and the men are more merciful towards her. This novel depicted seventeenth century women’s views of adulterous women as well as accurately describing how women in the twenty-first century see adulterous