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The Role Of Sin In The Scarlet Letter

1188 Words5 Pages

Monis Abdoul
Mrs Brooky
English III (H)
Period 1B
10/5/2016

Let's face it, everyone has committed what are generally considered sins in today’s society either of big or small magnitude. One major sin has been sufficient to completely change the life of a person. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story that shows multifaceted bits of the harsh Puritan way of life. Focused first on a “sin” committed by Hester Prynne and her mysterious significant other before the story ever starts, the novel’s subtle elements demonstrate how the sin causes the transformation of the lives of certain characters in the book due to people’s interpretation of the sin.
Firstly, Hester in the eyes of the puritan society is on the spotlight compared to other sinners. For Hester, her sin of bearing a child with her lover and not her husband constrains her into detachment …show more content…

Those who had before known her, and had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even startled, to perceive how her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped.” Her qualities that Hawthorne portrays at the opening of the book, i.e. her magnificence, womanly qualities, and enthusiasm are, after a period, obscured by the "A" she is compelled to wear on her Bosom as punishment. She goes through a massive transformation shortly afterward in chapter 2 as she goes from pride to shame, “Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast, that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes!—these were her realities,—all else had vanished!”. A case of this is her hair. Long hair is something in this day

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