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What Is The Hypocrisy In The Scarlet Letter

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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s brilliant novel, The Scarlet Letter uses hypocrisy to illustrate the corruption within the Puritan religion. Hawthorne’s novel specifically illustrates the injustices of the Puritan religion before, and after The Salem Witch trials of 1692. Most of Hawthorne’s characters did something hypocritical to further develop their character and emotions. Hawthorne uses real historical people to prove his points; including Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Doctor Chillingworth. All of these characters have either been a victim of hypocrisy or have been exposed by hypocrisy by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Hester Prynne is seen as the unlawfully convicted by being burdened with the scarlet A, but does the punishment fit the crime? Hester Prynne did indeed commit adultery, but the burden of the letter A on her chest caused more harm than good. For example, the townspeople would gossip, insult, and even preach, about her while she was at church, just passing by, even while her child was present. The Puritans are so hypocritical that they claim how holy they are, but are so hateful. Many would argue and say that The Puritans did give Hester a 2nd chance by giving her the scarlet A, but that caused Hester …show more content…

Even going as far as to use The Puritan church, The Puritan people, and The Puritan religion, to help prove his point. His own grandfather was involved in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials as a judge, and wrote The Scarlet Letter and The Crusival in honor of his grandfather. Nathaniel Hawthorne put a lot of thought into each of his novels carefully planning were hypocrisy would be used. Therefore, he emphasized The Puritan people's hypocrisy because they were the most hypocritical of all the characters. Hypocrisy played the biggest role in The Scarlet Letter defining each character's qualities, exposing each of their sins, and informing the character of the corrupt

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Puritan’s harsh beliefs represented the beginning of the Nineteenth Century in the newly colonized America. Their community ruled with an iron fist: unforgiving, pitiless, stern. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses his disagreement with puritan priorities by revealing the hypocrisy widely practiced throughout their community. Hawthorne’s utilization of dim diction aids in the establishment of his scornful tone, while inclusion of symbols and intricate juxtaposition all serve to accentuate the Puritan’s duplicity. All these factors combine to develop a critical tone which rebukes puritan society.

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The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller , both share the theme of reputation and integrity. This book and play both take place in the life of Puritans. Hawthorne expresses him theme with symbols like the scarlet letter. Arthur expresses the theme within life situations that some puritans may have went through. The main character in The Scarlet Letter is Hester Prynne, she committed adultery and was part of her punishment was wearing the scarlet letter.

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Way back in the 17th century the Puritan religion was the leading religion in The New World. Their religious beliefs were strict especially in Salem, Massachusetts. They had extreme punishments for for laws even in the case of a minor offense. The punishments were based of the laws created by their religious beliefs. Hawthorne uses several examples of foreshadowing in “The Scarlet Letter” that reflects the strict beliefs of their society.

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Throughout time, the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and the book, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, have been regarded as two of the most reputable works of literature in their eloquent uses of similar themes that describe the human tendencies that can be found in historical events and characteristics of Puritan society. The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, makes a connection to the times “Red Scare” to the parallel of the Salem witch hunts of the 1680s. In the book, the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tell the tragic story of sin of Heater Prime and the Puritan society in which she lived view of her crime. Similar themes, such as sin, repentance, and forgiveness, and different things that these themes affect or are affected

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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.

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When Hawthorne wrote the Scarlet Letter was his judgment biased due to his abhor feeling towards the Puritans or was it truthful? The Puritan society is portrayed as a happy, perfect, society without the need for sin, however, there are things camouflaged by the way Hawthorne writes. Hawthorne implies from the first chapter that the puritans followed rules and when a scandal is caused by Hester Prynne their truth about how they act is publicly shown. Hester Prynne ended up getting pregnant by a man who is unknown despite that she is not

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The townspeople “[began] to look upon the scarlet letter as a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” This quote exemplifies how sin is not a death sentence for Hester. Through hard work and charity it allowed the rigid Puritan society to see her as something different, and as someone who would not let society define who she was. Hester, thus, was not only able to change herself, but also the image in which society viewed her by working hard to benefit the public. Likewise, the scarlet letter which was supposed to represent sin was instead “fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.”

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At the beginning of the passage, while Hawthorne introduces the idea that Hester might be staying in Boston because she feels bound to Pearl’s father. The author ironically states that while her relationship has caused ‘a joint futurity of endless retribution,” she still deems herself “connected in a union” and secretly hopes that they will eventually be together (Hawthorne 90). This is ironic because even though he contributed in creating the shame and misfortune in her life, she still regards him highly and even still secretly wishes their relationship could continue. However, it should be noted that she “hastened to bar [the idea] in its dungeon,” thus indicating that she tried to ignore this fact (Hawthorne 91). Yet, the personification

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In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne effectively conforms to the conventions of the gothic genre for the purpose of characterizing the Puritan society as oppressive, portraying the hypocrisy found within the society and highlighting the consequences for not confessing

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In the “Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays hypocrisy of the Puritan society, where the protagonist Hester Prynne face many consequences of her actions and the how she tries to redeem herself to the society. During the seventeenth puritans believe that it is their mission to punish the ones who do not follow God’s word and it is their job to stop those from sinning. Therefore, the hypercritical puritan society punishes Hester harshly for committing adultery, but in Hester’s mind, she believes that what she did was not a sin but acts of love for her man. Eventually, she redeems herself by turning her crime into an advantage to help those in need, yet the Puritan society still view her as a “naughty bagger.” (Hawthorne 78)

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