Preview

Strictness Vs Puritan

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
93 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Strictness Vs Puritan
Overall, “The Scarlet Letter,” a fictional tale, depicts and satirizes the strictness of Puritan beliefs in adultery, sin, and redemption. However, in today’s society, it continues to be an engaging story even when social norms have developed. Despite difference in traditional beliefs and strictness, are modern people and Puritan people drastically different? No. If we recognize that both are still people that sin, both are still people that redempt, and both are still people that forgives, then certainly, we must realize that Hawthorne's depiction of Puritan beliefs continues to be influential and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne promotes the idea of socially on brought guilt through the interactions of characters and Puritan beliefs in The Scarlet Letter. He masterfully depicts a newly settled New England and it's strict religious faith, which is still seen in much of New England today. He uses symbolism, irony and to fully bring out the true potential of his story.…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Common throughout religious stories we read today mainly focuses on how the author feels about their faith. However, in Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter it composed a both beautiful and tragic story while still creating a deep impact on the conflicting views of the society and nature in the Puritan society. Hawthorne uses his main characters in this novel to focus on three main rhetorical strategies; symbolism, hypocrisy and maliciousness. While using these strategies Hawthorne is able to create a story of a woman who was condemned and exposed of her sin in the Puritan Society.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Whose is the greater guilt therein when either’s conduct may dismay: she who sins and takes the pay, or he who pays her for her sin?” (Cruz 296). In the 1600’s, when a woman commits adultery and brings shame upon her husband she is often put to death as punishment. However, in Hester Prynne’s case she is shamed with a scarlet letter and excluded from society. In the novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Hester is forced to wear a Scarlet Letter “A” upon be bosom for the rest of her life. Yet, why is one person punished when the act of adultery must be committed by two? Hester’s partner in the sin committed, Mr. Dimmesdale, even though he was not revealed until the end of the story, would not have faced a punishment so severe.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Puritan Era was the most religious time in American history; committing any sin was seen as an act of rebellion. In that time the sin of adultery was taken very literally to an extent where the women were forced to wear the letter “A” across their bosom to show the people of the town what they had committed. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne’s sin results in such a punishment, but as the reader gets deeper into the book, a prominent and more profound understanding of Hester can be reached. It is through her struggles that Hawthorne gets across his primary themes. Hawthorne illustrates his theme through Hester's struggles that becoming an outcast can help one achieve a profound grasp of who they truly…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Misunderstood Beliefs of the Puritans Fear is an emotion that has plagued mankind for centuries. Fear of the unknown, fear of death, fear of others. When people are afraid, their actions can be manipulated to reactions out of fear. An example of extreme reactions to fear would be the Puritans.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ygbquestions

    • 268 Words
    • 1 Page

    a. Hawthorne is revealing the hypocrisy of Puritanism by highlighting the fact that even those who appear to be pious and noble are actually sinners.…

    • 268 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both the Bible and Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, redemption from sin is a prominent theme. Hawthorne and the Bible recognize that sin is inevitable - humans, as a part of life, sin. However, it is accepting and growing from these sins that allow peace of mind. The experience of Arthur Dimmesdale parallels that of the Bible's story of King David and Bathsheba and demonstrates that sin is a natural, unavoidable part of human life, but having committed a sin without confession leads to a life of internal turmoil and guilt.…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne’s representation of the Puritan’s strict religious ways in his novel, The Scarlet Letter, wasn’t just an observation of the problematic religious society, but, rather, a criticism of their extremist beliefs. The Scarlet Letter forces its audience to realize how sins are severely punished, and how religion is an enormous contributor to historical conflicts and the part it has played in the most recent wave of terrorism and religious controversy.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hawthorne proves that men believed that women did all wrong and that they were the only ones who could do wrong and that even if the men sinned, their god would forgive them since they are not women and do not give into seduction, but is offered temptation throughout the book which is the Puritan belief that all women are sinners and that men are here to redeem them and make them better people and keep them elsewhere from people like Hester who might influence their behavior and reject gender roles and refuse suppressing anymore and to come up and be better than what men think women are. Men suppressed them and women allowed it until the scarlet letter came along and demonstrates what the letter “A” truly meant. “The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dimmesdale's Guilt

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages

    During the early settlement of New England, there was a period where a strict society-based religious group, called the Puritans, dictated law. In this religion, they followed extremely harsh laws for punishment such as sinning, as found in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In his novel, Hawthorne uses the symbolism of Dimmesdale, the leech, and the punishment scaffold to contribute to his overall theme of guilt.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With respect to the Constitution, Jeffersonian Republicans were casually characterized as strict constructionists who opposed the broad constructionism of the Federalist Party. By the end of John Adams’ presidential administration in 1800, two political parties emerged with opposite philosophical views of the Constitution; to shift once the democratic-republicans took office. When the revolution of 1800 propelled the democratic-republicans into office, Jefferson and Madison found Alexander Hamilton's financial structure to be advantageous. The “necessary and proper” clause of the Constitution was expanded by both Jefferson and Madison to address threats to national security. In order to counter the democratic-republicans, the federalists resorted…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Scarlet Letter Paper

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In The Scarlet Letter a very prominent message delivered throughout the book is holding oneself to a standard of high morality. It doesn’t matter what society has to say about a person, but what that person has to say about themselves. The Puritans views on religion and law, “as befitted a people [The Puritans] among whom religion and law were almost identical,” were almost exactly the same (Hawthorne 33). This creates a major flaw in puritanical society because the punishment does not fit the crime but the religion. Typically, in most nations a separation of religion and state is instituted in order to remove this flaw, much like the way that 1700s France kept the church from developing a stranglehold on the nation’s laws and punishment, France accomplished this by having religion controlled by the monarch or ruler. The deterioration of morality that presents itself in overly harsh punishments results in people being abused and ridiculed and creates emotional and physical pain for a person. People are publicly…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Scarlet Letter Analysis

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In a passage from The Scarlet Letter, the narrator concocts a sense of a judgmental and somewhat contemplative attitude toward the Puritan society. The narrator's stance is emphasized mainly on the author's description of the Puritans and his use of symbolism to describe their community.…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After reading the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne I came to believe that Adultery is a terrible thing and can have very bad repercussions, especially in the early to mid 1700s. Back then committing adultery was a very serious offense to not the just the community but to your family also. Adultery used to destroy family relationships and to this day it still does. Adultery is also more of a religious problem but also goes into social and legal consequences. When it talks about social consequences it is things like being exposed to the whole town and everyone knows what you did, things were very strict when it came to adultery. Not only were you exposed but because adultery was taking so seriously, whoever committed…

    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the late 16th century, the Puritans migrated to the New World to purge themselves of crime and sin. They condemned those who did not adhere to their strict beliefs, acting with hostility towards the forbidden acts of drunkenness, blasphemy, and adultery. In The Scarlet Letter, the church enacts harsh sentences of incarceration and public shaming in order to discipline the presumed sinners. Even though these punishments seek to inflict harm and cause suffering to their victims, Hawthorne uses their cruelty to elicit the truth.…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays