Nathaniel Hawthorne's Use Of Punishment In Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was one of the first mass-produced novels in the United States. Hawthorne was born July 4, 1804 in Salem Massachusetts. An early ancestor of Hawthorne, William Hathorne, emigrated to Salem, Massachusetts in 1630 and took on the reputation of being a harsh judge during the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s. Hawthorne, wanting to distance himself from the puritan legacy on his father’s side, added a “w” to his last name. Wanting to further remove his family from Salem’s Puritan trappings, Hawthorne moved his family to Lenox, Massachusetts after composing The Scarlet Letter. (Editors) Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter to protest the Puritan’s harsh customs and laws despite the critics that may arise.
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Since puritans believed they were doing God’s work, harsh punishments were inflicted on those who seemed to stray from that work. Laws dictated every aspect of a Puritan’s life, including how they dressed. Puritan women were expected to have their sleeve’s width a certain length, and their dress hem dragging on the ground. The men who made the laws also enforced them and ran the colony. (MacLean) Church attendance was mandatory and those who missed church regularly were subject to fines. Being fined was an easy punishment for Puritans, punishments ranged from a scolding to execution. Similar to Hester Prynne’s punishment in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet letter, “The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentrated at her bosom.” (Hawthorne 40), lucky adulterers were forced to wear a scarlet “A”; others were executed. Public whippings and stockades located in the public town square were other humiliating punishments for those who did not follow God’s law. In The Scarlet Letter, the scaffolding on which Hester Prynne stands is described as: “the platform of the pillory; and above it rose the framework of the instrument of discipline, so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it up to the public gaze.” (Hawthorne 39), similar to a stockade. However, Hester’s punishment on the scaffolding was different: “she should stand a certain time upon the platform, but without undergoing the gripe about the neck and confinement of the head” (Hawthorne 39). “Puritans felt no remorse about administering punishment… Surely God's correction would be far worse to the individual than any earthly penalty.” (Association) Puritans viewed as though they knew everything about God that they needed
Since puritans believed they were doing God’s work, harsh punishments were inflicted on those who seemed to stray from that work. Laws dictated every aspect of a Puritan’s life, including how they dressed. Puritan women were expected to have their sleeve’s width a certain length, and their dress hem dragging on the ground. The men who made the laws also enforced them and ran the colony. (MacLean) Church attendance was mandatory and those who missed church regularly were subject to fines. Being fined was an easy punishment for Puritans, punishments ranged from a scolding to execution. Similar to Hester Prynne’s punishment in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet letter, “The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentrated at her bosom.” (Hawthorne 40), lucky adulterers were forced to wear a scarlet “A”; others were executed. Public whippings and stockades located in the public town square were other humiliating punishments for those who did not follow God’s law. In The Scarlet Letter, the scaffolding on which Hester Prynne stands is described as: “the platform of the pillory; and above it rose the framework of the instrument of discipline, so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it up to the public gaze.” (Hawthorne 39), similar to a stockade. However, Hester’s punishment on the scaffolding was different: “she should stand a certain time upon the platform, but without undergoing the gripe about the neck and confinement of the head” (Hawthorne 39). “Puritans felt no remorse about administering punishment… Surely God's correction would be far worse to the individual than any earthly penalty.” (Association) Puritans viewed as though they knew everything about God that they needed