Preview

The Scarlet Letter: The Hypocrisy Of The Puritan Society

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
177 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Scarlet Letter: The Hypocrisy Of The Puritan Society
The Scarlet Letter, portrays the hypocrisy of the Puritan society of the seventeenth century, with the fall and rise of Hester Pryne. The harsh hypocritical society of the Puritans persecuted, embarrassed and shunned Hester Pryne for committing adultery. However Hester Pryne, did not see what she was doing was a sin, because she was acting out of love. Furthermore, through the tale of Hester Pryne, the moral is that the sin of adultery, was no different from the sin of persecution by the society. Puritans were a Christian religious group whose values formed the foundation of American culture. Their strict moralistic views toward marriage and adultery were important in maintaining order in their society. Puritanical ideals

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This essay discusses how Hester is a victim of her social pressure. She was punished for something she did to achieve her dream of having someone that loves her. Hester committed adultery with minister Dimmesdale and had a child with him, Pearl. Her punishment was to stand on the scaffold with her child and wear the letter A on her breast as a sign of her “crime”. Due to the strictures of the puritan society, Hester Prynne suffers from public shaming. She almost lost her only child, and was not able to openly love who she wanted.…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “The Scarlet Letter” Henry David Thoreau argues that Hester neither blindly sinned against her community, nor willfully did so through her passion and purpose. Frederic I Carpenter analyzes Thoreau’s transcendentalist view of Hester’s sin as ignorant. In Carpenter’s criticism, he claims that Hester’s sin displays the negative effects on others around her as a result of her sin. Carpenter states “Hester Prynne sinned blindly through passion, and her sin caused the tragedy.” (177). Carpenter’s examination that Hester’s sin of adultery causes grievance to multiple characters conveys the fact…

    • 209 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    What religion do you believe in? Are you a Christian, Atheist, or agnostic? Well, the Puritans were people who believed deeply in the Christian faith, and they lived by a strict moral code. Puritans were immigrants who originated from England. They traveled to America for the protection of their beliefs, which included Predestination, Covenant of Works, Covenant of Grace, and the Covenant of Redemption. Even though Puritans were Christians, they behaved very selfishly toward others. Two Puritan writers, Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards, believed similarly in the Christian faith, but persuaded their views to their readers in their writings using different tactics.…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast… save when thy good – thy life – thy fame – were put into question.” These words spoken by Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter display her practice of situational morals and hypocrisy. Hawthorne displays this major element of human nature, hypocrisy in all characters save young Pearl who is blatantly unique from most people. Dimmesdale, Hester, and the entire Puritan community are hypocrites, and their hypocrisy manifests itself in the conflict of this novel. Hawthorne created a drastic difference between the inward and outward lives of everyone in this story and they can be related to the hypocrisy present in modern society. People never change, hypocrisy will always be present both today in the past.…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of this book we meet Hester Prynne, a beautiful young mother making her way from prison through a crowd of displeased Puritans. She finds herself displayed like a circus animal, amongst a silent and unforgiving crowd, on a scaffold commonly used for executions. She has a brilliantly embroidered Scarlet Letter “A” attached to her bosom, a curious punishment for the sin of adultery. The crowd, with the exception of that one young maiden, seems to think she deserved much more than a simple letter attached to her clothes. Death is the proper punishment for a scandal of this proportion! The Scarlet…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Puritans emphasized religious obligations and followed strict guidelines pertaining to the Bible. They broke away from the church of England and became their own religion following the teachings of the Bible as well as the Old Testament. Most Puritans settled in New England, but immigrated to the Americas to escape religious persecution. They believed that God was the only being capable of forgiving at a full capacity, the sins committed. As well did they believe that man could only forgive when there is a change in actions to pursue a more efficient lifestyle.…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jamie Barlowe wrote a literary criticism about the novel called The Scarlet Mob of Scribblers: Rereading Hester Prynne. In this piece of literature, Barlowe also expresses how Hester Prynne was alienated from the Puritan community. The scarlet letter “A” placed on Hester’s bosom represents the sin she committed and reminds her every day of the mistake she made. Throughout history, the color red symbolized sin and evil (Barlowe 44). Once again society has a big impact on how one is seen by others. Barlowe states “We come from a society where the lady in red is all danger and unresolvable mystery” (10). Hester is most definitely seen as the woman with whom not to associate. She was seen as “sin” and was the symbol of what people should not become. Barlowe reinforces the fact that Hester was “socially, politically, and religiously alienated from the community” (44). Although Hester was seen as an outcast, her tragedy led to a valuable lesson for all. She taught readers that people make mistakes, and they must hold their head up high and dig deep for their inner strength. . Hester Prynne was a prime example that one’s silence cannot protect oneself (Barlowe 10). The Scarlet Letter depicts how people will form unfair opinions and judgments. Hester contradicts this depiction towards the end of the novel when she starts helping out the sick. She does everything she can to prove to towns people and herself that she is a good person despite her mistake. The letter “A” soon turned from “adulterer” to “able”. Being shunned from society had really taught Hester that other’s opinions matter far less than the opinion we have of ourselves. That is the opinion in life that matters most of…

    • 1946 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When The Scarlet Letter was written the Author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, discovered many ideas and facts about the Puritan community. Knowing this Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about how women in the 17th century lived and how strict the society's rules can be, one major rule that was followed strictly phonate was “Actions spoke louder than words, so actions had to be constantly controlled.” (nd.edu). When the book begins it starts with introducing Hester and how she has done this huge violation according to the bible, maybe even causing the death penalty upon herself. As The Scarlet Letter goes through the timeline of how she is isolated and is shunned from the society; eventually, Hester slowly becomes part of the society by being the pure character she really was. This lets her take off the scarlet “A” and change the meaning of Adultery to the meaning of Able. Hawthorne decribes the climax of Hester’s story by expressing, “The letter was the symbol of her calling. such helpfulness…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    vestige of the white man's tread." (p. 187) If we look at the title of this…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne suffers hardships in result of committing adultery. The townspeople punish Hester by having her wear a visible symbol of her sin: the letter A on all her garments (for adultery). In addition, she is made to stand on a platform for hours throughout a day, for the purpose of self-humiliation. Hester's sin impacts not only her own life, but also the life of the townspeople and her daughter Pearl. In this novel, hypocrisy reveals how people deal with guilt and sin. At first the townspeople seem to be the ones imagined as hypocrites. However, hypocrisy is also evident within Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale because they all say some things but do not hold true to their belief.…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a book depicting the struggle of a woman who is spared death after committing adultery in a strict puritan society. The woman, Hester Prynne, was spared death only for the reason to make an example to the rest of the community. Throughout the book you can see the theme of how sin changes lives appear in almost every chapter and is an important driving factor behind the plot. This theme is shown through the actions of the three main characters: Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. These three characters act in this novel as the personification of sin in three different types of sin. A different sin by each of the main characters.…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Puritan Beliefs Essay

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages

    According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, a Puritan is a member of a Protestant group in England and New England in the 16th and 17th centuries that opposed many customs of the Church of England. These Puritans broke off from the Church of England and started a new church after the Church of England disagreed to the Puritans’ requests. The Puritans held multiple beliefs and were very serious about religion. Puritans believed the community had a responsibility to punish sinners harshly for the good of the individual. These beliefs are highly debated by some individuals on rather the Puritans were right or wrong.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Scarlet Letter Guilt

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Society judges them without getting to know even though they probably committed small crimes such as possessing drugs. Society often pictures them as the one of the worst people on the earth not even knowing what they were charged for. During the Scarlet Letter the reader become very familiar with the topic of remorse, regret, and how decisions can change one's life. The main character of the story is Hester Prynne, she committed adultery and as a result became pregnant and was sent to prison. The very first time the author even mentions Hester Prynne is when she comes out of jail with her three month old daughter Pearl to be put on a platform as one of the various forms of punishment for her decisions. From the very beginning Hester Prynne is faced with the consequences of her decisions and has to deal with the regret and guilt of her actions. After committing adultery her whole life changed. The decisions she made and the consequences that came with them shaped her life from that point on. Society viewed her differently and treated her as a criminal. They placed a ugly label, and image on her without getting to know her or what she was going…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel begins with the main character, Hester Prynne, being led from a prison to a scaffold before the townspeople of early Boston, Massachusetts. The Magistrates of the town are punishing her for committing the sin of adultery and having a child out of wedlock. Although today we may not see this as a serious crime, in the early seventeenth century it was unheard of. Along with her punishment of public scrutiny and humiliation, Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A”, for adulterer, on her chest. In the beginning this letter acts as a wall between Hester and society. She is known by the people mostly for the letter and the crime she committed. Instead of having a negative attitude towards her situation, Hester embraces her newfound identity. Within years the townspeople no longer recognized for her crime, but more so for her kindness. This shows how people’s views can change over time.…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Puritan Culture

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages

    From a religious point of view, Puritans left a significant mark in the establishing of the American colonies by becoming the most vibrant Christian civilization. Puritans had a very difficult role in the new society; not only Puritans acted as the first representatives, but also established a series of basic political traditions for the benefit of the community in the colonies. The Puritan culture was spread throughout New England, creating the foundations of a national patriotism. Puritans established political communities in New England under the idea or vision of a Christian devotion. They were hard worshipper and God was their ultimate guidance because they trusted his divine mission. They felt that they were people ‘chosen’ by God, but…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays