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Puritanism essay social history of england
Puritan society in america
Puritan society in america
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The Godly beliefs and punishments followed by the Puritans stemmed from their English experience and complete involvement in religion. The Puritan society molded itself and created a government based upon the Bible and implemented it with force. Hester’s act of adultery was welcomed with rage and was qualified for serious punishment. Boston became more involved in Hester’s life after her crime was announced than it had ever been before—the religious based, justice system formally punished her and society collectively tortured her. Based upon the religious, governmental, and social design of the society, Hester’s entire existence revolved around her sin and the Puritan perception thereof; this association breaks way to society significantly becoming involved in her life. The importance of a social framework for the new society, where the Church would be all encompassing, developed from the teachings of such religious reformers as John Wycliffe and John Calvin. The Church would be directly involved in the running of the community and its regime. Enforcing such laws established by scripture read from the Bible, the government disciplined Hester for her committed sin. The Puritans considered the Bible as the “true law of God that provided guidelines for church and government”. They wished to shape the Church of England to meet their ideals, emphasizing Bible reading, prayer, and preaching in worship services. They simplified the ritual of the sacraments and also wanted more personal and fewer prescribed prayers. The Puritans stressed grace, devotion, prayer, and self-examination to achieve religious virtue while including a basic knowledge of unacceptable actions of the time. Obtaining virtue was expected to secure order and peace within the Puritan community. The Church officials, who played a direct role in the government, calculated the penalties for various sins. When sins arose, the government took the role as chief executive of corrective punishment and instituted castigation. Hester found herself very much a part of the local Church and government’s heavy hand. Everyone was aware of her sinful act, for she was placed on a scaffold amidst the entire people for a painful viewing. The religious morals instilled in the Puritan society caused her much pain long after the public humiliation. Permanently “symbolized as a sinner”, Hester was branded for life with a cloth letter worn on her bosom. For years after the letter was first revealed on the scaffold, Hester was associated with the sin and the scarlet letter. Because the Puritans contoured religion, social life, and government together, each member of the society was involved in the religion, social life, and government—everybody in Boston saw the “A” on Hester’s chest in the same light.
So in that society Hester Prynne is punished. In society’s minds, she committed adultery. Hester punishment was to stand in front of all the people in town for three hours. People could yell at Hester and she had to stand and accept their verbal abuse. When Hester stood on the platform, that was showing her sin of adultery. The Puritans looked down on Hester. Rev. Hale committed adultery and no one knew this besides Hester. Rev. Hale was bothered because he was keeping the secret of Hester committing adultery with him. Rev. Hale was getting really sick because of this, and he was whipping himself for self punishment. He knew in his position that society would not accept his sin.
The central theme in The Scarlet Letter is that manifested sin will ostracize one from society and un-confessed sin will lead to the destruction of the inner spirit. Hawthorne uses the symbol of the scarlet letter to bring out this idea. In the novel, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet letter A (the symbol of her sin) because she committed adultery with the clergyman, Dimmesdale. Because the public's knowledge of her sin, Hester is excluded physically, mentally, and socially from the normal society of the Puritan settlement. She lives on the outskirts of town in a small cottage where she makes her living as a seamstress. Though she is known to be a great sewer amongst the people, Hester is still not able to sew certain items, such as a new bride's veil. Hester also has no interaction with others; instead she is taunted, if not completely ignored, by all that pass her by. Despite the ill treatment of the society, Hester's soul is not corrupted. Instead, she flourishes and improves herself in spite of the burden of wearing the scarlet letter and she repeatedly defies the conventional Puritan thoughts and values by showing what appears to us as strength of character. Her good works, such as helping the less fortunate, strengthen her inner spirit, and eventually partially welcome her back to the society that once shunned her.
Hester Prynne’s sin was adultery. This sin was regarded very seriously by the Puritans, and was often punished by death. Hester’s punishment was to endure a public shaming on a scaffold for three hours and wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest for the rest of her life in the town. Although Hawthorne does not pardon Hester’s sin, he considers it less serious than those of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Hester’s sin was a sin of passion. This sin was openly acknowledged as she wore the "A" on her chest. Hester did not commit the greatest sin of the novel. She did not deliberately mean to commit her sin or mean to hurt others.
With sin there is personal growth, and as a symbol of her sin, Hester’s scarlet “A” evokes development of her human character. The Puritan town of Boston became suspicious when Hester Prynne became pregnant despite her husband being gone. Being a heavily religious village, the townspeople punished Hester for her sin of adultery with the burden of wearing a scarlet “A” on all that she wears. Initially the...
By Hester committing a sin, they weren’t being sentenced to eternal damnation, she was. All the townspeople did was make Hester’s life a living hell. However, ironically, Hawthorne contrasts the goodness and strength with the cruelty of the religious Puritans. The letter ‘A’ upon her breast harsh cruel enough. It was “represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it” (Hawthorne 97). Hester’s identity was swallowed by her marking. Nobody knew the true Hester Prynne because the society connected the letter to her morality. Hester wasn’t a person who should be damned to Hell, but the Puritans thought so when they saw her chest. Hester almost escaped this life of being enslaved by the letter, but “Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but out loud, from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation” (Hawthorne 180). She chose to live her life with the embroidery upon her chest,
Hester was not like the other puritans in the community she resided in. Hester did not herself a Puritan because she was simply not religious. She had no respect for their religion or moral code. Her lack of respect in the reason she disobeyed the community (Stewart 57). Her reasoning behind committing adultery was her passion and weakness (Draper 1603). Hester thought power and intellect were more important than believing and worshiping a higher being (Stewart 57). Because Hester’s Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, moved away and abandoned her, Hester’s womanly weakness of feeling love and passion immensely grew. This drive for love and passion is what pushed Hester to committing adultery (Draper 1603).
Although Hester accepts the Puritan’s punishment like putting her in jail and standing on the scaffold, she does not allow her emotions to show on the outside. Instead she keeps the guilt she feels inside in the same way John Proctor hides his guilt from the Puritan community.
After breaking an important colonial law, Hester Prynne is sentenced to forever wear a scarlet “A” upon her chest for committing adultery, a sin. From the moment Hester places the “A” upon her chest, her whole world, literally and figuratively, changes. Now a public symbol of what happens to those whose sin, the people of the colony now view her in a whole new light leaving Hester to deal with the stress of public humiliation. With the pressure of living up to public standards and being a good mother to her daughter, Pearl, Hester comes to find herself struggling with her inner demons. From the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne must learn to deal with the demons living
At first, the crowd shares a common apathy for Hester: “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die” (46). The community’s opinion starkly shifts from viewing Hester as the guilt-ridden adulterer standing on the scaffold to an exemplary citizen of Boston. After her rehabilitation, “they had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as the token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since” (147). Not only do the Puritans see the scarlet differently, the actual significance of the scarlet letter changes from religion to secularism. Hawthorne uses this alteration in the scarlet letter’s symbolism to demonstrate that secular justice has power even over violations of religious code. Women, who suffered tribulations similar to Hester’s, seek comfort and advice from her; they yearn to undergo their own rehabilitation in hopes of one day becoming part of a society in which they are not subject to such cruel condemnation:
In the start of the novel the letter ‘A’ on Hester’s chest is taken as label of sin, the sin of adultery, as shown by Nina Baym from her Themes in the Scarlet Letter “When they required her to wear a red A, the Puritans assumed that it had one fixed meaning—adultery.”(Nina Baym). As for the punishment of her sin the puritan society rejected her and she was not treated as a normal person afterwards, instead the puritan society saw her as symbol of shame, sin and something to blame on. The puritan society punished her by making her stand on the scaffold for three hours while holding her infant, “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 was real.”(pg50). But later on the real meaning of the letter gets altered.
The letter ‘A’ that she wore on her bosom plastered Hester’s scandal all over the community. Pearl, the daughter of the sinner’s, was being parented by Hester, which constantly reminded her of the sin everyday. The community looked down upon Hester and Pearl, but instead of letting it get to them, Hester accepted the consequences therefore she tried to move on. Although the family dealt with a lot of criticism from fellow Puritans, they did not let those thoughts get into their heads. Hester was a popular seamstress in her time, even though she was unable to make wedding veils because of the sin she committed. “Why, look you, she may cover it with a brooch, or suchlike heathenish adornment, and so walk the streets as brave as ever!” (Hawthorne 49). The sin made Hester determined because she came to self-realization and broke free.
The "human tenderness" Hester exerts shows how she did not care what the Puritans thought and acted. Her sin is also an example of her independence; Hester acted on her feelings and didn’t allow the Puritan’s views to interfere with her emotions.
Hawthorne begins the first chapter of the novel with Hester’s punishment. She had committed adultery, a crime that the Puritans often punished by death. She was sentenced to stand on the scaffold, a symbol of shame, for three hours in front of the whole town and to wear a scarlet letter “A” (meaning Adultery) for the rest of her life. She stayed loyal to her new partner and refused to expose his identity. Although she is not justified, Hester did not commit the greatest sin in the novel. Hers was a crime of passion and love, not premeditated or intended to hurt others. The sin in her actions was that her desire was of more importance to her than the Puritan moral code. This is proven when Hester says to Dimmesdale, “What we did had a consecration of its own. We felt it so! We said so to each other!” Hester fully acknowledged her guilt and displayed it with pride to the world. The elaborately decorated scarlet letter and the style in which she clothed her daughter, Pearl, was proof of this. Hester is, indeed, a sinner and her crime was very serious. The book is named after the punishment she received for committing this crime and it made life incredibly difficult for herself and her partner, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. In overcoming the hardships, she learned many important lessons that could be used to prevent future problems. “Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wilds ones, and they had made her strong…” Her comfort to the broken-hearted, charity to the poor, and unquestionable presence in times of hardship were direct results of her quest for repentance.
The basis of Hester’s punishment came about from the Puritans’ justice system; however her punishment was not completely identical to Puritan law because their system put adulterers to death. This system was founded on Biblical doctrine and principles, and it enforced the laws laid out in the Bible through the use of magistrates. The magistrates were chosen by the people and they were
After Hester’s sin she was able to change her reputation by proving to the puritan community that she was worthy, leading