How Did Puritan Society Influence The Development Of Hester Prynne

In the novel, The Scarlett letter, Nathan Hawthorne’s main character was Hester Prynne. In today’s society, adultery is looked down on, but in some instance nobody real cares. People turn their heads and act as if it is okay. During the Puritan era, law and religion were the same. Hester Prynne’s broke the law and was punished for her sins. Imagine if you were set on a peta-stool and placed in front of your community as punishment. Well that is exactly what happened to her. The development of Hester Prynns was a direct result of her beauty, Puritan society, strength, and honesty.

In the beginning of Hawthorne’s novel, on the scaffold, Hester Prynne is said to be a “figure of perfect elegance on a large scale.” Her stature is nothing but perfection. Whenever she was around people, people couldn’t help but feel her presence, “her beauty shone out, and made a halo of misfortune and ignominy in which she was

In these times, religion, strict government, and social life greatly shaped the people of Boston. Everyone viewed the letter A on her chest the same. People began to make jokes about her and her child. Even with all this happening, she continued to pursue a social life because she thought God wanted her to as punishment. "On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony." Hestors horrific sin greatly encompassed her and the puritan society she lived in, and in return, she wore it with pride because that was the law and religious way of