Mistakes In Scarlet Letter

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Sins are common and known as mistakes, but in the Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne, those mistakes were the cause of suffering at the hands of others. A wrong doing by a Puritan named Hester Pryne caused her to live her life with guilt. She was judged by the Puritan community for the adulterous affair she had with the minister of Boston. Puritans have a strict religion that had many rules which needed to be followed or would lead to severe punishment. Hawthorne indicated a misdeed affecting someone’s life negatively by using symbols like Pearl, the scarlet letter, and the scaffold.
The scaffold was a symbol of punishment and shaming for Hester. At the scaffold, the community judged and criticized Hester. The people that looked at her were shocked …show more content…

Hester had Pearl as the result of the adulterous affair. She felt very guilty of her sin and thought Pearl might be evil. Hester would look nervously at Pearl hoping not to see evil in Pearl due to the culpability of her wrong doing (Hawthorne 134). Therefore this affected Hester by always viewing her daughter with guilt and made Pearl the symbol of Hester’s adulterous act.
Although Hester was greatly affected by her sin in a negative way, there was also a positive outcome. Hester helped people who needed advice or counseling. She was a strong woman who was a great mother to a Pearl and got back with the love of her life. In the beginning, Hester was judged by many, but in the end, people would go to her for help. However due to having Pearl, she was alienated from the community, humiliated at the scaffold, and reminded of her sin with the scarlet letter.
The scaffold, Pearl, and the scarlet letter was symbols used by Hawthorne to show the negative consequences of Hester’s sin. The scarlet letter symbolized punishment, the scaffold symbolized embarrassment and Pearl signified sin and guilt. Hester’s life was greatly impacted by her immoral act and caused her and Pearl

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