The Meaning Of Freedom In The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne

In the past semester we’ve being mentioning many times the word “freedom.” What does freedom really mean? In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson says that we have three unalienable rights: "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," in other words, an individual has the right to live a life in a way that he’s free to make his own choices to accomplish goals that will make him happy. This matter could be spontaneously compared to Judaism. In the Torah there are many laws and restrictions, however, they are defined as freedom. In order to comprehend the meaning of freedom in Judaism you have to reach a certain level of spirituality. The Torah provides you with a perspective which enables you to back away from the hunt of lust,

We establish that Hawthorne is conscious of the fact that there is a distinction among the private as well as the social realms, particularly during the first Puritan societies. Hawthorne tries through hard work to bring and stick back together this gap. Furthermore, we as readers, discover Hawthorne’s beliefs on America in two angles. On the one side, America was Hawthorne’s much-loved place, the “Promised Land,” like the Puritans perceived America to be; on the other side, America was a land in which the idea of freedom is ambivalent, however it also reached hypocrisy. We see that every time when freedom is at risk or being used wrongly about people then Hawthorne comes up and emphasizes those risks of ambivalent. Whether Hawthorne agrees or disagrees with American writers, he still bases his ideas and perceptions on

For example in the “Little Speech on Liberty,” freedom has two types of interpretations: the “natural” freedom which will eventually lead to confusion and disorder; and for that reason we need freedom to be authorized or what Winthrop defines it as “civil” freedom. In The Scarlet Letter we can find Hester Prynne’s love towards Arthur Dimmesdale as a great presentation of natural freedom, while the law itself reveals and punishes her, representing the civil freedom. In the story, Prynne represents sin and natural freedom at once. In addition the letter A represents her being punished, and the natural freedom. Many other American writers explain the concept of natural freedom in different ways, Winthrop, however, explains that natural freedom is “a liberty to evil as well as good,” which we can all agree to since it’s a true fact; there’s good and bad in the world, and you can’t change that. Winthrop goes on and says that civil freedom is: “…the proper end and object of authority… a liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest.” We can compare this to the love affair of Prynne and Dimmesdale which portrayed in a good way, while the townspeople, Hester’s punishment, and Roger Chillingworth’s seek for revenge are portrayed as evil. Hawthorne’s way of convincing the readers to strongly identify with Prynne,