Values Of The Purritans In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the strong values of the puritans in the 17th century through the townsmen and women. Religion was a way of life for the puritans. Their values interjected in their emotions, attitudes, actions, and speech. Hester Prynne committed adultery, which defies the puritan’s beliefs. By examining the punishments that were given to Hester, Hawthorne is able to continue to emphasize the puritan beliefs and values. Community was to follow the beliefs of God and to do their duties the best they could; yet they were there to criticize and punish all who disobeyed the religion or laws. Through narrating the tail that is to follow, Hawthorne can better display the puritan beliefs of plainness, aversion

At many times Hawthorne speaks about the clothing that Hester, Pearl, and other townspeople are wearing. These descriptions always talk about the plainness of the puritans clothing. On Election Day Hawthorne describes the outfit of the townspeople, “their immediate posterity, the generation next to the early emigrants, wore the blackest shade of Puritanism, and so darkened the national visage with it” (Hawthorne 211). The puritans were often known as plain and valued plainness. The Native Americans in deerskin robes, and the sailors from Spanish ships bring diversity and color to the crowd. If puritans were to dress in this manor they would be fined or imprisoned. Another exemplified puritan value is their aversion to festivities. Election Day is supposed to be celebrated with great festivities and joyfulness. The puritans, “compressed whatever mirth and public joy they deemed allowable to human infirmity; thereby so far dispelling the customary cloud, that, for the space of a single holiday, they appeared scarcely more grave than most other communities at a period of general affliction (209). The puritan festivals lack, the theater, the music, and the magicians that many other festivals contain. While describing the festivities on Election Day, Hawthorne compares and contrasts the Old and the new world. The old world is known as a gray or sable tinge, while the new world is known for its sunny

Hester does not fight back on wearing the embroidered A or standing on the scaffold, she accepts that because of her sin she must be punished. Hester could easily share the punishment with Dimmsdale but she refuses to release his name. Hester was very accepting of her punishment, “she never battled with the public, but submitted uncomplainingly to its worse usage; she made no claim upon it in requital for what she suffered; she did not weigh upon its sympathies”(132). Hester does not want sympathy for her sin and she always lets the public assume the worse of her. Her acceptance of the punishment for her sin is shown greatly throughout the novel. When Hester first committed her crime of adultery she was looked down upon. Throughout the novel many people change their opinion and view of her. Hawthorne states, “none so self- devoted as Hester when pestilence stalked through the town… Hester’s nature showed itself warm and rich- a well-spring of human tenderness, unfailing to every real demand, and inexhaustible by the largest. Her breast with its badge of shame, was but the softer pillow for the head that needed one”(). Hester was there for those who needed her. Even if it was someone who shunned her for her crime and thought she deserved more of a punishment. Hester accepts the fact that she had committed a crime, but does not let it get