What Does Public Embarrassment Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

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Hester’s severance from society causes her to think beyond the Puritan mindset, greatly changing her opinions on the world.
At the time of her ignominy, Hester is connected enough to Puritan society to suffer the entirety of her punishment. Although Hester maintains her strong demeanor, she greatly feels the burden of her sin. She has been raised to believe that her sin, adultery, is one of the worst actions possible for a woman. Without a supportive husband or public lover, Hester is utterly alone. She and her daughter, Pearl, are ridiculed by the entire town the second they exit the prison. Public embarrassment is a very common form of punishment in Puritan communities. It was effective as well, as Hester “continually, and in a thousand other ways, [felt] the innumerable throbs of anguish that had been so cunningly contrived for her by the undying, the ever-active sentence of the Puritan tribunal” (Hawthorne 59). Hester’s …show more content…

She begins to transform internally. The legitimacy of the principles Hester formerly believed in is diminishing. Her thoughts are becoming more progressive than those of the Puritans. Previously, Hester felt an unbearable pain when Pearl touched the Scarlet Letter. Now she is unfazed by it. Hester recognizes that she is “standing alone in the world … hopeless of retrieving her position” in society (Hawthorne 107). She does not feel the same connection to Puritan society anymore, which frees her mind from some of the agony she has been going through. Hester’s mindset is so far ahead of her time that “the world’s law [is] no law for her mind” (Hawthorne 107). Hester does not, however, attempt to share these thoughts. It would be lethal to reveal such enlightened beliefs among Puritans; they would likely consider her a witch or an agent of the devil. Instead, Hester continues to keep to herself, slowly growing further from her

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