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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Governor Bellingham wears strikingly ornate clothing. The leader of a proper Puritan society, Bellingham should reflect the colony’s holy and God-fearing ideals of humbleness and morality. Although Bellingham is a figure of morality when he sentences wrongdoers, he does not represent humility in the slightest. In a town where the inhabitants want to be the background to God, Governor Bellingham dons “a dark feather in his hat, a border of embroidery on his cloak,” and a “black velvet tunic” (60). Bellingham is hypocritical because he tells people how to live a God-fearing, moral, and humble life, but dresses in lavish clothing. While Bellingham’s hypocrisy is obvious, the hypocrisy and intolerance …show more content…
of other characters are considerably more subtle. The townspeople and Dimmesdale are hypocritical since their clothing disguises a diametrically opposed side to their outwardly expressed opinions. Also, the colony demonstrates a multitude of preconceived notions and a sense of intolerance when judging the clothing worn by outsiders such as Mistress Hibbins and the ship captain. Their clothing exposes the hypocritical nature of the community due to clothing’s utilization as a disguise and the townspeople’s allowing outsiders to ostracize themselves. The townspeople reveal their hypocritical nature through the color of their clothes’ acting as a disguise.
For example, the Puritans in the colony wear “sad colored garments” (Hawthorne, 45). The colony strives to be extremely proper and God-fearing, and the only way they believe they can achieve this goal is by sporting somber colors. For instance, the strict Puritan society permits little room for pleasure — the acme of excitement is during the election sermon, when they “[compress] whatever mirth and public joy” they have into celebrating the sermon (206). Even at their zenith of joy, the colony is still “more grave than most other communities at a period of general affliction” (206). The community dresses in such a drab way because they strive to be the subdued backdrop to God, yet they still buy Hester’s lavish embroidery. The townspeople employ their dull attire to disguise their adoration of fanciful clothing such as “deep ruffs, painfully wrought bands, and gorgeously embroidered gloves” (76). The purchase of these sumptuous items represents the exact opposite of what the townspeople try to exhibit by wearing their gray garb. Using clothing as a disguise, the townspeople display hypocrisy because the community shuns those who neglect to focus on God, yet they stray away from God’s message of selflessness and humility. In addition, Reverend Dimmesdale, the town’s lionized priest, wears the “black garments of the priesthood” as a facade for his sinfulness …show more content…
(130). Although he “[longs] to speak out” about his sin, the nefarious priest never brings himself to admit his sin prior to the election sermon (130). Instead, he continues to wear his priestly robes and preach as a normal minister would. His black robes cloak his sin because no townsperson would suspect the illustrious priest to have committed such a heinous act. Although Dimmesdale wants to expose himself, he continuously wears the black robes which disallow him to unveil his sin. Dimmesdale is hypocritical because he hides his sinfulness with the most diametrically opposed article of clothing possible: the pious garments of a priest. Moreover, he knows that no one will detect his sin while he wears the black robes, so he hides behind the occupation and reputation that the community affixes to his clothing, thus, making him hypocritical. Only when Dimmesdale tears off his disguise and stands shirtless, an A brazen on his chest, does he uncover his iniquities. Wearing clothes as a means of disguising another diametrically opposed side of one’s life exposes hypocrisy. Outsiders are permitted to wear clothes that are not acceptable because the community desires for outcasts to label themselves as different.
For example, the ship captain ventures into the town for election day, dressed in “a profusion of ribbons… gold lace,” a “gold chain,” and a “feather” mounted on his hat (Hawthorne, 209). The narrator states that if a townsperson sported this garb, they would undergo “imprisonment, or perhaps an exhibition in the stocks” (209). Despite the lavish wardrobe, the people accept this look due to how they perceive the captain. The Puritans view pirates as swearing, rowdy drunkards who live outside of the law. Due to these opinions, the town elders “[smile] not unbenignantly at the clamor and rude deportment of these jolly seafaring men” (209). When the pirates act rowdy, the elders are appeased because this is exactly how the elders expect them to behave. Similarly, the townspeople are elated that the pirates wear strange apparel because it is an overt display of their differences from the colony. The community cherises that the outsiders are different because it validates their own idea that wearing gray clothing and living in a proper society is the righteous way of life. Furthermore, Mistress Hibbins, a witch and devil worshipper, is a committed member of the society, but she shies away from the drab, gray garb typically worn by the townspeople. For instance, she sports “a rich gown of velvet,” “a high head-dress,” and “a ruff”
made of “yellow starch” (198). At the election sermon, Mistress Hibbins dons “a triple ruff,” “a[n] embroidered stomacher,” and “a gold-headed cane” (215). Mistress Hibbins wears incredibly ornate clothing that is not acceptable in her proper Puritan society; however, because the townspeople perceive her as an estranged witch, her absurd garb confirms their opinions about her, so they deem it acceptable. The colony likes that Mistress Hibbins sports such ludicrous clothes since it reaffirms their beliefs about her. They crave to paint Mistress Hibbins as an outcast, and her clothing enables them to achieve that without having to say it outright. Similarly, the town admires Mistress Hibbins’ clothing because it validates the colony’s opinion that their proper society is the holiest way to live. Mistress Hibbins’ clothing is acceptable because it confirms the community’s opinions and allows them to label her as an outcast. Outsiders can wear unacceptable clothing because it ostracizes themselves from the community and labels themselves as outcasts. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne exposes the hypocritical nature of the community by emphasizing the color and wearer of clothing. Clothing acts as a facade of holiness, and it disguises the townspeople’s and Dimmesdale’s hypocrisy. Clothing also uncovers the circular, unfair logic the intolerant townspeople practice on outsiders. However, the novel proceeds to suggest that people often search for things to confirm their suspicions, instead of going into situations with an open mind. This close minded approach to life, coupled with an inadequate acceptance of one’s mistakes, creates dangerously judgemental communities and exclusivity among varying groups of people — something that is detrimental to modern society.
In the provocative article, Were the Puritans Puritanical?, Carl Degler seeks to clarify the many misconceptions surrounding the Puritan lifestyle. He reveals his opinions on this seventeenth century living style, arguing that the Puritans were not dull and ultra-conservative, but rather enjoyed things in moderation. They had pleasures, but not in excess. The Puritans could engage in many pleasurable and leisurely activities so long as they did not lead to sin. According to the article, the Puritans believed that too much of anything is a sin. Degler writes about the misconceptions of Puritan dress, saying that it was the “opposite of severe”, and describing it as rather the English Renaissance style. Not all members of Puritan society
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, tells the story of a young adulteress named Hester Prynne and her bastard daughter, Pearl, as they endure their residence in a small town of the Massachusetts British settlement in the1600s. Pearl’s illegitimate birth is the result of the relationship between Hester Prynne and a minister of the Puritan church, Arthur Dimmesdale. Through public defamation and a perpetual embroidery of an “A” upon her dress, Hester is punished for her crime. Whereas, Arthur choses to suppress the secret over illuminating the truth and endures internal and self-inflicted punishment as consequence.
Governor Bellingham is the leader of the Boston Colony. He is therefore supposed to be one of the most pious and upstanding members of the community. As he “makes the rules”, he is supposed to follow them to the letter. This is why, when Hester visits his house to deliver his gloves, she is so surprised at its state. Instead of a humble abode tastefully decorated in the muted pastels and earthtones of the Puritan lifestyle, she was slightly amused (but not particularly surprised) to find very near the opposite. Before they even enter, she is struck by the opulence of the house. It had walls which were “overspread with a kind of stucco, in which fragments of broken glass were plentifully intermixed; so that, when the sun fell aslant-wise over the front of the edifice, it glittered and sparkled as if diamonds had been flung against it by the double handful. The brilliancy might have befitted Aladdin’s palace rather than the mansion of a grave old Puritan ruler. It was further decorated with strange and seemingly cabalistic features and diagrams, suitable to the quaint taste of the age, which had been drawn in the stucco when newly laid on, and had now grown hard and durable, for the admiration of after times.” This was not in accordance of the laws of hard work, sacrifice, and the “swearing off” of earthly pleasures that the Puritans abided by. In fact, it was garish and nearly gaudy, and not fitting for a man of his rank. These descriptions in The Scarlet Letter further illustrate the hypocrisy and pretense of virtue of the Bostonians.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter and the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Nathaniel Hawthorne incorporates romantic elements, such as beauty, truth, innocence, and sin, in his criticism of Puritan societies. In both texts, Hawthorne argues that all people, even those in strictly religious societies with corrupted standards, are capable of sin. Hawthorne uses symbolism and light and dark imagery to convey his argument.
John Winthrop aimed to created Christian utopian society when he founded the puritan community, he failed in this goal. Even with his failure, people still thought of the society as pure and just. What he engendered instead was a community whose theology denied human being’s free will, filled with paranoia, racism, sexism and hatred of sexuality and youth. These themes are clearly represented in the Scarlet Letter. The hatred of youth is shown early on in the novel, when Hester Prynne first enters from the prison, “This woman [Hester Prynne] has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and the statue-book.”(199). The aged ugly woman who makes this statement is used by Hawthorne to serve as representative for the puritans, while Hester represents youth and sexuality. The undeserving punishment of death for the crime of adultery only further demonstrates the extremities of this so-called perfect society. While perhaps seen as God’s will that a person who commits adultery must die, it is instead the government’s way of controlling the people by fear and terror so that t...
Beginning with the very first words of The Scarlet Letter the reader is thrust into a bleak and unforgiving setting. “A thong of bearded men, in sad-colored garments,” that are said to be “intermixed with women,” come off as overpowering and all-encompassing; Hawthorne quickly and clearly establishes who will be holding the power in this story: the males (Hawthorne 45). And he goes even further with his use of imagery, painting an even more vivid picture in the reader’s mind. One imagines a sea of drab grays and browns, further reinforcing the unwelcoming feeling this atmosphere seems to inheren...
In her novel, Hope Leslie, Catharine Maria Sedgwick supplants the importance of strict adherence to religious tenets with the significance the human conscience and following one's own heart. This central theme of the novel is intimated to the reader in the scene where Sir Philip Gardiner, a character that completely defies this ideal, is described. Although he "had a certain erect and gallant bearing that marks a man of the world . . . his dress was strictly puritanical" (124). In other words, even though his demeanor is completely unlike that of a puritan, he adheres to the outward seeming of one. The scene describes in detail these markings and intimations of his person that would indicate an attitude not befitting a puritan. His face suggested the "ravages of the passions" while his constantly roving eyes indicated a "restless mind" (124). The only signs of Sir Philip's "puritanism" are his pretenses and his clothing, and these are enough to convince society he is a religious man, quite a "dandy quaker" (125).
Then, when the readers are convinced that the England the Puritans left behind was utopian during that era, Hawthorne goes on to describes the Puritan marketplace as “colorless”, “diluted”, and overall boring in comparison to England. This provides a strong contrast, which is necessary to convey Hawthorne’s ultimate message. Also, while describing the beauty of Old England’s celebration, Hawthorne says, “Nor would it have been impractical, in the observance of majestic ceremonies, to combine mirthful recreation with solemnity, and give, as it were, a grotesque and brilliant embroidery to the great robe of state” (lines 10-11). In this way, he combines words, such as “brilliant”, “mirthful”, and “majestic”, with words such as “solemnity”, and “grotesque”, to provide a blatant contrast, enforcing the obvious differences between the two cultures. Through his use of juxtaposition, Hawthorne creates an environment where readers are able to see a more enhanced view of both established cultures, and at
“The puritan service seems to her as plain and unlovely as the bare board walls of the meeting house” (pg 52). While at meeting, she is called upon by a wealthy young man, William Ashby. Once again, in an attempt to fit in, she agrees to have him visit her at her uncle’s house.
The theme of hypocrisy is evident throughout The Scarlet Letter, as seen in Hawthorne’s characterization of society, Roger Chillingworth, and most prominently, Arthur Dimmesdale.
In Chapter 1, the beginning scene of the novel, Hawthorne describes a group of Puritans in front of the prison. They were wearing “sad-colored garments and gray…hats.” Some were wearing hoods (Scarlet 42). Already Hawthorne is sh...
Readers generally characterize the Puritan Townspeople in The Scarlet Letter by their attitudes in the beginning of the novel. When Hester first walks into the scene, most of the townspeople are very harsh and strict in their religions. They believe that adultery is one of the worst sins possible. One unyielding woman says, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and in the statutebook. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray.'; Although a young woman and a righteous man try to intervene with the angry old women, their voices are never heard. Also, Hawthorne associates ugliness with wickedness; therefore, all of the stingy women are described as being very ugly. They regard her not as a fellow sinner but as a woman so evil that she must be ostracized from her “perfect'; community. They view the scarlet letter that she wears upon her breast as a symbol of her atrocious crime of adultery and nothing more. The women in the beginning of the novel are so quick to pass judgment on others, yet they fail to recognize the sin in themselves. Once they realize this obstacle, the townspeople will become more understanding of Hester’s situation.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, symbolsim is constantly present in the actual scarlet letter “A” as it is viewed as a symbol of sin and the gradally changes its meanign, guilt is also a mejore symbol, and Pearl’s role in this novel is symbolic as well. The Scarlet Letter includes many profound and crucial symbols. these devices of symbolism are best portayed in the novel, most noticably through the letter “A” best exemplifies the changes in the symbolic meaning throughout the novel.
the pink ribbons of her cap: 1. “The ribbons are in fact an explicit link between two conceptions of Faith, connecting sweet little Faith of the village with the woman who stands at the Devil’s baptismal font. We can legitimately disagree about the meaning of this duality; the fact remains that in proposing that Faith’s significance is the opposite of what he had led the reader to expect, Hawthorne violates the fixed conceptual meaning associated with his character” (Levy 123). “They are part of her adornment of dress, and they suggest, rather than symbolize something light and playful, consistent with her anxious simplicity at the beginning and the joyful, almost childish eagerness with which she greets Brown at the end” (Levy 124). 2. “These ribbons . . . are an important factor in the plot, and as an emblem of heavenly faith their color gradually deepens into the liquid flame or blood of the baptism into sin” (Fogle 24). 3. “The pink ribbons that adorn the cap which Faith wears . . . are a badge of feminine innocence” (Abel 130). 4. “Neither scarlet nor white, but of a hue somewhere between, the ribbons suggest neither total depravity nor innocence, but a psychological state somewhere between. Tied like a label to the head of Faith, they represent the tainted innocence, the spiritual imperfection of all mankind” (Ferguson).
The historical setting is highly significant in the novel since it is intertwined with the public’s belief and values, which shape overall themes of the novel and the main characters’ traits. The main setting of the novel takes place in New England during the middle of the seventeenth century, and the setting is the essential factor that develops the core conflicts among Hester, Dimmesdale, and the Puritan society; in fact, the historical setting itself and the society within it is what Hawthorne intends to reveal to the reader. New England in the seventeenth century was predominately organized around religious authorities, and indeed, a large portion of the population had migrated to the colony of New England with religious purposes. Therefore, the strict and religiously centered historical setting is well demonstrated through Hester’s townspeople when Hester commits adultery. The church authority and the townspeople require Hester to wear the large “A” embroidered scarlet letter, which symbolizes adultery. This act is aligned with the historica...