Adultery In The 1600s

When the Puritan came to the New World after being rejected in England for their beliefs, they knew the demand of perfection in God’s eyes could never be fully accomplish. Humans could never live up to the standards that God set out. After settling in New England, the Puritan became well aware they needed to have law enforcement with religious obligations, and most importantly the sexual temptations. Knowing that human could never fully obey God’s word and always be tempted, the puritans enforced certain punishments for certain sexual crimes, including fornication, adultery, rape and buggery or sodomy.

Her sin was a crime during that period, so her lifelong shame was justified in the Puritans’ eyes. The women affected by these laws are given a similar fate to Hester, as they are publicly branded for life. These girls wishing to put up children for adoption haven’t committed a crime, so therefore shouldn’t have to bear the weight of public shame. In the novel, Hester is physically branded, while Dimmesdale is not, even though they carried out the same sin. This parallels the hypocrisy seen in the law.

In the text, it shows that cities with organized religion can sometimes spiral out of control. It seems to start out as something simple. Rules are put in place, the people begin to agree, and before you know it, the government has tightened down on the rules and the people are being held back from fully thriving in their community. The government keeps them in line and keeps them in the right direction, but sometimes can go too far when it comes to punishment and how the citizens are treated. When it comes to the socioeconomic standings, it keeps the people from having high social and economic standings. It seems to keep everyone in the colony equal. These types of communities aren't fair to everyone. In order to survive in this world, where people are constantly trying to gain higher status, you have to do everything you can

  The primary focus for the ministers is to find out the identity of the father, not to punish her. The question remains for most of the story and isn't answered till later on. Although many would say Hester would be the protagonist, because she is the wearer of the scarlet letter, the main focus in the Puritan community is figuring out who the father

The new Puritan society wanted to punish Hester Prynne horribly so that she would set an example of the consequences the others would receive if they committed a

The Puritan Era was from 1530’s to the end of the 17th century. The Puritans believed in a pure life style. One of the main beliefs of the Puritan culture is Adultery among the women. Women are looked down upon for committing adultery while men get a slap on the wrist.

I agree with your answer on 2.5 about Puritans believing that adultery is an indescribable sin. They are very religious people who uphold the Bible as their law and enforce it. Compared to today, where adultery is common and there is no law to punish you for it, Puritans can be quite pushy about their beliefs, but that was how the ball rolled at the time. Although the word "adultery" is never used, it is evident it was the crime committed because of the scarlet letter "A" she is told to use and the child she bears. However, for your answer on 1.2, I do not necessarily believe that they were obsessed with punishment and death- it kind of makes it seems as if they are psychopaths- which might not be your intention at all. I believe that the have

Puritans may have tried to give themselves the appearance of a perfect society, but it was really just as corrupt and full of sinners as any society today. In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Crucible by Arthur Miller and “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet, there is evidence for this. In Puritan literature, although they try to hide it, sin is very common, in that Puritans do the opposite of what they preach, but still harshly punish those who sin.

The harsh townspeople force her up on the scaffold to be humiliated in front of the whole town. Not only is she sent up on the scaffold with her sin revealed by the “A” for everyone to see, Hester becomes an example of what a woman should not come to be. The author is talking about Hesters experience on the scaffold and her pregnancy, “Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion”(32). Hester looses her individuality and is labeled by the townspeople and known for the Scarlet Letter. Further, the townspeople singled her out as an alien or outcast of the town forcing her to live an abnormal live. She was ridiculed and known for her one sin, unable to have acceptance back into society. Although the townspeople feel as if Hester has brought sin upon there lives, she clearly have not harmed any of the townspeople physically, and they have no grounds to punish Hester. The cause of the townspeople's harsh disciplinary acts on Hester originates from a strict, unrealistic standards of puritan society and the zero tolerance of any ungodly behavior observed in the town. Due to the absence of proper justice, Hester's sentencing is left up to the harsh townspeople in which they show no mercy or

The Puritans had numerous degrees of beliefs where family structure, society, and most importantly, religion is concerned throughout the Puritan colonies. Puritanism began in the early seventeenth century as a religious reform movement, it originated when the people of the church of England sought to “purify” the church. Puritans lived in villages that were made up of four city blocks. The Puritan family was a social unit of society, but was very basic as well. Everyone in the village had specific responsibilities, the father was over the wife, the children, and the household itself. It was also the father’s job to teach the child to love, serve, and put God at the center of their life. Because of this very strong family structure based on Puritan customs, sin, such as sex outside of holy matrimony, and adultery, never went overlooked and the people who committed the sin were severely belittled. Hester Prynne, for example, had a child out of wedlock and was punished and disgraced in front of her entire Puritan village. As one of Hester’s punishments required her to wear a large scarlet “A” on her chest so everyone would acknowledge her sin. However, Hester had a very mild chastisement. In the seventeenth century, women who were guilty of sexual crimes of any kind were punished by flogging, or in even more extreme cases,

After reading the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne I came to believe that Adultery is a terrible thing and can have very bad repercussions, especially in the early to mid 1700s. Back then committing adultery was a very serious offense to not the just the community but to your family also. Adultery used to destroy family relationships and to this day it still does. Adultery is also more of a religious problem but also goes into social and legal consequences. When it talks about social consequences it is things like being exposed to the whole town and everyone knows what you did, things were very strict when it came to adultery. Not only were you exposed but because adultery was taking so seriously, whoever committed

While Puritan women are weak and dependent upon their husbands, Hester Prynne is empowered and self-reliant. A character designed by Hawthorne to show 19th century women that women’s work could be valuable, Hester supports herself and her daughter by needlework. “For, as the novel unfolds, the letter, intended by the Authorities to signify harsh but just condemnation, is made by Hester to signify something entirely different—able, admirable.” (Bell 109) All aspects considered, the ability of Hester, a woman who committed sin and was publicly punished for this crime, to manipulate this punishment into a virtue

They believed that God expected them to live according to the Scriptures, the guideline that the Scarlet Letter followed were totally against the Puritan society Hester committed adultery with the reverend [Chapter 2¶ 11 She bore in her arms a child, a baby of some three months old pg.45] Puritan society downed Hester because she went against every Puritan belief there was. Hester and Rev. Dimmesdale was not married when they had Pearl, everybody saw Pearl as a curse but she was Hester’s blessing in disguise. Pearl thought so highly of her mother although the unusualness of Pearl’s actions [Chapter 5¶24 from the unsearchable abyss of her black eyes. “Child, what art thou?” cried the mother.

As Hester settled into her new home she befriended a young man, Reverend Dimmesdale. They developed a companionship over a period of two years after Hester had arrived in the new country. This union turned into an affair, which left Hester pregnant without anyone knowing the father’s identity. Hester’s husband was “lost at sea” so everyone knew that Hester’s affair was out of infidelity. The town turned against Hester and accused Hester of adultery. Hester lived in a community of Puritans who had very strick rules. Adultry was a very big sin that when committed could be resolved in death. For Hester's punishment she was lead up on the schfold in front of the whole town. It was as if she was in a trile but had nobody defending her. As she had her baby Pearl in her arms she was asked who the father was, but she would not say. Soon the reader finds out that the father is Reven Dimmesdale. During Hester's trile her was very nervous that she would tell. If she would have told he would have been sentenced to death. To the end of her trile she did not say who was the father but she could only live because of her baby and she has to wear a letter A on her cloths for now

Spiritual adultery occurs when a Christian falls in love with things of the world. I remembered when I was in a courtship with my wife; we deliberated on how to sustain a lifetime partnership.