Hypocrisy In The Scarlet Letter

The first character, Hester Prynne, is guilty of adultery and of hypocrisy. She supposedly loves Dimmesdale, yet she says nothing while for seven years Dimmesdale is slowly tortured. The love she felt that was so strong that it made her break sacred vows must have disappeared. Dimmesdale is continually

Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the ideology of Puritan society in the novel the Scarlet Letter; however reader also get to witness his characters being an illustration of hypocrisy and victims to their own guilt. In the Scarlet Letter, as in many of Hawthorne’s shorter works, he makes profuse use of the Puritan past: its odd exclusionary belief, its harsh code of ruling, its concern with sex and witchcraft. The Scarlet Letter is a story that is embellished but yet simple. Many readers may view this novel as a soap opera due to the way Hawthorne conveys this Puritan society’s sense of strictness and inability to express true emotion along with the secrecy and how deceiving the characters are being. As the story unfolds the main character Hester Prynne is bounded in marriage at an early age. She engages in an adulterous affair with an unknown member of their small village. Hester soon becomes pregnant and with her husband’s absence the chances of this child belonging to her husband are slim. The towns’ people know that she has committed a sin and imprisons her for her crime.

Hester Prynne was at war with her conscience about telling the community who her mister was. Being that Hester already committed the sin of adultery and the community found out about it she still wanted to keep who her mister was a secret. Arthur Dimmesdale, who happens to be Hester Prynne's mister was also at war with his conscience. Arthur Dimmesdale is said to be a “man of the church,” and keeps being the father of Pearl and Hester’s partner in adultery a secret and seemingly gets a heart problem. Both Hester and Arthur already have committed a sin and initially keep their affair a secret and its leads to Arthur developing a heart

The Scarlet Letter is a novel that took place in the 17th century, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The heartbreaking story of the main character, Hester Prynne dispersed the reader's’ thoughts. Hester Prynne suffered from adultery, where she had a child without father’s presence and support. Hester also suffered from bullying, where she was conjectured by superior people in the Puritan Legacy. The Scarlet Letter illustrated many bullying examples throughout certain chapters of the book.

While the Puritans regularly punished what they considered sin, they failed to do so consistently. For example, Margarett Murphey was sentenced to be whipped ten times and pay a fee for cursing while Elizabeth Arnold, after being convicted of the same crime, was only sentenced to pay a fine (“Reading the American Past” 70). The Puritans also punished sins biasedly. Alice Thomas was convicted of, among other things,

Puritans were a society of people that saw themselves as perfect. As John Winthrop said, “We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of the people are upon us” (Roark, 77). He meant that they should be an example for the rest of the world and demonstrate what Sainthood really looks like. Puritans believed that their fate was predestined and only a small minority of people would receive eternal life (Roark 79). Puritans often had small squabbles among themselves because they were unable to determine which slight variation of Puritanism was more saintlike (Roark 81). However, contrary to their beliefs, Puritans did not create a model society. Their civilization was riddled with hypocrisy and they often treated people

Anne Hutchinson, a Puritan settler, gets exiled from the Puritan Settlement because of her actions. Similarly, Hester Prynne’s sinful action results in her confinement in prison, away from the town people. In the 1850’s, Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes The Scarlet Letter. Set in a Puritanical Society, The Scarlet Letter tells the story of how one simple act of passion upsets the very basic thread of society. In the novel, Hester Prynne personally transcends the judgments of society through her discoveries in nature, while she lives a simplistic life and becomes more self-reliant.

The Scarlet letter takes place in a puritan society. Where the town revolves around punishment. They do not believe in pleasure and believe that humans are mostly evil. These people are Anti-transcedentalist. The main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, Pearl and chillingworth support this theory that the citizens believe. Hester is a beautiful women and she has a kind her. She enjoye sewing and she gives all the only she makes from sewing to charity, while donating clothes to them also. Hower, Hester and Dimmesdale committed the sin of adultery and created Pearl. Chillingworth is Hester’s husband but not the father of her daughter. In his novel “The Scarlet letter” , Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of Pearl, the burrs and sunlight to

Looking into The Scarlet Letter, Puritan culture is portrayed as a dreary, strict society, with very little room for imperfection. One example of this is when they state that “joy is sin,” (Hawthorne 69). Not only are these the exact words used in the story, but it shows a great deal of what the Puritans believed in and favored. With their strict and solidified values, Puritans could make judgements, accusations, and allegations towards anyone who dared to show joy in their town, because they were breaking the unspoken rules of society; they were dangerous in their unwillingness to conform. This lead to witch burnings as well as the belief in the various

Their requirement of attending church and knowing the gospel leaves little room for error. Their intolerance towards people who aren't religious instills fear in the general population. The Puritans of this generation and Puritans of the 1690’s are close-minded and can not see the error in their intolerant

By referencing this place long before the values of the Puritans being revealed in their union, the author implies that every society will have their own definitions of “good” and “evil.” He reveals that some feelings may transcend time and place and can't be so easily judged. Further on, Hester describes some contrasts in Pearl’s characters, calling her “a fitful and fantastic elf,”

The Puritans lived their lives with rules that, in our society today, are viewed as very strict and unreasonable, such as not being allowed to have long hair, no gossiping, or not being allowed to be lazy, and the punishments for breaking these laws were often very harsh and cruel. The offenses that they took most seriously however, was when someone disrespected God. Disrespecting God could result in punishments ranging from being put in stocks and pillories, to public whippings, and even public executions depending on the severity of the offense. In all three of the short puritan readings, “Upon the Burning of Our House”, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, and “Huswifery”, the authors show their intense faith in God throughout their writing. So, how did the Puritans view God? Well, to but it simply, the Puritans viewed God as an almighty, and all-knowing being, who they willing devoted their faith and lives to.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book the Scarlet Letter he gives the readers a view into the life of the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay colony. Though the reader would most likely see this story of two adulterers, Hawthorne gives the audience the underlying tone that he is exposing the hypocrisy of the Puritans. He shows the hypocrisy of character in Reverend Dimmsdale and how he was perceived to be holy to the community, and he also displays a community and how they are supposed to live holy lives devoted to God but they blatantly ignore some of their own teachings. Hypocrisy is the practice of virtues one does not believe in. Hawthorne makes examples of hypocrisy in Hester Prynne and her sin, Reverend Dimmesdale and his denial of what he did, and the townspeople how they gossiped about and condemned Hester which are some of the antitheses of their beliefs.

Instead of running away from it, she lives with it and accepts her punishment. In the 19th century novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne exposes the hypocrisy of societal constructs through the sacrifices of Hester Prynne. The town is obsessed with gossiping about other people. Constantly looking for angles to judge and even punish people for going against the Puritan lifestyle.

moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior. This is how the dictionary defines ethics. Different people have different sets of ethics and sometimes they do not coincide with