The Scarlet Letter Essay On Puritan Society

Puritanism was a major belief during the 1500s-1700s, Puritans believed that you are required to devote your whole life to the Lord. In order to be a Puritan you had to glorify God by attending church, report sinners, and show God’s grace through your own actions. In

Hester Prynne’s sin was adultery. This sin was regarded very seriously by the Puritans, and was often punished by death. Hester’s punishment was to endure a public shaming on a scaffold for three hours and wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest for the rest of her life in the town. Although Hawthorne does not pardon Hester’s sin, he considers it

Religion had a powerful impact on Puritans lives. Many Puritan people had faith in a supreme being, God, and the teachings of his Divine Son, Jesus Christ. They’d assume that if you weren’t a good Christian they would suffer in hell, but if you were one would be saved by god. An example would be in the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” the speaker strongly describes about how being a bad Christian has its consequences and the good things that come of being a good Christian. “Many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.”(152)This explains how they had a strong feeling towards god’s ways. By being concerned about their religious life and being good Christians.

The Enlightenment period, also known as The Age of Reason, was a period of social, religious, and political revolution throughout the 18th century which changed the thoughts of man during this “awakening” time. It was a liberation of ignorant thoughts, ideas, and actions that had broken away from the ignorant perception of how society was to be kept and obeyed thus giving little room for new ideas about the world. Puritan society found these new ideas of thought to be extremely radical in comparison to what they believed which was a belief of strong rational religion and morality. Enlightened society believed that the use of reason would be a catalyst of social change and had a demand of political representation thus resulting in a time

In the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, the letter is understood as a label of punishment and sin being publicized. Hester Prynne bears the label of “A” signifining adulterer upon her chest. Because of this scorching red color label she becomes

In this article life for the Puritans revolved around church and god. In the article it says “that people are either born sinful and bound to live a life in hell, or they were destined to be saved. Nothing could be done to change one’s destiny except to live a life of purity and pray that god would save them at the time of their death.” The Puritans believed in a life of hard work, self-discipline, and religious duty. Those who did others of those three things were basically the devil and they were subjected to public humiliation and punishment.

The Puritans were a religious group that came to North America in search of religious freedom, and, in the process, greatly impacted the North American church, government, education, social mores, and economy. Many of the things that they implemented in the first colonies are still seen today in the social and governmental structures of the United States. Their beliefs and traditions are still practiced today and many social mores are still being adhered to, even now.

   Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne repeatedly portrays the Puritanical views of sin and evil.  The Puritans are constantly displayed as believing that evil comes from an unyielding bond being formed between love and hate.  For such reasons they looked towards Hester's commitment of adultery as an action of pure, condemned evil.  However, through the use of light and dark imagery, Hawthorne displays who truly holds evil in their hearts.  The one who is the embodiment of evil creates hypocrisy of Puritanical views towards sin and evil.  Hawthorne displays that those who expose sin to the public and the daylight are the most pure and those who conceal their sin under a

The Puritans dream was to create a model society for the rest of the Christians.. Their goal was to make a society in every way connected to god. Every aspect of their lives, from political views and employment to recreation and dress, was taken into account in order to live a more pious life. But to really understand what the aspirations of the puritans were, we must first understand their beliefs. The Puritans believed that a man’s only purpose in life was “to glorify God on earth and, if he were especially fortunate, to continue the good work in Heaven.” For the puritans, to glorify god meant keeping him in mind at all times, working to the best of their ability at whatever job god had had set fate for them to do, and following a

Over the years, people broadcast the Puritans as a group of people who were extremely legalistic and against anything that would be considered fun in the modern world. This incorrect broadcast of the Puritans has led to many misconceptions about how they lived when they came to the New World and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritans were not legalistic, but rather sought to please God by creating a society that focused on fulfilling their calling through the institutions of family, work, education, and government in a positive environment. This led to a fruitful society when it followed in its original intentions.

Through out the course of history, those who were considered sinners were often out casted from the society. This is much the case with Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. After a public trial, Hester is considered a sinner due to her birthing of a so called “devil child”. Hester is convicted to the life long bearing of a scarlet letter on her chest. The Scarlet Letter that Hester Prynne wears symbolizes the change in perception of sin through out the novel. Due to the revelations of the governor Winthrop and the reverend Dimmesdale, the way sin is perceived changes from one of shame to the idea that every one is a sinner in their own right.

Puritan values, ideas, and beliefs are evident in the works of Anne Bradstreet, William Bradford, and Jonathan Edwards. Through her poetry, Bradstreet reveals her Puritan values and ideals. Bradstreet was aware of a woman’s role in Puritan society and tried to portray herself as a humble, pious, obedient, and modest wife. William Bradford’s work also encompasses beliefs, values, and ideas of Puritan life. One can see that in Bradford’s writing such as Of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford emphasizes Puritan suffering specifically through the Mayflower journey and how, with the grace of God, they prevailed. Jonathan Edwards’ work also displays Puritan beliefs, values, and ideals through the installation of fear. In an excerpt from Sinners in the

Hester’s sin, in the Scarlet Letter is great. At the beginning of the novel, she commits adultery and is publicly shunned for it. The townspeople, who represent society as a whole in the novel, consider Hester to be a “brazen hussy”, and treat her accordingly (41). They also consider her “fantastically embroidered” letter to be “ignominious” and a symbol of Hester’s “disgrace” (41,42). Hester, by wearing the letter, feels the wrath of the townspeople, as the narrator describes in Hester’s walk from the prison to the scaffold. Hester, during her walk to the scaffold, feels “ an agony from every footstep”, and “as if her heart had been flung into the street for them [the townspeople] all to spurn and trample upon” (41). The scarlet letter forces Hester into a suffering and despair; however, her suffering eventually leads to her survival. As the novel progresses, the townspeople becoming more accepting of Hester, and slowly begin to accept her. Seven years after Pearl is born, Hester has “found her place” as a “rightful inmate”, and become “so strong” (105, 106). Hester, seven years after her

The novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, tells the tale of Hester Prynne, who has committed adultery in the Puritan community and therefore must be sentenced to wearing a scarlet letter A upon her breast of clothing for the rest of her days. The story starts as she is walking up to the scaffold where she must present herself to the community and is inquired by the minister to identify the father of her child and she receives berating by the community for her sin. Hester lives her days on the outskirts of the town with her young babe, Pearl, sewing and making fine pieces of clothing that even royalty would be jealous of. Dimmesdale, the minister of the church, goes through a lot of mental torment, even going to the point of whipping himself to rid himself of the guilt he is feeling. A sizeable percentage of people believe The Scarlet Letter to only be a story describing the punishment of adultery by the Puritan community, but in actuality, Hawthorne presents a deeper meaning with his use of symbolism, some examples would be the forest outside of town, the scaffolding in the middle of town, and Pearl along with the rose bush outside the prison door.

While Hester must wear the scarlet letter as a symbol of shame for the rest of her life, Hester eventually accepts the letter as a part of who she is. When Hester is given the punishment to wear the scarlet letter and is forced to stand on scaffold in front of the Puritan community, Hester feels ridiculed and humiliated as she showcases the letter “A” to the community. As the townspeople insult and show their disgust to Hester, her shame gives her a desire to “shriek out with the