In the book The Scarlet Letter, society played a major role in the problems that took place. The society at this specific time in history, the people in America were considered Puritans. These Puritanism traits and beliefs caused many things go awry in the character’s lives. Punishments were horrible, any accidental mistake made was to be hidden or else you could lose everything, and this regret ultimately led to death.
Punishments were blown out of proportion in the days that Hester lived. “But in that early severity of the Puritan character, an inference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn. It might be that a sluggish bond servant, or ab undutiful child, whom his parents had given over to the civil authorities to be corrected at the whipping post…that the mildest and severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful.” (47) This quote from the beginning of the book describes the truth about how the Puritans dealt with issues. It explains that by
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In this example Dimmesdale, the town’s reverend has to hide who he really is for unfortunate circumstances. ““Doth he love us?” said Pearl looking up with acute intelligence into her mother’s face. “Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?”” (208) This quote is Pearl asking he mother Hester if Dimmesdale (Pearl’s father) with go back with his family and join them in their punishment where he belongs. Hester has to tell Pearl that he will not. If Dimmesdale was to admit to his sin he would lose his rank in society, his job, respect, and everything he has ever worked for. However, he does love his family. He is just forced to ignore them and pretend like they don’t exist to stay a reverend. Keeping a father from a daughter is a cruel and harsh punishment to both Pearl and
Dimmesdale is the town’s reverend, whom is looked upon as god by the town’s people. But what no one knows is that he has committed a sin in which he will not tell anyone. This is his greatest secret and greatest fear. This secret he holds is causing his health to deteriorate and cause his to be very ill. Instead of him confessing his sin he chooses to inflict self-punishment; such as fasting, scourging, and all night vigils. He committed the sin of adulthood with Hester Prynn, this sin caused Hester to bear a child. Reverend Dimmesdale is connected to Hester by their child pearl.
Unbeknownst to the community of Boston, their favorite minister was actually Pearl’s father. Reverend Dimmesdale was a young and charismatic preacher who in the very beginning of the story asks Hester to reveal who Pearl’s real father is to the whole community. She refuses to give up the secret. From the beginning of the novel it is clear that Dimmesdale feels guilty for also being a part of Pearl’s creation and Hester’s punishment when he says, “I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer!” He clearly believes that the sin of adultery should be shared by the participants, but for a variety of reasons he does not come clean and instead internalizes his shame. Ironically Dimmesdale becomes an even better pastor as his guilt and shame deepens, his sermons are increasingly popular with his congregation. He openly proclaims to them that he is a sinner and that he has lied to them, but instead of being shocked they consider his proclamation of guilt to be an exaggeration for the sake of his sermon.
The relationship between Hester, Pearl, and Reverend Dimmesdale is a bond that is created as Hester had a child through the act of adultery and was looking for spiritual guidance. As The Scarlet Letter continues on we see their relationship together begin and grow as these three people embark the journey of cleansing Pearl. Throughout the novel we see an outsider family bond that is continuously saved by a minister for he led them to a heavenly father, and he stood up for Hester even though she had sinned so that she wouldn’t lose her daughter Pearl. At the beginning of the novel we see Hester being trialed and punished for adultery, but she will not reveal Pearl’s father. In response to the official asking her who the father of Pearl was; she instead replied by stating that Pearl’s father and male role model would be the heavenly father: God.
Dimmesdale is reminding Hester of the gravity of breaking God's commandment. Through committing adultery they risked eternal damnation and the impossibility of living eternally with God. "When we forgot our God, when we violated our reverence for each for the other's soul, it was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter." (Page number). Dimmesdale had almost been lost forever but now praises God's name and his last words are "Praised be his name!
At this point in the book, Dimmesdale is well respected by the townspeople, and looked up to by many. He has a superior reputation and worries about ruining it. Dimmesdale urges Hester on the scaffold to tell the officials and the community the name of Pearl’s father. Though he does not have the courage to, since Dimmesdale is Hester’s spiritual mentor and pastor, he is obligated to question Hester about the crime. He knows that if he admits to his sin, he will lose the respect of the townspeople. The speech is two fold, meaning something different to both Hester and the townspeople. Dimmesdale starts contradicting himself, wanting Hester to name the father, but at the same time also not wanting her to: “Even in the first scaffold scene Hawthorne shows forth the deep ambivalence of Dimmesdale’s position: the minister would like to be named and known for what he is, an adulterer” (Twayne 3). Dimmesdale encourages Hester to give up his name when he says, “What can thy science do for him, except tempt him—yea, compel him, as it were—to add hypocrisy to sin?” (Hawthorne 26). According to his ability to keep in his true emotions, Dimmesdale seems unafraid to the community. Dimmesdale is a healthy Reverend, but his confidence slowly deteriorates as his sin consumes
Dimmesdale will not even be seen in public with Hester and Pearl. He wants to be able to be with his daughter and the love of his life but then people would know that he committed adultery with Hester. Pearl asks, “Wilt thou stand here with Mother and me, tomorrow noontide?” to only hear, “Not so, my child.” from Dimmesdale in return (Hawthorne page 144). Dimmesdale not being able to be with whom he loves is is a struggle.
Members of the town praise the reverend, thinking highly of him and never assuming that he was involved with Hester. While Dimmesdale commits the same sin of adultery as Hester, it is contrastly displayed through his internal guilt and conflict. As Hester serves her punishment publicly, Dimmesdale remains anonymous as the father of Pearl, which creates suffering in itself. He even tells Hester to remain fortunate that her secret known, and that his own scarlet letter “burns in secret” (Hawthorne 147). Even though Reverend Dimmesdale has a better reputation than Hester, his ultimate resulting fate ends up to be worse.
Morgan’s Puritans were constantly striving to create a perfect world, although they knew it was impossible to do so. In The Puritan Dilemma it says, “Puritanism required that he reform the world in the image of God's holy kingdom but taught him that the evil of the world was incurable and inevitable” (Morgan 5). In The Scarlet Letter, Hester is ostracized for her sin. The Puritan’s in The Scarlet Letter do this even though a historic principal belief of puritans is that man is not able to not sin.
Once Dimmesdale’s two identities begin to clash, he decides to run away from the town and people that makes him question himself, instead of facing the problem head on. Leaving the town can be seen as Dimmesdale choosing to be the man that loved Hester instead of the man that the people wanted him to be, but in reality, leaving without revealing his secret was the easiest way for Dimmesdale to solve his confusion; he just ran away from it. In the back of his mind, Dimmesdale will believe he is pure, and that he no longer has to admit to his sin. However, the readers know from Pearl’s reaction to her father that he is, in a sense, filthy for lying. When Pearl and Dimmesdale meet, Pearl blames Dimmesdale for “changing” his mother, and when he kisses Pearl, she washes it off in a stream, and throws a
Dimmesdale is the head minister of the town who ends up having an affair with Pearl, and getting her pregnant. Dimmesdale knows he has committed a sin as quoted "If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer!" (Hawthorne 64). Additionally, dimmesdale does not publicly reveal he is Pearl's father until the end of the story; in which Dimmesdale dies shortly after revealing this major sin not helping Hester at all. Correspondingly this is why Hester is able to overcome so much, because she is dealing with basically everyone's problem and most of the others surrounding her only cause her grief and
It is difficult to draw parallels between the staunch beliefs of Puritan society in colonial America and the freedom experienced in the country today. The Puritans lived strict lives based on a literal interpretation in the Bible, and constantly emphasized a fear of God and a fear of sin. Modern society looks at this negative view of humanity as a whole as an out-dated opinion from the past, believing that, "Now people know better than that." However, faults in human nature can not be completely erased by the passing of time and the modernization of society. People still have emotions of love, compassion, envy, and pride; and many types of interpersonal relationships within their community. Puritan literature
According to the Puritan history, the goal for them was to the pursuit of godly life. They used to have a prominence of the church in daily life, rigorous study of the scriptures, and strict discipline in the community (Powerpoint).
Society has unintentionally been guided by the same themes since the beginning of time. The recurring themes that are present in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic The Scarlet Letter are still relevant in today’s society. When high school students and teachers claim that Hawthorne’s novel is archaic and should be removed from the curriculum, they are absolutely wrong. Hester Prynne, the main character of the novel, commits adultery and as punishment, has to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest for everyone to see. Throughout the novel, Hester is faced with obstacles such as the struggle between self and society and the burden of publicly suffering for her sins. Despite a substantial amount of time having passed since Puritan times, the themes that Hester Prynne had to experience are still pertinent. Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, is driven mad by his incessant need for revenge and in society today there are many occasions where people are plagued with the desire to seek vengeance. There are some instances in life where human nature takes over without people even realizing and revenge is one of them. Also, people are right when they say “history repeats itself” because some of these themes never go away. The Scarlet Letter takes place in the strict religious time of the 1600’s and although the book seems outdated and obsolete, the ideas inside are still relevant and therefore high school students should continue to read this work
In the book, “The Scarlet Letter” puritan culture is depicted as a very godly driven culture. They live by a set a rules which they have to follow, if they don’t the would have to ask for forgiveness from god. If one sins they would be punished like shown by the character Hester Prynne. She was a figure of disgrace for the sin she had committed, adultery in the book her sin was public so others could learn from her sins. The puritan culture set rules that were aimed to keep balance but instead rose curiosity, it told people what was wrong and right instead of allowing them to learn that themselves.
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s representative work, is a classical novel in American literature in the 19th century. The novel displays Puritanism’s great impact on people's life and thought. This thesis will give a picture of puritans’ life and ideology through the analysis of the Puritan town Boston and some related characters, and introduce how the communities in the town are deeply influenced by Puritanism. Meanwhile, by analyzing the main character Hester, the thesis will present the harshness and the strict punishment in Puritan society. In Puritan communities, whoever commits a sin will be punished. The thesis also presents Hawthorne’s attitude towards Puritanism. On one hand, he appreciates the Puritan thought