The text The Scarlet Letter is a romance novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne that has been a classic piece of literature for over 100 years. The story tells about a young woman named Hester, who has committed adultery with a man who she loves more than her own husband, who is considered lost at sea. The act causes her to fall pregnant, and soon afterwards all the townspeople discover what she has done and are enraged by it. As punishment, they sew a scarlet letter A for Adulteress on her clothes. The co-adulterer hides among the village and his identity is kept a secret by Hester. The story takes place in 1600 colonial times, where the law was abided by Puritans, a religious group that does not take kindly to women committing acts such as adultery.
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The 1600 Puritan time setting of The Scarlet Letter affects the contrast of gender equality and moral beliefs. The religious morals of the Puritans cause Hester to become isolated from her own village which she calls home. One of the passages claim that, 'In all her intercourse with society, however,there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it. Every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom she came in contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished, and as much alone as …show more content…
Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open thriumph over the evil within thee and sorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him- who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself-the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips! (Hawthorne, 73). ' Dimmesdale is preaching to Hester that their god made it destined that Hester should be publicly humiliated as a cost for her uncivil desires. Although they seem to be doing the same to Dimmesdale, but he refuses to accept it. This is shown in this scene, ‘We impute it, soley to the disease in his own eye and heart that the minister, looking upward to the zenith, beheld there the appearance of an immense letter-the letter A-marked out in the lines of dull red light. Not but the meteor may have shown itself at that point, but with no such shape as his guilty imagination gave it, that another 's guilt might have seen another symbol on it (Hawthorne, 176).’ Clearly this is a personal sign to him that keeping the shame inside is not the way he should be handling the situation, and that he should reveal his letter A that is hidden in his chest. In conclusion, the religious belief system in the time setting of The Scarlet Letter contrasts with the view of women. Because
The 1600 Puritan time setting of The Scarlet Letter affects the contrast of gender equality and moral beliefs. The religious morals of the Puritans cause Hester to become isolated from her own village which she calls home. One of the passages claim that, 'In all her intercourse with society, however,there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it. Every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom she came in contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished, and as much alone as …show more content…
Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open thriumph over the evil within thee and sorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him- who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself-the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips! (Hawthorne, 73). ' Dimmesdale is preaching to Hester that their god made it destined that Hester should be publicly humiliated as a cost for her uncivil desires. Although they seem to be doing the same to Dimmesdale, but he refuses to accept it. This is shown in this scene, ‘We impute it, soley to the disease in his own eye and heart that the minister, looking upward to the zenith, beheld there the appearance of an immense letter-the letter A-marked out in the lines of dull red light. Not but the meteor may have shown itself at that point, but with no such shape as his guilty imagination gave it, that another 's guilt might have seen another symbol on it (Hawthorne, 176).’ Clearly this is a personal sign to him that keeping the shame inside is not the way he should be handling the situation, and that he should reveal his letter A that is hidden in his chest. In conclusion, the religious belief system in the time setting of The Scarlet Letter contrasts with the view of women. Because