Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter focuses on an adulteress, Hester Prynne, depicting strict Puritan values and overall judgment from society. Hester’s daughter, Pearl, is conceived during Hester’s affair with the respected Puritan minister Arthur Dimmesdale. Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, returns to New England while Hester is being publicly shamed on the scaffold. After discovering his past intimate relationship with Hester, he torments Dimmesdale as his revenge for the ensuing seven years. During those years, the Puritan society's views and opinions of Hester’s sin shifts from a point of severity to one of forgiveness. Hawthorne depicts the Puritan society as a sentient being; it possesses opinions, expectations, assumptions,
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A hard-featured dame of fifty and four others share their opinions regarding Hester’s punishment: “It would be greatly for the public behoof if we women… should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne… If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five… would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I trow not!" (49). The first ostracism of Hester provides evidence of the townspeople’s views on her; more specifically, it provides evidence of their opinions on Hester’s punishment. Because this woman is fifty years old, and through her language and word choice, such as “malefactresses” and “hussy,” it is clear that she has a more conservative attitude towards a transgressor of Puritan beliefs. Because her age is known, it is assumed that she came to America and was not born there, meaning she has been carrying the same traditional ideals and principles her whole life. Another “autumnal matron” (49) agrees and believes that her punishment must “at the very least, [be] the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead. Madame Hester would have winced at that” (49). The matron also argues that “little will Hester care what they put upon the bodice of her gown” (49). The purpose of her statement is to signify Hester’s rebellious attitude; in addition, the little she cares about people’s opinions of her. It also signifies the weight the sin of adultery carries within the Puritan society- a brand upon the forehead trumps wearing a letter in terms of severity. Another Puritan believes the penalty should even be death. “’What do we talk of marks and brands, whether on the bodice of her gown, or the flesh of her forehead?’ cried another female… ‘This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there no law for it?’” (49). This female, “the ugliest as well as the most pitiless of these
A hard-featured dame of fifty and four others share their opinions regarding Hester’s punishment: “It would be greatly for the public behoof if we women… should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne… If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five… would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I trow not!" (49). The first ostracism of Hester provides evidence of the townspeople’s views on her; more specifically, it provides evidence of their opinions on Hester’s punishment. Because this woman is fifty years old, and through her language and word choice, such as “malefactresses” and “hussy,” it is clear that she has a more conservative attitude towards a transgressor of Puritan beliefs. Because her age is known, it is assumed that she came to America and was not born there, meaning she has been carrying the same traditional ideals and principles her whole life. Another “autumnal matron” (49) agrees and believes that her punishment must “at the very least, [be] the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead. Madame Hester would have winced at that” (49). The matron also argues that “little will Hester care what they put upon the bodice of her gown” (49). The purpose of her statement is to signify Hester’s rebellious attitude; in addition, the little she cares about people’s opinions of her. It also signifies the weight the sin of adultery carries within the Puritan society- a brand upon the forehead trumps wearing a letter in terms of severity. Another Puritan believes the penalty should even be death. “’What do we talk of marks and brands, whether on the bodice of her gown, or the flesh of her forehead?’ cried another female… ‘This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there no law for it?’” (49). This female, “the ugliest as well as the most pitiless of these