Why are some sins put on a pedestal in our society while others are ignored? In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, protagonist Hester Prynne is shunned by a condemnatory Puritan society when her sin is discovered. Dimmesdale is protected by Hester and when he finally revealed that he was her lover, the town was far more forgiving than he had anticipated. In modern society, adulterers are not forced to display the letter A on their chest or stand on a scaffold to be publicly shamed, but the underlying concept is still prevalent. An example of this that possesses many parallels to The Scarlet Letter is the "Lewinsky Scandal” that emerged in 1998. Monica Lewinsky shouldered the bulk of the judgement by society as President Clinton was
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The question of when a person's actions will result in shunning is not easily answered. That line is different for each person. It seems to depend on many unjust factors such as gender and the person's position in society rather than the level to which they have sinned and the morality of their previous actions. The person who committed a larger sin would be the one who was married. By that logic, Hester and Clinton would be the ones that the majority of the blame was placed on, which was not the case. Dimmesdale was a minister and, as far as the members of his community were concerned, a moral person outside of this individual sin. It is stated that “his eloquence and religious fervor had already given the earnest of high eminence in his profession. “ (Page 72) It might make sense that he would be excused for this one sin, given the great admiration the community had for him. This claim is discredited, in the case of Clinton, by allegations of sexual harassment while he was the governor of Arkansas by Paula Jones, another woman who was working for him. Clinton, at least, had a perceived history of sexual misconduct prior to the affair and yet Lewinsky was still the focus. Clinton and Dimmesdale were respected, powerful men in society and Lewinsky and Hester suffered more disrespect and
The question of when a person's actions will result in shunning is not easily answered. That line is different for each person. It seems to depend on many unjust factors such as gender and the person's position in society rather than the level to which they have sinned and the morality of their previous actions. The person who committed a larger sin would be the one who was married. By that logic, Hester and Clinton would be the ones that the majority of the blame was placed on, which was not the case. Dimmesdale was a minister and, as far as the members of his community were concerned, a moral person outside of this individual sin. It is stated that “his eloquence and religious fervor had already given the earnest of high eminence in his profession. “ (Page 72) It might make sense that he would be excused for this one sin, given the great admiration the community had for him. This claim is discredited, in the case of Clinton, by allegations of sexual harassment while he was the governor of Arkansas by Paula Jones, another woman who was working for him. Clinton, at least, had a perceived history of sexual misconduct prior to the affair and yet Lewinsky was still the focus. Clinton and Dimmesdale were respected, powerful men in society and Lewinsky and Hester suffered more disrespect and