Scarlet Letter Good Vs Evil

During the 1600s, Puritans used theocracy, a government ruled by religion, and their lives revolved around it. Thus, sinning was breaking a law and considered a crime. Anything that did not follow the Puritan lifestyle was considered the Devil’s work and subsequently deemed evil. About 200 years later, long after Puritanism was dead, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne is the nephew of John Hathorne, a judge in the Salem Witch Trials which took place in a Puritan society, and this is where his Puritan obsession rooted from. The Scarlet Letter is about a woman named Hester Prynne, who committed adultery therefore she has to wear a scarlet letter “A”, her child born out of the affair named Pearl, Reverend Dimmesdale …show more content…
Hester, the protagonist, is the wearer of the scarlet letter “A” as a result of her committing adultery and conceiving Pearl, the child of the affair, secretly with Minister Dimmesdale. Committing adultery in a Puritan society would bring death to the adulterer and the partner but since it was unknown if Hester’s husband, Chillingworth, was alive or not and in addition to Hester not revealing Dimmesdale’s name, she had to wear the scarlet letter for the rest of her life. Since she was led astray from the Puritan lifestyle by the “Devil”, the townspeople and Hester, herself, knew there was an evil inside her. Hester says, “Were I worthy to be quit of it, it would fall away in it’s own nature…” (153). As Chillingworth was picking herbs, Hester started a conversation with him regarding him and the minister. Chillingworth mentioned that the magistrates of the council are thinking of taking the scarlet letter “A” off Hester’s bosom but Hester replied by saying that it’s not for them to decide that and the scarlet letter will fall off on it’s own if I were worthy of it. This quote goes to show that Hester knows there’s an evil inside of her, and she knows that the scarlet letter won’t be taken off until she is sure that this evil is gone. In addition, she know that no one else can decide to take off the scarlet letter except for the wickedness dwelling inside her. Throughout the book, Hawthorne brings up the question of “How could someone so evil do such good things?” Hawthorne explains how the townspeople tell strangers, “ Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge?...the town’s own Hester, who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!” (147). As time passed by, the townspeople didn’t see the scarlet letter “A” as adultery but rather as able. Their views of her changed and they would point out to strangers all the good deeds she has