In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s fictional work The Scarlet Letter, a young woman named Hester Prynne has been spurned from the Puritan community of Boston for committing the horrid sin of adultery. Hester’s offense labels her both figuratively and literally― not only does all of Boston see Hester as a harlot, but anyone who ever meets her will see her as one because of the beautiful, bright ‘A’ stitched onto all of Hester’s clothing. It is not going to matter who Hester is as a person. All that will matter to anyone she crosses paths with is that she has committed, by the Puritan’s standards, an unforgivable crime. Puritan society says that sinners will be damned to hell no matter what they do, Hester Prynne proves that people are better than
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She does not get a real, in depth background story― she is just her sin. At first this is the truth, people in Boston treat Hester like she is the plague. They call her awful names: “‘but did ever a woman, before this brazen hussy…,’” (47)!, throw mud at her: “‘Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and, of a truth, moreover, there is the likeliness of the scarlet letter running along by her side! Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them,’” (85)!, and generally just ostracize her from the community. This goes on for years, too, not just months. The torture gets worse as Hester 's child, Pearl, gets older: “If the child, on the other hand, were really capable of moral and religious growth, and possessed the elements of ultimate salvation, then, surely, it would enjoy all the fairer prospect of these advantages by being transferred to wiser and better guardianship than Hester Prynne’s,” (83). People think Hester is so horrendous they actually have to save a child from that sort of pure "abuse", after all, how could a woman made of sin raise a good Christian little girl? Certainly Pearl would follow in her mother’s footsteps! She too would become the bitter, sinful, hellbound woman that the Puritan’s view Hester
She does not get a real, in depth background story― she is just her sin. At first this is the truth, people in Boston treat Hester like she is the plague. They call her awful names: “‘but did ever a woman, before this brazen hussy…,’” (47)!, throw mud at her: “‘Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and, of a truth, moreover, there is the likeliness of the scarlet letter running along by her side! Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them,’” (85)!, and generally just ostracize her from the community. This goes on for years, too, not just months. The torture gets worse as Hester 's child, Pearl, gets older: “If the child, on the other hand, were really capable of moral and religious growth, and possessed the elements of ultimate salvation, then, surely, it would enjoy all the fairer prospect of these advantages by being transferred to wiser and better guardianship than Hester Prynne’s,” (83). People think Hester is so horrendous they actually have to save a child from that sort of pure "abuse", after all, how could a woman made of sin raise a good Christian little girl? Certainly Pearl would follow in her mother’s footsteps! She too would become the bitter, sinful, hellbound woman that the Puritan’s view Hester