Judgement In The Scarlet Letter, And Nathaniel Hawthorne's Beloved

Judgement, especially lasting judgement is not something that should ever be passed lightly. In both the book “The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the book “Beloved,” by Toni Morrison, the main characters are harshly and lastingly judged by their peers. In The Scarlet Letter, this is displayed through the citizens of Hester’s village when they utterly reject her and scorn her at the Scaffold and for the next four to six years. Similarly, upon the slaughter of her child, Sethe was also isolated and shunned by everyone who lived in her little town. Basically, both of these women were made into outcasts for much longer periods than necessary for thing that they had done in the past. Looking at the prominent theme of judgement in The …show more content…
“They were stern enough to look upon her death, had that been the sentence, without a murmur at its severity, but had none of the heartlessness of another social state, which would find only a theme for jest in an exhibition like the present.” (Hawthorne, 47) This quote sets the sombre mood of the crowd who has already judged Hester and awaits the the sentence from the town’s officials. The quote is describing the spectators to be so stern that they were looking at her as if she were already dead. The crowd had already decided what her fate should be; later in the chapter Hester is not given a death sentence and many of the townsfolk express their disagreement with this decision. Hester’s house is a clear example of this harsh judgement that she adopted from her peers because it was set apart from the …show more content…
She wanted to be as far away from the scorn of the town as possible, but it followed her anyways. “A mystic shadow of suspicion immediately attached itself to the spot. Children, too young to comprehend wherefore this woman should be shut out from the sphere of human charities, would creep nigh enough to behold her plying her needle at the cottage-window, or standing in the doorway, or labouring in her little garden, or coming forth along the pathway that led townward, and, discerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would scamper off with a strange contagious fear.” (Hawthorne, 67) Even children who may not have even witnessed Hester’s sentence or understood why it was given to her were afraid because of their parent’s and peer’s opinions about her. In the quote Hawthorne uses personification on society’s fear of Hester to emphasize the shape that she had taken in the minds of society. Long after, Hester still witnesses and feels the judgemental stares and comments of society everytime she walks into