Hester’s Dilemma; Family, or Love?
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God;”(Thessalonians 4:3-5), this Bible verse is one of which the puritan laws followed. Their society became the origin of the many injustices that plagued it, by basing puritan society on pietism they created a hierarchy based on church status that ultimately caused more harm than good. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of “The Scarlet Letter” illustrates one of these injustices in his book, and with conviction, shows the reader how badly these malpractices of the Bible can get. In the book “The Scarlet Letter”, Hawthorne describes the affairs of a woman named Hester Prynne who committed adultery with a reverend, and had a child by him. This caused Hester to have to figure out a way to combine her love for Dimmesdale and her obligations of being a mother to Pearl. Although, Hester’s love for Dimmesdale clashes with her …show more content…
Hester’s passion for Dimmesdale ultimately affects the relationship she has with her daughter. Hester exclaims,
“Thou wast my pastor, and hadst charge of my soul, and knowest me better than these men can. I will not lose the child! Speak for me! Thou knowest--for thou hast sympathies which these men lack--thou knowest what is in my heart, and what are a mother's rights, and how much the stronger they are when that mother has but her child and the scarlet letter! Look thou to it! I will not lose the child! Look to it!"(Hawthorne, 107).
Hester is now having to protect her child from being taken away from her, as a consequence of being an adulterer. Her adultery is now inhibiting her from fighting to keep her child, thus having the capability of causing a distance between Hester and her daughter,
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God;”(Thessalonians 4:3-5), this Bible verse is one of which the puritan laws followed. Their society became the origin of the many injustices that plagued it, by basing puritan society on pietism they created a hierarchy based on church status that ultimately caused more harm than good. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of “The Scarlet Letter” illustrates one of these injustices in his book, and with conviction, shows the reader how badly these malpractices of the Bible can get. In the book “The Scarlet Letter”, Hawthorne describes the affairs of a woman named Hester Prynne who committed adultery with a reverend, and had a child by him. This caused Hester to have to figure out a way to combine her love for Dimmesdale and her obligations of being a mother to Pearl. Although, Hester’s love for Dimmesdale clashes with her …show more content…
Hester’s passion for Dimmesdale ultimately affects the relationship she has with her daughter. Hester exclaims,
“Thou wast my pastor, and hadst charge of my soul, and knowest me better than these men can. I will not lose the child! Speak for me! Thou knowest--for thou hast sympathies which these men lack--thou knowest what is in my heart, and what are a mother's rights, and how much the stronger they are when that mother has but her child and the scarlet letter! Look thou to it! I will not lose the child! Look to it!"(Hawthorne, 107).
Hester is now having to protect her child from being taken away from her, as a consequence of being an adulterer. Her adultery is now inhibiting her from fighting to keep her child, thus having the capability of causing a distance between Hester and her daughter,