Puritanistic Perspective Of Sin In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

In modern society we do not think sin is atrocious as the Puritans thought it was. When people commit sins in modern society they do not get punished as harshly as the Puritans did. But in the Puritan society if people committed sins they would be punished heavily for their sins, and if they were not they would punish themselves. The scarlet letter takes place on a colony in the 1600s, which is now Boston, and in this book we learn about the Puritanistic perspective of sin. This novel is considered the first novel in America. In the book The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the scarlet letter is present throughout the whole book as a symbol of shame, hard work, and guilt displaying the Puritanistic perspective of sin.
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The scarlet letter, A, is given to Hester as punishment for her sin, but with hard work she is able to exceed all the hatred directed towards her. Hester has to embroider the scarlet letter on her dress for her sin. Instead, she makes the best of the situation, by creating a letter that appears beautiful. She makes the scarlet letter with “fine red cloth” and surrounds it “with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread”(50). The letter represents a negative situation in Hester's life, but she does not let it restrain her. Hester uses her skill in sewing to assemble enough money live a decent life with her daughter Pearl. Hester, abhorred and cast out, with her hard work is able to generate a working relationship with her community, so much that her sewing “became what now would be termed fashion” (76). She is the best in the town; no one could sew better than her. That's why even though people frown upon Hester, they still appreciate her hard work in sewing, and she can make elegant clothing no one else can. In the Puritan society during this time period, living as a single mother is not an easy task, especially when you have no friends or family. Even with these obstacles in Hester's way, she is still able to live a decent life. Hester had been working so hard and not causing any trouble for so long that townspeople started wondering if they should remove the letter, “yonder scarlet letter might be taken of your bosom”(152). Ever since she received the scarlet letter she had been working hard, trying to counter all the bad with the good. The townspeople considering removing the letter shows that Puritans believe you could be discharged from your sin if you work