Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter: The Need To Judge
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Puritan society is explored as an adulterer, Hester Prynne, is put through public shame, as a punishment for her actions. As heinous as her crime may be in that society, others around her are committing other sins and atrocities, even the town’s clergyman, Dimmesdale, as he is the father of the adulterous baby. It feels that the citizens of this society feel the need to judge others before themselves.
In the early chapters of Hawthorne’s work, Hester’s punishment is a public display of her on the town scaffold. Affixed to her chest is a scarlet letter “A” that labels her as an adulterer. Many would say that this is punishment enough, but some of the townsfolk disagree. “We women, being of mature age and church members in good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses of the Hester Prynne,” is spoken by a towns lady that obviously believes that this punishment is not suitable. As a senior church member, she believes that they have a higher right of deciding the fate of Hester Prynne.
Another who criticizes, Hester’s sin is her lover, Dimmesdale. By not claiming the baby as his own, and interrogating Hester as if he never met her in his life, he is condemning her and her baby to a lifetime of shame. He has the audacity to call himself a clergyman, yet when he commits sin, he is able to brush it underneath the carpet while others must suffer demoralizing public shame. Dimmesdale is the ultimate critic and Hippocras. Although he criticized Hester, he does dwell in his own guilt, but as a man, in Puritan society, and a man of the cloth, he is “sinless” in the eyes of others and this is how he likes it, so to keep his stature, he must lower others that are close to him.
In Puritan society, the bible is above any man-made law. Although the bible preaches love and forgiveness to those that have commited transgressions, this town sees fit to ridicule and mock Hester Prynne just the same. As evidenced by the...
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