Passionate Puritan laymen received savage punishments. ... The Puritans were "non-separating Congregationalists." ... Their religious principles set them apart as Puritans. ... The established church of the day, described access to God as simple. ... The Puritans were not a small group of people. ...
Puritan families and relationships had various similarities and differences in respect to modern day culture. ... These included election, vocation, justification, sanctification, and glorification. Election is basically God's choice, to pick the soul or reject it. ... Without the crops, the Puritans starved. ... After church on Sundays, Puritans met at the commons/village green to relax and enjoy the day. ...
She becomes a social outcast of the Puritan society and lives in isolation on the outskirts of town. ... On Election Day, he climbs the scaffold with Hester and Pearl and publicly confesses his sin. ... Even on the Election Day holiday, they cannot relax and enjoy themselves. ... One day while the minister is sleeping, the doctor opens his shirt and is shocked by what he sees on Dimmesdale's chest. ... On Election Day, however, a change comes over him. ...
His novel is one of few to tell of the true Puritan lifestyle. ... They decide to run away together on a ship on election day. On election day, Hester discovers that Chillingworth booked a ticket for the same boat that she and Dimmesdale was going to take. Dimmesdale delivers his election day sermon, one of his best sermons ever spoken, and walks up to the scaffold with Hester and Pearl to reveal his sin to all his congregation. ... It symbolizes Judgment Day and repentance. ...
The Power of God's Elect Puritan beliefs are very numerous and strong. ... This idea also ties in with what is called unconditional election or predestination. ... Mary sees the twenty-four Puritans who escaped death that tragic day as the chosen or predestined, " .yet the Lord by his Almighty power, preserved a number of us from death, for there were twenty four of us taken alive; and carried captive" (14). ... Rowlandson on the day's events: Though I confess, I could not much condole with them. ... Do they not know that she is a Puritan, a "chosen" Puritan? ...
His notes explain the fears and concerns of the people of that day as they had recently fought and won the war of independence with England. ... Gerry says the people of New England will never give up the idea of annual elections. ... Gerry voted for the annual election of the congressmen. ... Being from New England, he was probably part of a Puritan area. The Puritans originally came to America to escape the British government and seek religious freedom. ...
Pearl asks him to stand with them the following day, but Dimmesdale cannot commit to tomorrow, "Another time . . . ... On Election Day, Reverend Dimmesdale preached about a "high and glorious destiny for the newly gathered people of the Lord."" Thus, the third scaffold scene serves as the conclusion to Puritan hypocrisy. ... The progression of the three scenes builds to reveal puritan hypocrisy and to begin the new future as well. ...
The scarlet letter was a stigma worn by someone who had committed a sinful act many Puritan settlements. The Puritans believed that public humiliation was a just punishment for these offenders. ... It had the effect of a spell- (p. 54) As the Puritans tried to disgrace Hester, she turned the symbol around into something special. ... Both the governor's servant, and the Native Americans at the Election Day pageant, thought it was a mark of significant importance and status. ... Right from the beginning Hawthorne hints at the fact that many of the Puritan ideas very hypocritical. ...
Although Hester is one with a great sin, according to the Puritan society she lives in, she also shows the truth these situation because she is letting the people recognize her sin and acknowledge it. ... In this scene, he goes to the scaffold after his election day sermon and asks Hester and Pearl to join him because he is so weak that he can barely support himself. ... Even in certain passages of the novel, she is shown as being ahead of her times, being born to early is this puritan society. ... The Puritan society in which the characters live in do their own part to show or hide the tru...
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter in 1850, many years after the demise of the New England Puritan society that his novel attacks. ... In Puritan society, harsh punishments for Old Testament crimes were meant to catch the attention of potential wrongdoers and were rarely carried out as written. ... Certain social mores ran deep in Puritan society, and by enforcing these, the magistrates feel they are doing a service to everyone. ... To Pearl, Dimmesdale promises that he "shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee one day" (137) but that this will not be the next day. ... On electi...
Even the puritan community was not perfect. ... It should be mentioned that while Dimmesdale was asleep one day, Chillingworth opened up Dimmesdale's shirt to find the letter "A" across his heart. ... That is exactly what it did to this puritan community. ... During his Election Day sermon, Dimmesdale revealed his sin with Hester to the whole community, and then passed away. ... The puritan community was all old and probably died then or soon after. ...
Even the puritan community was not perfect. ... It should be mentioned that while Dimmesdale was asleep one day, Chillingworth opened up Dimmesdale's shirt to find the letter "A" across his heart. ... That is exactly what it did to this puritan community. ... During his Election Day sermon, Dimmesdale revealed his sin with Hester to the whole community, and then passed away. ... The puritan community was all old and probably died then or soon after. ...
Arthur Dimmesdale: a modern man caught within the realm of the puritans. ... Is it possible to attain forgiveness in a Puritan society after committing such a heinous sin? Forgiveness is always a possibility in my eyes, though the puritans see black and white. ... A punishment suitable for such a sin is already been instituted since the day it happened. ... "Then flinging the already written pages of the Election Sermon into the fire- (pg 154) The final realization that he must admit to his sin to the public. ...
and Dimmesdale replies, "Not now child, but at another time...At the great judgement day". ... Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl's planned departure to Europe was Election day, a New England holiday in which a new governor is installed. ... While Dimmesdale gave his Election Day sermon, Pearl said, "Mother...was that the same minister that kissed me by the brook?" ... The Scarlet Letter is a novel that exemplifies the significance of adherence to Puritan tradition, and the fate of those who deviate from their doctrine. Although Reverend Dimmesdale sins, thus defying these principles, he co...
On pages 241-242, the Native Americans who came to watch the Election Day pageant thought the "A" marked Hester as a person of importance and high status! ... What the Puritans should have seen in Hester was her natural beauty- inside and out. ... They did not give her the voice to share her side of the story; the Puritans only heard and believed what they wanted to. ...
According to the law of the Puritan society and the strict interpretation of the Bible, adultery is one of the deadliest sins that led to the deadliest punishment - execution or corporal punishment. ... Afraid of revealing his sin to the Puritan society, he is left alone to hide his sin; this is the punishment for his sin. ... Oftentimes, this Protestant and Puritan divine had plied it on his own shoulders; laughing bitterly at himself the while, and smiting so much the more pitilessly because of that bitter laugh. It was his custom, too, as it has been that of many other pious Puritans, to fa...
Others state Hawthorne was commenting on the laws of the Puritan communities. ... She (almost involuntarily) becomes a counselor for other women in the Puritan community. ... As Dimmesdale is walking along in the procession after he has given his election sermon he stops at Hester and Pearl and bids them come stand with him. ... He needs her by his side to face the Puritan community and God himself when he confesses openly of their shared sin. ... The Scarlet Letter was brilliantly written, and without knowing it Hawthorne is still influencing writers to this day. ...
Usage of signs is important to Hawthorne because it allows him to show the values and ideals of Puritan society in his work. ... Because Hester Prynne was punished by wearing the scarlet letter on her chest every moment of the day, the symbol reminded her of her guilt and sin she had committed many years past. ... Hester Prynne was allowed to sew for many events such as death, elections, and the birth of a new baby. ... In Puritan society, adultery was clearly unacceptable and looked down upon. ... Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne, is the symbol of the illegitimate relationship Hester had...
For a time, the people of Massachusetts Bay achieved their dream, creating a "golden age of Puritanism" where church and state were inextricably linked. ... Five assumptions developed at the Synod of Dort bound the Puritans together. These assumptions included belief in unconditional election (grace), limited atonement, the total depravity of man, the irresistibility of grace, and final perseverance of the saints. ... Failure to attend assemblies resulted in fines of five shillings per day, Quakers were whipped, banished, and hanged if they dared to return, and Anabaptists were imprisoned,...
Hester demonstrates strength by her daring and dramatic dress, which stepped outside of Puritan code. ... It is bold and stands out from the ordinary clothes worn by the Puritans. ... The way she dressed shows her defiance of the strict and unreasonable Puritan society. ... With the help and strength from Hester, he admits to his sin in front of the entire town at the very end of his election speech. ... Hester's strength goes far beyond what was expected from women in that day and age. ...
The members of the Puritan society view Pearl as a weird, strange little girl, born from a sinful act. ... Therefore, it is understood that Pearl does not accept him as a father or loved one until he acknowledges her on Election Day. ... One day, as her mother stooped over the cradle, the infant's eyes had been caught by the glimmering of the gold embroidery about the letter' and, putting up her little hand, she grasped at it, smiling not doubtfully, but with a decided gleam." (88). ... Because of Pearl's banishment from Puritan society she was thrown to another way of life and ...
The town's idolization of him reaches new heights after his Election Day sermon, which is his last. ... The Scarlet Letter defines the relationship between the individual and society through Hester's alienation from Puritan Boston caused by the sin she committed, and subsequently the scarlet A she wore on her bosom. ... While the argument that such alienation would usually occur only in Puritan society is certainly valid, one need look no further then to our own President to find example of such treatment in a modern society. ...
Metaphor A beautiful puritan woman full of strong passions, Hester Prynne is the main character in the story. ... It is highly ornate and a contrast to the somber dress of the Puritan settlement. ... * Mistress Hibbens notices Dimmesdale's changed appearance before the Election Sermon and comments onYou look different - almost like a different man - when Hester and you met secretly in the forest.? ... Similarly, at the end of the novel, Dimmesdale confess his sin in the light of day for all to see. ...
Hawthorne's story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, then a Puritan settlement. ... Hawthorne creates the last scene in the town during the gathering for Election Day. ... Dimmesdale was capable of such a sin as adultery; so then surely other members of the Puritan society must be vulnerable to extreme sinfulness. ...
Hester and Arthur had planned to leave after Election Day on a ship that would take them back to Europe. ... Ay, ay, you must have known it; for he tells me he is of your party, and a close friend to the gentleman you spoke of, - he that is in peril from these sour old Puritan rulers!" ...
