... one is not following them, whether is one self or someone else. As for Iran they believe stoning to be the never ending punishment for every crime committed. It's not something that may last for any longer but there's nothing to be done when it's part of their law ... , we don't consider adultery as a crime but many consider it as an act of betrayal and deceiving. People go off of what they believe and what they don't. As far as being stoned or beaten to death, it's not a society punishment. The punishment you would deal with of anything is ... and embrace the blame. In conclusion, ma...

• Word Count: 1240
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... solemn way Puritans observe any act of punishment, from the execution of a hardened criminal to a child's whipping, all "solemnity of demeanour" and "meager and cold" The second scaffold scene focuses on Dimmesdale, the minister and Hester's lover. It occurred really early in the morning when the sun wasn't up and only few people awake. Nobody was aware of Dimmsdale's crime in this chapter. He had the ... sister". Nathaniel Hawthorne's message from these two scenes are punishment, shame, guilt, and regret. Hawthorne described the strictness of puritan's society from beginning to end of ...

• Word Count: 560
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... by Nathaniel Hawthorne many themes are presented .The Scarlet Letter is a very complex and can be interpreted in may ways. Hawthorn used many literary techniques; such as, metaphor, imagery, and very serious tone. Throughout the novel the theme of sin, punishment, and redemption was portrayed through Hester Prynne on many ways and on many levels. An element of this theme is sin. The whole bases ... leave Hester because she was forced to wear an "A" on her chest until the day she died. The second element of this theme is punishment. Hester's punishment for her crime was standing in a sca...

• Word Count: 611
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... The author could use a bright and sunny day to create the mood, in this case, peaceful, loving and happy. In contrast to this, the author could also use a gloomy and dark setting to make the mood scary and evil. Darkness is used to portray hatred and punishment, or in the puritan society sin ... . The novel The Scarlet Letter is mainly a gloomy, dark story because it is centered on sin in the puritan society. Through out The Scarlet Letter, light is used to show happiness and goodness. One of the most happy and ... was not punished, he brought himself down with his own guilt, which for h...

• Word Count: 1649
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... dealt with this sin that they kept hush, and how it slowly killed them. Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, is a young clergy man who is well respected in his harsh community of strict Puritans is to condemn the punishment of wearing a scarlet A on her breast to who ever committed such a crime as adultery. As he gives such a punishment to Hester Prynne, the adulterer, the town applauds ... him that much more for doing what is right and punishing the wrong. At first Dimmesdale gains a certain power, strength from doing this ... , but that strength is slowly burned out leaving Dimmesdale anything bu...

• Word Count: 798
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... is a play. While The Scarlet Letter deals mainly with the sin of adultery, The Crucible deals mainly with false accusations of witchcraft. Both have obvious similarities like the setting and the crime, however, one of the greateset similarities between the two is the loyalty of the Puritan people to their appointed officials, the public supported them greatly, because in their theocratic society ... , the eyes of the officials were those of God. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne's punishment was assigned to her by a highly prestigious panel of men from the churches and courts of ... ...

• Word Count: 648
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... actually a crime (Eldritch Press). Living in a Puritan community, Hester is shunned for her actions, and she was forced to be humiliated in front of the town while standing on the scaffold with her daughter, Pearl. Hester, who has grown up in Europe, does not see eye to eye with the Puritans; they are angered by her beauty, and feel that her punishment is not ... sufficient for the nature of the crime. Hester does not see the severity in her sin as strongly as the townspeople do, and in fact feels that it is justified. She believes that the sin has a consecration of its own ... (Hull)....

• Word Count: 1373
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... can see examples of shunning are directly expressed through the fact that TMZ released a video on the actions of Ray rice and the fact that people described his punishment as mild. This goes to show that many citizens shun Rice for what he did in society because it is being ... embroided Scarlet letter "A" which stood for "Adultery" at that point in the novel. This was Hester's punishment for committing her "crime." it was described as humiliating to Hester and was considered immorall to the citizens and shunned upon as a "sin". In comparison to Ray rice, a football player who was well li...

• Word Count: 1654
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... effect of the novel. In essence, this is a story of sin, punishment and the importance of certainty and truthfulness. One theme which plays a big role in "The Scarlet Letter" is sin, judgment and its consequence. An extreme sinner through the eyes of the Puritans is ... grow stronger. Hester's soul is freed by her admission of her crime; by enduring her earthly punishment. Right from the start, Hester appears to be different from those around her, suggesting a rebellious approach to the traditions and customs of the Puritan society. She was a "figure of ... perfect elegance" compared to...

• Word Count: 778
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... uses her crime as leverage for her own personal development. Arthur Dimmesdale, believed to be a pious reverend, is provided as an example of conformity. He rejects his sin and is constrained to what the puritanical society believes to be as orthodox. And Pearl, who is the offspring of Hester and Dimmesdale, ... good. Hester is given the opportunity to leave town and start a new life for her and her child, but she chooses stay for this "had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment" (Hawthorne 74). She believes that "perchance ... so strong was ...

• Word Count: 1053
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Dimmesdale instead has to live "a life of cowardly and selfish meanness, that added tenfold disgrace and ignominy to his original crime" (Loring 185). He becomes weaker and weaker by time, "neither growing wiser nor stronger, but, day after day, paler and paler, more and more abject" (Loring 186). Their courage is also ... weak. The courage that those two share is quite similar, in that they have none. They both are afraid of the public and ... that they will be united in paradise" (Grander 8). In that Dimmesdale replies his belief of the afterlife, "we forgot our God God knows: and He ...

• Word Count: 706
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Puritan's enemies, as shown in a litany: "They [the Puritans] are Blind-hearted, Proud, Vaine-glorious; Deep Hypocrites, Hateful and Enuious; Malitious, in a full high excess, and full of all Uncharitableness."4 This was not quite the atmosphere that Hester was in, but helps to paint a picture of what it ... might have been like. However, because of this environment, she changed inwardly. Many people in that day had probably begun to strongly associate punishment with repentance ... return. This was shown when Mistress Hibbins said to Hester, "Wilt thou go with us tonight? There will be...

• Word Count: 1029
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... , a "with a woman's strength" better able to handle life's painful moments (150). Hester's strength of character in public her way of steeling herself against her inner wounds inflicted by her reputation and plague by the scarlet letter. Her weakness revealed in her private vent of her grief through tears. Her silent suffering eventually wins the sympathy of others but still fails to ... him, the more his guilt grows. The hypocrite retaining his religious image in public and lead a guilt-ridden life of self-punishment in private that ruined his health and causes his physical deterioratio...

• Word Count: 1594
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... obvious. In the first chapter Hawthorne describes the prison as "the black flower of civilized society". The prison represents the crime and punishment that was incorporated in the early Puritan life. He also contrasts the prison with the tombstone at the end of the novel by suggesting that ... crime and punishment bring about the end of civilized life. In the same chapter he describes the overgrown vegetation of weeds around the prison. The ... has a variety of meanings. Originally standing for the sin of adultery it has a different meaning for each character. The Puritan community cons...

• Word Count: 502
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Guilt in Puritan Society The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, deals with crime, punishment, and guilt in Puritan society. The main characters include Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Dimmesdale. All of the characters undergo a certain degree of crime, guilt, and punishment. Each of the characters either share the same amount of guilt, or are less guilty then the other. Most of the sins the characters commit ... , another main character in the story. Dimmesdale also commits the sin of adultery. Unlike Hester, his crime does not reach the public's knowledge until t...

• Word Count: 757
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The first few chapters introduce the theme of sin, when they tell the reader about the prison, the scaffold, and how Hester is being publicly condemned for adultery. These chapters also show the reader that the society is depicting the political reality of Hester's World, the Puritan society. The Puritans ... seen in these chapters that this world already knows sin. The women of the town criticize her for embroidering the scarlet letter, the symbol of her shame, with such care and in such a flashy manner. This seems to declare that Hester is proud, rather than ashamed, of her sin. In realit...

• Word Count: 295
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... matter how little the wrongdoing was. Others feel that a person's punishment should be based upon the severity of their crime. However, what many people overlook is the fact that in time, we all have committed sins. In The Scarlet Letter, the idea of sin and punishment is the main theme of the novel and how Hester Prynne, the main character, has been punished for her ... often feels that Hester's sin is somewhat out of necessity. She has nobody in her life. Her husband is lost at sea and she lives alone. Dimmesdale was the first man Hester really loved, and he feels that because of thes...

• Word Count: 802
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... [ ] was a fortress from which he had escaped and was glad to be gone, and yet looked back to as a city fortified and strong in its certainties while [ ] uncertain and weak (Swisher 57). "The Puritan age and its sure morality was an obsession in his life,"" said Canby. In the Puritan Community, man was viewed as innately corrupt and punishment was used as a warning to keep others from ... straying from morality (McPherson 38). "Punishment was a tool to create a civilized society in a savage world,"" stated Williams, "there severe punishment reflected the harsh environment that surrounded ...

• Word Count: 1751
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... for anyone in such a situation. The reactions of the people were interesting to me; their strong feelings against Hester being permitted to live startled me. I realized what a sort of culture and religion ruled in those times. Also, I couldn't quite imagine being in Hester's position with the kind of disgrace she was faced with. The narrator describes Hester as totally losing her ... have tried to seek revenge against Hester, but then came to the conclusion that he viewed her public disgrace as more punishment than he could ever have managed. Chillingworth's revenge was very clever. Eve...

• Word Count: 1043
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... were executed" (Guiley, Rosemary Ellen, 2010). The crime in The Scarlet Letter was Hester committing adultery and fornication. In the movie Hester was jailed. "Jails were used mainly to hold people for trial or until they paid their debts" (Ramsey, Carolyn B., 1998). Then came punishment for their crimes. The punishment used in the movie was making her wear the letter ... of being a witch they would have been hanged. The movie shows the minister saving the women from their punishment. In the sixteenth century this would have never occurred because witches were killed. The Scarlet Letter...

• Word Count: 1182
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... of the Puritan society. Although adultery, in the eyes of Puritans, is seen as a horrendous crime, if it is out of love it contradicts the actual crime, which is to go against one's spouse as an act of spite. Hester follows her heart and so is therefore innocent of all sins. Hester never regrets what she did with Dimmesdale. She does not consider ... furious with the way Hester behaves with her scarlet letter. "Why, gossips, what is it but to laugh in the faces of our godly magistrates, and make pride out of what they, worthy gentlemen, meant for punishment?" (p. 47). Even though she is...

• Word Count: 694
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... theme of sin. Hester Prynne was a young woman living in a Puritan community in Salem, Massachusetts. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, was said t be lost at sea, and Hester assumed he was dead. Upon this assumption, Hester committed a crime of adultery with her fellow minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. The result of this affair was the birth of a daughter named Pearl. When the townspeople became aware ... of what Hester has done, they forced her to wear a sign of punishment, the scarlet letter. This letter "A," which stands for adultery, had to be worn at ... dies because he has nothing to l...

• Word Count: 512
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Man, His Tales and Romances, published by the Continuum in 1989, Edward Wagenknecht gives the following analysis of The Scarlet Letter: "Because Hawthorne did not believe that law can deal with sin as distinct from crime, he makes a whole paragraph of the sentence: "The scarlet letter had not done its office." He seems to have felt that in placing ... nothing left to fester inwardly." I believe that Wagenknecht's observations are correct. He says that the punishment given to Hester Prynne by the Puritan people was not the punishment of God, that it was not the resp...

• Word Count: 942
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... grown up, her personality changed greatly after the labeling of her sin, adultery. Hester's town was very strict with the punishment of sins and the citizens frowned upon many things. Public displays of a person's crime were common. Some may think that the simple task of wearing a scarlet letter is no big deal, but try to ... not want her love to be punished, she wanted him to get the strength to do it himself, or she knew that the punishment of the sin sitting and eating away at his heart would be enough. Either way the fact that she could not express her affection for Arthur was presen...

• Word Count: 4111
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

... bottled inside for seven years. The torment he endured from Roger Chillingworth, Hester's anonymous husband, caused the destruction of his character and inevitable death. The story dealt a great deal with the idea of sin, the punishment that comes from it, and the repentance that some undergo to cleanse themselves of that sin. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the author uses the scaffold ... the father of Pearl. Cleary, this shows that for a sin of this magnitude, the privacy of the home and a select few is the best way to handle the situation. Had Hester revealed Arthur as ...

• Word Count: 1460
• Approx Pages: 6