Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Scarlet Letter

 

These perfect Puritans threw her out of their lives because she was not a drone to their ways, but a distinctive person. .
             Fear was the motivation that drove the Puritans to exclude Hester Prynne from society. This new society was afraid that their community would fall apart "in a land where iniquity is searched out and punished" (68) if they did not seek out those individuals that were immoral in their eyes. Their fear of sin and wickedness drove them in their quest to do what they felt was right. The society had to protect itself from its own judgment. Their fault was that they only saw Hester for the crime she had committed but not as the woman she was. When the community banished Hester Prynne they succeeded in upholding their morality but lost an individual. The community is nothing more than a collection of individuals. Although they do not see this point now perhaps they will in time. Since everyone within the community was subject to scrutiny, when someone was caught being bad, everyone could be glad it was not he or she. This closed mindedness could only see hatred for Hester Prynne and the need to identify her with the letter "A". This way everyone would look at her rather than one another. .
             Not only is Hester banished from the community and has to live extremely far from the rest of them, she is also alienated as well. Punished already by living outside her community, the people were still not satisfied with this punishment and chose to pass their negativity on to their offspring. "Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast as the figure, the body, the reality of sin" (83). The mothers of the children in the community would point her out and tell their children not to be like her. They would use her as an example of the consequences of being an individual and going against society's rules. .
             "Children to young to comprehend wherefore this women so be shut out from the sphere of human charities coming forth along the pathway that lead town ward; and, discerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would scamper off with a strange, contagious fear" (85).


Essays Related to Scarlet Letter