Rationale: We will be presenting a courtroom drama which will use various exhibits to prove the guilt of the duplicitous townspeople. We will be switching roles in order to show that we understand the novel from many different perspectives, and so that we each can display our analyzation and individual thoughts and opinions. Judge: Welcome to the Higher Court of the Greater Boston area. Today, I will be presiding over the case of Hester Prynne v. The People of Boston. Unfortunately, the Puritans are at a church service at the moment, so we will be hearing from the defense alone. Ms. Prynne will be supplying you with scenarios and written accounts of the scenarios in question, while her defense attorney, Ms. Informed, will point out the …show more content…
I know that was difficult for you. How could it have been any different? The basis of this poor girl’s entire moral fiber was being ripped to shreds by the very same people she had been around her entire life. The lies in which this town is cloaked go much deeper than you may be aware. Even the things that are considered moral imperatives are no match for the Puritan’s hypocrisy. Every facet of Puritan life has a dark side, even that which may seem untaintable. I think it’s quite clear that this institutionalized juxtaposition between good and evil proves the fact that the Puritan’s inner hypocrisy led to the routine mistreatment of those who fell out of societal norms; namely, my client Hester Prynne. Judge: That’s a marvelous point counsel. The book which provided the basis for Puritan society is being patently disregarded in this instance. How could a so-called “religious society” be rooted in such deceit. It’s simply fascinating that there is such a clear dichotomy between the teachings and the actions of the Puritan people. Now, it’s time for you closing …show more content…
Their dichotomous actions do nothing but bolster these claims. Judge, we can both see that Hester is nothing more than an unfortunate victim and must be released of her oppressive
Miller Edwards,Hawthorne and korning each show how religion was a sin in puritan cultures and affected many people’s lives that punishment will come when you have disgraced your religion that good is against the devil there is a strict form of puritan. Puritans were dedicated to work to save themselves from the sins in the world. Guilt was a great force in the puritans belief. The people in the story are Puritans a religion often depicted because of its rules and severe punishments to those who sin. The puritans left england to avoid religious persecution they established a society in America founded upon religion intolerance, Up surprising result the church dominates the Puritan culture.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, tells the story of a young adulteress named Hester Prynne and her bastard daughter, Pearl, as they endure their residence in a small town of the Massachusetts British settlement in the1600s. Pearl’s illegitimate birth is the result of the relationship between Hester Prynne and a minister of the Puritan church, Arthur Dimmesdale. Through public defamation and a perpetual embroidery of an “A” upon her dress, Hester is punished for her crime. Whereas, Arthur choses to suppress the secret over illuminating the truth and endures internal and self-inflicted punishment as consequence.
Hester is a youthful, beautiful, proud woman who has committed an awful sin and a scandal that changes her life in a major way. She commits adultery with a man known as Arthur Dimmesdale, leader of the local Puritan church and Hester’s minister. The adultery committed results in a baby girl named Pearl. This child she clutches to her chest is the proof of her sin. This behavior is unacceptable. Hester is sent to prison and then punished. Hester is the only one who gets punished for this horrendous act, because no one knows who the man is that Hester has this scandalous affair with. Hester’s sin is confessed, and she lives with two constant reminders of that sin: the scarlet letter itself, and Pearl, the child conceived with Dimmesdale. Her punishment is that she must stand upon a scaffold receiving public humiliation for several hours each day, wearing the scarlet letter “A” on her chest, represe...
D.H. Lawrence criticizes Nathaniel Hawthorne’s portrayal of Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter in his essay “On the Scarlet Letter.” By focusing on Hester’s sin itself rather than its causes and consequences, Lawrence expresses his opinion on the role of Hester in the novel. Lawrence utilizes choppy syntax, biblical allusions, and a sarcastic tone to clearly reveal his objection towards Hawthorne’s depiction of Hester as a victim of Puritan society’s condemnation.
The Godly beliefs and punishments followed by the Puritans stemmed from their English experience and complete involvement in religion. The Puritan society molded itself and created a government based upon the Bible and implemented it with force. Hester’s act of adultery was welcomed with rage and was qualified for serious punishment. Boston became more involved in Hester’s life after her crime was announced than it had ever been before—the religious based, justice system formally punished her and society collectively tortured her. Based upon the religious, governmental, and social design of the society, Hester’s entire existence revolved around her sin and the Puritan perception thereof; this association breaks way to society significantly becoming involved in her life.
During the 17th century, Puritans believed scripture dictated every aspect of their lives. It appeared evident in the Puritan faith that their defiant actions and inner thoughts were to remain repressed. Puritans felt the urge to resist their impulses because by law, each desire they had, exemplified a tug from the devil. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathanial Hawthorne takes his character, Hester Prynne, who commits acts of infidelity, and turns her against the Puritan community. Although the scarlet “A” objectifies Hester’s humanity and exposes strict Puritan society, it also liberates her as a result of her ultimate transformation.
...ty men and women had been accused of being witches. Of those, nineteen of them plead innocent and were hung. One man refused to acknowledge the accusation and refused to enter a plea. He was legally crushed to death. Of the ones who plead guilty and were sent to jail, many contracted illnesses and later died. The outbreak of hysteria caused many to suffer and die, families to break apart, and a society to succumb to the whims of children. In the Puritans quest to create a perfect society based on pure beliefs only created a society ripped apart by tension, anxiety and fear.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s protagonist Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter is the subject of many interpretations and perceptions. In his satirical essay, D.H. Lawrence clearly explains his opinions about sin and pure appearances in society, and focuses on those of Hester Prynne. Lawrence uses sarcastic tone, concise syntax, and Biblical allusions to express his disdainful opinions of Hester Prynne.
Hester Prynne, convicted of Adultery and forced to wear the Letter A as punishment, goes through the hypocrisy of the Puritan colony and the raising of a queer child, Pearl. Hawthorne’s passionate and tenacious protagonist, Hester Prynne, suggests that whatever strenuous event may overcome her, she uses it to better herself as a person.
The Puritans are awaiting the public punishment of Hester Pyrne. At this point the reader has yet to discover any information regarding Hester's crime. Some of the women in the crowd feel that her punishment is too lenient. It seems that the community’s minister, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, was able to help her escape the punishment of death that the community’s laws called for. Hester, looking beautiful and dignified, emerges from the prison carrying a three month-old child and wearing a scarlet letter A on her chest. The letter is beautifully embroidered, and displays vibrant gold thread. Hester is led to the scaffold. Standing there in front of the crowd as they taunt her, she reminisces about her past. Hester is filled with pain and feelings of loneliness.
“The trials were not representative of the overall Puritan experiment, as commonly thought, but rather marked a significant deviation from the group’s standard legal practices” (339). Traditionally when
The purpose of my paper is to compare and contrast Arthur Miller’s The Crucible with the actual witch trials that took place in Salem in the 17th Century. Although many of the characters and events in the play were non-fictional, many details were changed by the playwright to add intrigue to the story. While there isn’t one specific cause or event that led to the Salem witch trials, it was a combination of events and factors that contributed to the birth and growth of the trials. Some of these events included: a small pox outbreak that was happening at the time, the revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter by Charles II, and the constant fear of Native attacks. These helped in creating anxiety among the early Puritans that they were being punished by God himself.
This time period also saw rising tensions against widows and church members that would disobey. Individuals who defied the Puritan leaders would often be exiled. (Campbell, 2013, 2015; Hallenbeck, 2002). Hester Prynne is the prime example of these two aspects as she is publicly humiliated because of her “sinful” passion. In the narrative, it states, “… the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her… she felt, at moments, as if she must needs shriek out with the full power of her lungs, and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the ground, or else go mad at once” (Hawthorne 40). This event leads to the seclusion of Hester Prynne and her daughter, Pearl, from society (Gayatri, 2014). At first, it seems like a religious victory for the Puritans, but as time goes on we see Hester developing into an independent woman away from the Freudian society which tried to conceal her and her sin. Even though the Puritanical society exiles her from their community, Hester represents the strength in women by not letting her past actions decide her future (Symbols, Society and the Individual). Over time, she is reflective of her actions and develops into a charitable, and able person. In the narrative, it states, “Such helpfulness was found in her, —so much power to do, and power to
Hester Prynne, the main character of the novel, was a courageous and honorable person; even though, what she had been known for wasn’t such an admirable deed. Hester Prynne was a very strong person in one’s eyes, because even though she had been publically humiliated in front of all of Boston, she still remained confident in herself and her daughter. She was ordered to wear a scarlet colored piece of fabric, with the letter “A” embroidered in gold on it, on her bosom at all times to show that she had committed adultery. She was mocked all the time and constantly looked down upon in society, because of her sin; but instead of running away from her problems, she st...
Introduced as the novel’s protagonist, Hester Prynne is faced with the dilemma of finding and expressing her true identity in the face of a strict Puritan society.