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In the 1600’s, in a small town in a market place, in a time when religion was the only base of all morals among people, and the government worked on behalf of god. A small town is filled with commotion after a woman has been prosecuted and sentenced with punishment for adultery. Her punishment is to bear a Scarlet letter, an “A'; on her bosom, for the rest of her living days. The woman has born a child who she is always seen with, whom is her one and only companion. Years after the sentence, the child now seven years of age, she lives her life, making way by stitching garments for her fellow towns people. A certain air of mystery still surrounds her, and a great deal of curiosity, for she has not given up the name of the one who was partner in godly sin. She is quite ...
The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America- Paul E. Johnson & Sean Wilentz
People all over the world continuously commit sins some are bigger than others and some do more damage. In the book, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a woman, Hester Prynne, is publicly shamed and force to wear a scarlet A upon her bosom for committing adultery. Throughout the book, Hester and her daughter, Pearl, try to adapt to life as an outsider. The two are continuously judged for Hester’s sin, and humiliated, however, they overcome this judgment and are seen in a different way. Hester and Pearl have been publicly shamed, Pearl has been considered an elfish devil like child, and after all the humiliation they were able to turn their lives around.
Drawn from her surviving love letters and court records, The Burgermeister's Daughter is an engaging examination of the politics of sexuality, gender and family in the 16th century, and a supreme testament to the grit and perseverance of a woman who challenged the inequalities of this distant age. The story, in Steven Ozment's meticulous and experienced hands, goes well beyond the litigious Anna to encompass much else about the 16th century, including the nature of sexual morality, the social individuality of men and women, the jockeying for power between the upwardly striving bourgeoisie and the downward sliding nobility, and the aftereffect of the reformation on private life. Steven Ozment's understanding of the Medieval German society and its effects on its citizens is amazing. Steven Ozment brings a medieval drama to life in this extensively researched and absorbing account of the 30-year lawsuit between Anna Buschler and her family. Anna's father was the Burgermeister (mayor) of the German town of Schwabisch Hall. He banished his daughter from the family home in 1525 after he read letters that proved her sexual connection with two men. Anna responded by suing her father. Anna Buschler looked predestined to a comfortable and serene life, not one of constant personal and legal conflict. Born into an eminent and respectable family, self-confident and high-spirited in her youth, and a woman of acknowledged beauty, she had a standing as the beauty of her hometown, and as something of a free soul. In an era when women were presumed to be disciplined and loyal, Anna proved to be neither. Defying 16th-century social mores, she was the constant subject of defamation because of her indecent dress and flirtatious behavior. When her we...
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...
I chose this word because the plot of the second chapter details the crime committed by Hester Prynne. Her “sin” of conceiving a child under adulterous affairs was an intolerable act in a Puritan society. Her child became a symbol of her sin but also a symbol of love. The scarlet letter “A” that was supposed to represent her shame became
A significant aspect of life in the Ancient Near East was the importance of the family line. One of the most frightening ideas in the Bible is the punishment of karet, an Israelite’s being cut off from the community. This is understood as early death and childlessness, or the death of one’s descendants . Such an event could result from an unfaithful wife conceiving a son with the adulterer. I...
Through the use of numerous symbols, Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter serves as an allegory for the story of Adam and Eve and its relation to sin, knowledge, and the human condition that is present in human society. Curious for the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, which resulted in the revelation of their “humanness” and expulsion from the “divine garden” as they then suffered the pain and joy of being humans. Just as Adam and Eve were expelled from their society and suffered in their own being, so were Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter. Hester was out casted and shunned, while Dimmesdale suffered under his own guilt. After knowledge of her affair is made known, Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest to symbolize her crime of adultery, and is separated from the Puritan society. Another “A” appears in the story, and is not embroidered, but instead scarred on Dimmesdale’s chest as a symbol of guilt and suffering. Hester’s symbol of guilt comes in the form of her daughter, Pearl, who is the manifestation of her adultery, and also the living version of her scarlet letter. Each of these symbols come together to represent that with sin comes personal growth and advancement of oneself in society as the sinner endures the good and bad consequences.
Throughout the novel, 'The Scarlet Letter,'; Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates the themes with various dramatic colors. Of the array are the colors green and gold, where green symbolizes different aspects of nature such as tranquility, security, and gloominess, whereas gold represents all that pertains to luxuriance, serenity and goodness. In certain chapters, it seems as if one color is codependent with the other.
John Ruston Pagan’s book, Anne Orthwood’s Bastard, is split into sections describing the different components of sex and law in early Virginia. Pagan describes these components through the story of Anne Orthwood, John Kendall, and their bastard son, Jasper. Anne Orthwood was born an illegitimate child. There was much shame and disgrace for illegitimate children. Although illegitimacy made Anne’s life especially hard, she also faced the same pressures as other members of her generation. Her generation was dealing with shortages of land and labor; increasing prices, rent, and unemployment rates; and declining wages. These struggles caused many people to emigrate from Britain to the Americas.
In the year of 100AD in the desert, the town Sodom and Gomorrah stood. Sodom and Gomorrah is a place full of evilness and sin-stricken where their motto is “Everything that gives pleasure is good.” However, beneath the presence of darkness in the town a small but great light of hope with blue eyes, brown maple skin, strong build, and dark coiled hair glimmered. Her name is Faith.
In the 18th century, Sarah Grosvenor’s death was under a spotlight operated by the court system in Connecticut (Women in America, 117). The reasoning behind this focus on her death was very unusual for her time, the abortion that eventually led to her death. Grosvenor was involved with much older Amasa Session...
In 17th century Massachusetts, adultery was viewed as a sinful act that was reprimanded differently in real life and in The Scarlet Letter. In a Puritan Society, Adultery was viewed as an act disobeying God. It was an act punishable by public whipping, extensive fines, jail time, and in certain cases, the husband could file for divorce, which would result in financial and custody losses for the woman (Clark 1). However, in The Scarlet Letter, Hester suffered a much different punishment. She endured 9 months of jail time, but instead of being fined or whipped, she was coerced into public humiliation. She was branded by the letter “A”, meaning adultery, which was adorned to the breast of her clothing. This letter caused the public to ostracize her, which made her reflect on the sin she committed and the consequences she had to face at all times. The “A” brought about a lot of public scorn, which is demonstrated when it is said, “Meagre, indeed, and cold, was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for, from such bystanders at the scaffold. On the other hand, a penalty which, in our days, would infer a degree of mocking in...
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 Scarlet Letter, a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, features a woman named Hester Prynne living in a puritan society in Boston, Massachusetts who has committed adultery. A puritan society is a group of protestants that demand the simplification of doctrine and worship, and greater strictness in religious discipline (Dictionary.com). This society views adultery as a sin, thus, Hester Prynne as a sinner that must be punished. Her punishment entails being forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her chest to signify her adultery and then to bare that letter while standing on a scaffold, holding her baby, in the middle town for a few hours for all to see.
Bensick, Carol. “His Folly, Her Weakness: Demystified Adultery in The Scarlet Letter.” New Essays on The Scarlet Letter. Ed. Michael J. Colacurcio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. 137-159. Print.