The Sin of Hypocrisy in The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about the trials and
tribulations of Hester Prynne, a woman living in colonial Boston. Found
guilty of adultery, Hester's punishment is to wear a visible symbol of her
sin: the scarlet letter "A." Through the book, the reader comes to know
Hester, the adulteress; Dimmesdale, the holy man Hester had the affair
with; and Chillingworth, the estranged husband of Hester who is out for
revenge. The Scarlet Letter examines the interaction of these characters
and the reaction of these characters to Hester's sin. However, the
greater sin that Hawthorne deals with in The Scarlet Letter is
hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or
virtues that one does not hold or possess. All three main characters,
Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, commit the sin of hypocrisy.
Hawthorne shows that hypocrisy is indeed a sin by punishing the offenders.
Hester Prynne is a strong, independent woman who deals with her sin of
adultery very well. Instead of running away from it, she lives with it and
accepts her punishment. However, while succumbing to the will of the court,
she does not for an instant truly believe that she sinned. Hester thinks
that she has not committed adultery because in her mind she wasn't really
married to Chillingworth. Hester believes that marriage is only valid when
there is love, and there is no love between Hester and Chillingworth. In
the prison, defending her actions against him, she declares, "Thou knowest,
thou knowest that I was frank with thee. I felt no love, nor feigned any"
(74). Then, later, speaking to Dimmesdale, Hester further imparts her
belief that she has not sinned, saying, "What we did had a consecration of
its own. We felt it so" (192). Therefore, Hester, in her mind, has not
committed a sin. The fact that she accepts the courts decision so meekly
and wears the scarlet letter denoting her as an adulteress is the first
way in which she is hypocritical. Hester, although she does not believe
she has sinned, portrays herself as a sinner by wearing the scarlet letter
without complaint. Over the ensuing years, Hester endures the shame and
ridicule brought about by the scarlet letter. However, the true source of
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempted to expose the varying ways in which different people deal with lingering guilt from sins they have perpetrated. The contrasting characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale ideally exemplified the differences in thought and behavior people have for guilt. Although they were both guilty of committing the same crime, these two individuals differed in that one punished themselves with physical and mental torture and the other chose to continue on with their life, devoting it to those less fortunate than they.
Rule of Law: Insanity must be proven under some type of mental or emotional defect caused by disease.
“If thou feelst it will relieve thy suffering, speak out the name of thy fellow sinner. Be not silent because thou wouldst protect him.” (Hawthorne 21). This was said by Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, one of the main characters of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous novel, The Scarlet Letter. He says this to his secret lover, Hester, as she stands on the scaffold in front of the entire Puritan community that the story takes place in. She is standing there with her three-month old child, Pearl, as a part of her punishment for her sin of committing adultery. The purpose of the scaffold in this novel is to represent the shame and torture that Hester and Dimmesdale each handle alone and to show how hypocritical and judgmental the Puritans were.
To understand insanity, we must first understand sanity. Marriam-Webster’s definition of “sane” is “mentally sound” and “healthy in body.” However, the definition of sanity goes beyond that. It is being mostly or completely in control of your actions and have the capacity to think through the consequences. It is also, knowing right from wrong and when certain actions are acceptable or not. It is
The Scarlet Letter is a novel about a Puritan woman who has committed adultery and must pay for her sin by wearing a scarlet “A'; on her bosom. The woman, Hester Prynne, must struggle through everyday life with the guilt of her sin. The novel is also about the suffering that is endured by not admitting to one’s wrongs. Reverend Mister Dimmesdale learns that secrecy only makes the guilt increase. Nathaniel Hawthorne is trying to display how guilt is the everlasting payment for sinful actions. The theme of guilt as reparation for sin in The Scarlet Letter is revealed through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of northeastern, colonial settings, various conflicts, and characters that must live with guilt for the sins they have committed.
Guilt and shame haunt all three of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter, but how they each handle their sin will change their lives forever. Hester Prynne’s guilt is publicly exploited. She has to live with her shame for the rest of her life by wearing a scarlet letter on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, on the other hand, is just as guilty of adultery as Hester, but he allows his guilt to remain a secret. Instead of telling the people of his vile sin, the Reverend allows it to eat away at his rotting soul. The shame of what he has done slowly kills him. The last sinner in this guilty trio is Rodger Chillingworth. This evil man not only hides his true identity as Hester’s husband, but also mentally torments Arthur Dimmesdale. The vile physician offers his ‘help’ to the sickly Reverend, but he gives the exact opposite. Chillingworth inflicts daily, mental tortures upon Arthur Dimmesdale for seven long years, and he enjoys it. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all connected by their sins and shame, but what they do in regards to those sins is what sets them apart from each other.
“Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred” (Hawthorne). As this sentence is read in the The Scarlet Letter, the reader will realize that the main theme of the book is the sentence above. Throughout the book, secret sin damages the lives, soul, and the integrity of the main characters. However, it could have easily been evaded through open confession of their sins. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s purpose in writing this novel is an attempt to influence the reader to openly confess their sins and never be ashamed of who they are. According to Levine, “even though we convey ourselves as saints, we are really sinners (Levine 64). The Scarlet Letter is a classic work of Hawthorne due to the themes it portrays and the relevancy to today’s society. By definition, “A classic is a work of art so universal that it has transcended the boundaries of time and place; it has survived the ‘test of time’” (Lazarus). In the highly symbolic novel, “The Scarlet Letter”, Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the effects of hidden sin and his characters’ ultimate release from guilt when they learn to own their sin.
The Scarlet Letter is a novel that deals with the theme of sin. Throughout history, people have committed all types of sins, and whether they are major or minor, people have been punished. However, the severity of a punishment is very difficult to agree on. Some people feel that sinners should be deeply punished no 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.
Insanity, by its dictionary definition, is the derangement of the mind. (Dictionary.com) It is used in everyday context, when people say “You are insane for not doing your homework” or “ That traffic getting out of the game was insane last night!”. However the real definition, written by Columbia University Press states that “The term insanity is used chiefly in criminal law, to denote mental aberrations of defects that may relieve a person from the legal consequences of his or her acts” (Columbia University, Press). This issue is very important because many people try to get out of their true consequences of their actions, and by using this plea, sometimes they get away with it. The Insanity Plea has been used again and again in the US courts, but it should be disproved because of the true legal definition, because many people try to fake insanity, and because of how the social concept of insanity is different than the actual mental illness.
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, had a large influence of a very popular religion during the 17th century, known as Puritanism. The Oxford Encyclopedia defines Puritanism as “religious sensibility centered around conservation” (?). The reason behind many people traveling to America during the 1600s from England was only for one specific reason: religious freedom (Joselit). “For leaving England for what would become New England, the Puritans were not seeking economic opportunity and security for themselves and their families. They were on a religious mission or, what later became known in Puritan circle as an “errand into the wilderness””(Joselit, 21). The first set of Puritans came to America in 1620, and started a colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts. By the 1640s, there were over twenty-five thousand English settlers in New England. The group of Puritans that settled in the 1630s lived in an area that they named the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which is present day Boston. This is where the setting of The Scarlet Letter takes place (Joselit).
Therefore, the M’Naghten test is the applicable legal standard to determine legal insanity (in this jurisdiction). The M’Naghten test asks the following three questions: Did the defendant suffer from a mental disorder at the time of the act? Did the defendant know the nature and quality of the act? Did the defendant know that the act was wrong? According to M’Naghten, insanity applies if the defendant did not know the nature and quality of the act, or did not know that the act was wrong, at the time of the act, due to a mental disorder. In regards to the first question, the defendant must suffer from a known psychological, mental disorder; this disorder must cause a defect in reasoning. If the defendant did not suffer from a mental disorder at the time of the act, then the defendant is not legally insane. Once it is known that there is a mental disorder, the second question to consider is whether or not the defendant knew the nature and quality of the act. The ‘nature’ of the act refers to the physical aspects of the offense, such as physically getting into the car and physically pressing onto the gas pedal to run someone over; the ‘quality’ refers to the potential harm (or outcome) that could occur from the offense, such as running someone over with a car would be to severely harm or even kill that person. The defendant must not know the nature and quality of
In the eyes of the law, a defendant is legally insane if he or she is unable, because of a mental problem, to form a mens rea, a Latin term meaning a guilty mind.# Since the law only punishes people who are mentally responsible for their actions, most states allow juries to find a defendant not guilty if he or she was insane at the time a crime was committed. The insanity defense, states that at the time of the crime the defendant could not decide between right or wrong or could not keep from acting on their impulse, due to mental illness. Each state has its own definition of insanity, but most states fol...
In Macbeth, the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth shifts throughout the play in many ways. It increases the way we understand the characters throughout the play of Macbeth. It demonstrates the differences in opinions between a marriage and allows them to express themselves with verbal threats and the power they held amongst one another. Their relationship starts with love and affection based on how Macbeth starts of by calling her “my dearest love” (1.5.57) they also both had this strong connection with each other and shared the same type of ambition but one of the two always held the power in the relationship that they had. As the relationship begins to impact throughout the play there are threatening behaviours from different
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, there are many moral and social themes develped throughout the novel. Each theme is very important to the overall effect of the novel. In essence, The Scarlet Letter is a story of sin, punishment and the importance of truth. One theme which plays a big role in The Scarlet Letter is that of sin and its effects. Throughout the novel there were many sins committed by various characters. The effects of these sins are different in each character and every character was punished in a unique way. Two characters were perfect examples of this theme in the novel. Hester Prynne and The Reverend Dimmesdale best demonstrated the theme of the effects of sin.
The insanity defence is defined by the M’Naughten Rules2 which state that it must be proved that the defendant, at the time of the act, was under a defect of reason, derived from disease of the mind3 and that he wasn’t aware that what he was doing was wrong. Recently the definition of ‘disease of the mind’ has been modernised in “an impairment of mental functioning caused by medical condition”4.