trey baxleys essay

The Scarlet Letter is another version of Romeo and Juliet, the two people in love forsaken to never be together, only Hester and Dimmsdale are in much more secretive relationship. The town is the main the obstacle in both stories they present barriers to them being together. This essay will show how society is to blame for the misfortunes in the Scarlet Letter.

First, the puritan townspeople ways of punishment and ridicule is almost childlike in behavior. First, for a minor crime they believe it is necessary to take the punishments to the extreme to teach everybody a “lesson”. To show this, at the beginning of the story Hester’s’ punishment is about to begin when a few old ladies say she should die for what she has done,” ought to die” it creates a tone of hatred from the old ladies for no matter the punishment it should be taken to the most severe extent (Hawthorne 49). Next, even though Hester tries to live a respectable and peaceful life when she is other people she is immediately mud beneath their feet and they look at her with disgrace. For instance, the townspeople, instead of letting this matter die down you her sin as a teaching symbol for others, “find herself the text of discourse” she is made a outcast through others using her sin to teach others, but isn’t it a sin to shame others for your gain so the puritans act all high and mighty when in reality they are all on the same playing field (Hawthorne 79). Last, in her town she was a pariah, an outcast nobody who cared about their name would take accept her charity for it was too shameful to be the “light” of the town taking help from the “sin”. For example, even the poor who could barely make by would turn her down, “wretches less miserable than herself, and who not in...

... middle of paper ...

...an’t see their own. To show this, they only point out other peoples sin because they can’t bring themselves to look hard enough to find their own when it is only a little more subtle, “therefore scorned them in their hearts, and not unfrequently reviled them with their tongues” the society has eternally shunned them and on sight is disgusted by them and act like they are better than them when in fact acting like they do towards somebody who has never hurt you is a sin in itself.

Last, in the societies role try and use Hester as a symbol as what not to do but they were generally more of a sinner than Hester. They antagonize her throughout the book and she learns to live with it and thrives on the scorn she gets. The “A” at her first her source of shame becomes her source of triumph for without it she never would have been able to endure the scorn she received.