The Underlying Structure of The Scarlet Letter
Comment on the novel's usage of the transgression, shame, repentance, acceptance cycle, focusing on one of the different levels of perspective as discussed in class.
1.National Identity
2.Politics/Government
3.Religion
4.Science
5.Independance/Secular Humanism
posted by dconlay @ 1:30 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the Scarlet Letter more than a century after Puritans lived in America. By considering this fact and comparing the society of his time with the society in the book, we can observe different levels of perspective. In a religious sense, it is important to realize the changes in religion from the time period in the book, to Hawthorne's, as well as it relationship with government. In the book, transgression was the fact that Hester sinned by committing adultery. The next point in the cycle, shame, was represented when Hester had to stand on the scaffold and be publicly humiliated. During this time she was ashamed and began to comprehend the magnitude of her own sin, and how it would affect her future in that community. The next stage, repentance, was fulfilled when Hester wore the Scarlet Letter everyday, and isolated herself from society. Lastly, there are two levels of acceptance. First is the acceptance of Hester regarding her own mistakes. By accepting that she had sinned, and repented for it, she was able to move on with her life. The other level is acceptance by the society. After Hester had repented her sin, and isolated herself, the people began to forget why she was made an outcast in the first place. This shows that after having "served your time" and fulfilling the other three steps in the cycle, the society felt ready to accept Hester again. From a religious aspect, Hester had broken a major law, in both the church and government. This is because during the Puritan era, government and religion went hand in hand. On the other hand, during Hawthorne's time, religion was separated from the government. This means that an action that is considered a horrible sin in a religious way is not necessarily punishable by law.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter, there is a cycle that is displayed continuously. This cycle is made up of tranngression, shame, repentence, and acceptance. These are exemplified in the main character, Hester. Trangression was displayed by the fact that she had commited adultery. Shame was shown by her sin being a public exemplification. Repentence was exemplified when she recognized her sin and witnessed its illegitimate morality. For acceptance, it was enough that the society and religion permitted for her reverting.
The Scarlet Letter had a cycle of transgression, shame, repentance, and acceptance that occurred throughout the novel. In the religious sense the transgression in the novel was the sin that Hester had committed. Her adultery broke her away from God and society. To the Puritans the sin of adultery was unforgivable. They put her on display for everyone to witness it and shame her even more. The people put her on the scaffold. The repentance that Hester showed throughout the novel was the fact that she wore the letter “A”, just as the church had said. She could have left but didn’t. She stayed to make up for what she did. Hester is eventually accepted back into society because her sin is forgotten in a way. The town see her as heroic. With time the significance of the letter disappears. They don’t really remember why it’s there.
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, made usage of transgression, shame, repentance, and acceptance on a religious level through the story of the main character, Hester Prynne. First, transgression was displayed in Hester Prynne’s sin, adultery. Since Hester committed adultery, she violated one of the community’s religious laws that classify her action as a sin and as a transgression. Second, shame was incorporated in the novel when Hester Prynne was forced to be a public example of what could happen if anyone committed adultery. If anyone did commit such a crime, he or she would be forced to wear the scarlet letter and be labeled as a sinner and an outcast of the community such as Hester Prynne was. Third, repentance was displayed religiously when Hester Prynne sought atonement by helping those in need and eventually taking the role as an emotional consultant for her community. This resulted in the people’s forgiveness of her sin. Finally, acceptance was portrayed when the people of Hester’s community no longer acknowledged her scarlet letter’s representation of adultery. This showed their acceptance of Hester Prynne since the community no longer reminded Hester of her sin, which implied that the people no longer cared for Hester’s sin.
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In our class, we came up with a cycle of transgression, shame, repentance, and acceptance that repeats through out the novel, the Scarlet Letter. The transgression of the novel is mainly Hester committing the sin of adultery, which from a religious point of view, i beleive seperated her from teh almighty God . The transgression in our cycle leads to shame, which was public humiliation of her sinful act. For the repentance, it was Hester wearing the “A” and putting up with what she committed. That leads to acceptance, which was acknowledging that she did it and moving on with her life even though she had the sin behind her back. Hester became stronger by that. Society no longer was concerned about what she committed, permitting her to come back.
-Enrique Vivar
Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many levels of perspective as well as a repetitive cycle in his novel, The Scarlet Letter. Transgression is shown when Hester, the main character, sins by committing adultery. By admitting her sin and coming to terms with it, she is forgiven by God, according to the religion of the time which was Puritanism. Puritanism was a strict form of religion which existed in the 1600s mostly. This novel was written by Hawthorne a century later. There were two forms of acceptance when she confessed her sin. First she accepted it herself and was able to live with it. Once Hester accepted it herself, the Puritan society gradually accepted it. Shame is shown when she has to stand on the scaffold and face her sin. Here she realized that it would impact her whole life from then on. Hester repents and punishes herself everyday after that. She isolates herself from the community in a few ways, yet becomes important to the community as well because of her needlework. Her repentance allows her to become one with God again. She is also able to redeem herself in the community and build up a new good reputation.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter there is a countineous cycle that the characters go through. The cycle consists of transgression, shame, repentance and acceptence. Hester, for example, goes through transgression by commiting the sin. As she sands on the scaffold she goes through shame. She is then outcast from the community. This is the repentance stage of the cycle. She is then accepted back into the society after she accepts her sin and moves on. This cycle is what is used in a lot of subjects. The most know, I believe, is relious. In a religous society this is how people go through getting through sins and other wrong doings. The commit the act, they become ashamed, they accept it,and then they are forgiven and accepted back into soceity.
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