Amanda Garcia
English 1B
Instructor Knapp
May 1, 2011
The Scarlet Letter: Rough Draft
Now in the 21-first century, women in society have come a long way. Women have changed and evolved over the past 100 years from being just a housewife, with only wifely duties, to owning and running corporations. Women feel capable and independent, we are given the freedom and have the same opportunities as men. It is daunting to learn that this wasn’t always the case. There was a time when women weren’t given the right to work, to vote, go to school, work outside their household, earn the same wages as men, become any profession they chose to be, practice another religion or marry whomever they loved. In the novel The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne defies society and her community by having a secret affair, a child out of wedlock, and she becomes an outcast. The novel takes place during the 17th century, with the Puritans that have immigrated to America. If Hester Prynne was alive today and made the same mistakes she made in The Scarlett Letter, she would not have been treated like she was then. My contemporary view dramatically changes my perspective of the novel, therefore not agreeing with Hester’s punishment and treatment by the Puritans.
Through out reading The Scarlet Letter, I felt completely bad for Hester Prynne. Though I don’t agree that adultery is right, I don’t believe Hester was a bad person. For Someone who might have read the novel in the early 19th century might have disagreed with me. Clearly today adultery is not punished at all like Hester Prynne was punished; that was due to the Puritans. The Puritans were religious colony who came to America because they believed that the church of England wasn’t pure, and they wanted to purify it by segregating themselves. The Puritans believed in pre-determination which ment that if you were good, you would always be good and if you were evil, you would always be evil so to speak. They basically didn’t believe that God was merciful enough to forgive sinners; such as Hester. They also believed that evil was always around and the devil in particular. Lurking in other people ready to take others as followers. Today the Puritans would be viewed as religious extremists. Obviously I don’t agree with their religious perspectives. I have been raised Catholic and believe sort of the opposite. God forgives all sinners, and looks at the good in all his people. That definitely affects my perspective on the Puritans and how I felt about the whole Hester situation.
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ReplyDeleteI like how you draw us into your ideas by giving your reading something to connect with and then you guide us through a series of details that set us up for your controlling idea. I am very interested in your claim that Hester "defies society and her community" because this sets us up for a very interesting discussion on one of complexities in this novel:to conform or rebel. I would add that Hester is not only defying this society, she is breaking the law. Hester also succumbs to her punishment, which is not very rebellious. She thinks rebellious thoughts, but acts in a very non-rebellious way, which I find interesting...? You also seem to be taking a New Historicist perspective that helps ground us in the present and how our views have changed on some aspects of adultery, but not others, which is very interesting. I suggest reading a couple of the Critical Essays in the book and posting your annotated bibliography to deepen your analysis and help you better understand how you will incorporate your research on this topic. I suggest reading "Hawthorne and Criminal Justice" by Laura Hanft Korobkin (426) to better acquaint yourself with some of the arguments surrounding these ideas of "defying" society. You have set us up for a very interesting paper here Amanda.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing on your claim about the Puritan culture. Yes, they believe in Good and Evil and predetermination, however, we see also an ability to grant mercy. There is a central tension in this novel between mercy and justice. We can see the magistrates granting Hester a merciful sentence despite her transgressions, especially given the historical evidence that "Anne Linceford was publically stripped and severely whipped"(436) in the public square for the same offense. We also know that Mary Latham and James Britton were both executed for adultery (431) in 1642. Dimmesdale teaches us in his final words that "God is Merciful" (160) and so there is ongoing debate within the culture itself about this concept of Good and Evil, and to what extent sin should be forgiven. The townspeople (the society) represent the black and white view of good and evil, but Dimmesdale and the Magistrates and Governor Wilson seem more inclined to see the mercy in God's will toward sins by "good" people. Evil does exist, as Dimmesdale explains Chillingsworth, in the final scene, is aided by "the fiend's" power—Dimmesdale points out that Satan is working through "this wretched man" (160). So this concept of forgiveness and mercy is being debated in this culture and at the heart of this novel.
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