The Scarlet Letter : Tolerance of Sin

By moahmed nadi, Student

The torlerance of sin in the novel

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

There are changes occurring in our society constantly, in many different ways. We witness these changes through religion, politics, and family. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a Puritan woman named Hester Prynne is sentenced and ridiculed for committing the sin of adultery. The situation with Hester in this novel is not relevant to today’s society because of the acceptance and tolerance of sin in contrast to the Puritan times.

The common people of the Puritan society in which Hester resides, consider her to be an outcast and disappointment to their community. Hester is ostracized from the district and decides to move out to a cottage by the sea. Today’s society is much more open and able to overlook sins of the past. In much the same situation as Hester’s, one would receive support from her family..

The government takes this information into account and does not hold formal punishment for such a sin today. When contemplating the decision of whether to convict Hester Prynne, one woman of the self-appointed judges became outraged. “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there no law for it? Truly there is, both in the scripture and the statute-book. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray!” [sl02.html#g07].

This took place in the novel, and afterward Hester was tried and convicted of adultery, for which she served a sentence of three years. This would not happen in today’s society, but instead the woman would have some big decisions of her own to make. There are many possibilities that come into play such as abortion and adoption that all young mothers must consider. This decision can influenced by the authority in terms of the mother’s and the baby’s best interest. However, for most cases, the government does not determine the happenings of the child by force.

Hester Prynne was a Puritan woman, but she was forced aside from the group when the news of her sin arrived to the common people. She was a member of “as befitted a people amongst whom religion and law were almost identical...that the mildest and the severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful” [sl02.html#g01]. The community of her time was very highly based upon religion, which is not true today. Many members of the present day society do not attend congregation and do not believe in the holy spirit of life. In Hester’s region, “on the other hand, a penalty, which, in our days, would infer a degree of mocking infamy and ridicule, might then be invested with almost as stern a dignity as the punishment of death itself” [sl02.html#g01]. The people of that time took the preaching of their ministers much more to heart than the General public nowadays. “People say that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation” [sl02.html#g04]. Hester’s own reverend, the father of her child, took the sin into his own emotional baggage and fought to overcome this fear that had possessed the citizens of his congregation. He, too, was unable to pull the people into reality at that time because they had such a strong religious influence, beyond all human powers. This would not happen today because we do not have such a strong religious influence, and do not ostracize humans from society for forgivable mistakes.

The circumstances that take place with Hester Prynne in this novel are not applicable to the teenage parents of today’s soceity for various reasons. We now have a more open society in which one is given more support from her family, the government, and the community in general when placed in a position such as Hester’s. We realize that adultery is a common occurrence and, therefore, the authroity does not place punishment upon adulteresses. However, because changes are occurring constantly all around us, this policy could be modified or intensified in the future as well.