Answer: because she would always have to live with he sin, and she will never be accepted by the community again. Famously, the Bible used by the Puritans states, "Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14). Jesus made adultery encompass adulteries of the heart in addition to the adulterous acts themselves: "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' For a modern reader, Hester's punishment for adultery, being forced to wear a scarlet letter as a mark of shame … Most of the women in this scene agreed that simply wearing a scarlet letter for life was not a harsh enough sentence. One consequence of sin in THE SCARLET LETTER is that the sinner acquires the ability to sense or recognize the sins of others. For example, in Chapter 5, Hester realizes that the scarlet letter she wears gives her “a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sins in other hearts. However, as time progresses, the meaning of the letter changed. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne describes how Hester 's punishment for her crime of adultery was to stand on a public scaffold for three hours, wear a Scarlet Letter upon her bosom, and to be excluded from social affairs. Again, the admonition of Jesus in the case of an adulteress, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone," had not become a guiding principle in the law pertaining to sexual acts. The Scarlet Letter - Johnsons English 3. im a stranger and have been a wanderer sorely against my will. It tells of the ignominy or humiliation of a woman who has broken scriptural and statutory law in a community dedicated to the maintenance of the authority of the law. Scarlet is a deep, dark, intense red, very vibrant and rich. Pick a Punishment In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale are plagued by “The Grass is Greener” Syndrome. She must stand on a platform in front of all the townspeople and hold her baby daughter. But Hawthorne was moving minds to agree that if adultery was a crime, it was a crime of the heart that need not be punished by society, since it had its own consequences in the guilt, shame, and suffering accompanied by personal indiscretion. Punishment means the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution of an offense, whereas forgiveness means the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven. She is exposed to humiliation, and a number of … However, it is fascinating to note that the same letter becomes a symbol of innocence, penance and angelic character of Hester by the end of the story. We know by p. 4 that Hester’s punishment is to wear the scarlet letter and stand with her child on the scaffold in the center of the Marketplace while the whole town looks on. The Scarlet Letter as a Story of Crime and Punishment The Scarlet Letter is essentially a story of crime, sin and punishment. and find homework help for other The Scarlet Letter questions at eNotes The Scarlet Letter . In what way is Pearl like the scarlet letter? The Scarlet letter is a romantic novel penned by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester is publicly humiliated and banished as a punishment for adultery. The Scarlet Letter study guide contains a biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Even Hawthorne states, “The scarlet letter had not done its office” (173). Hawthorne actually describes the letter in more details, as Hester stands in front of the crowd to be mocked and stared at as part of her punishment. Hawthorne's ancestor, Major John Hathorne, was magistrate in Salem in 1688, and he ordered a woman named Hester Craford to be severely whipped in public after she gave birth to an illegitimate child. Wear it as a proclamation of your sin. The term “scarlet letter” comes from the 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. However, the severity of a punishment is very difficult to agree on. This view was already palatable to many in Hawthorne’s generation, although for many others, sexual sins of all kinds remained matters of public interest. Later, even these punishments subsided. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, adulteress Hester Prynne must wear a scarlet A to mark her shame. Furthermore, Leviticus 20:10 states, "If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death." However, during the time in which Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter is (1642 to 1649), the penalty for adultery in Massachusetts was death. GradeSaver, 30 September 2007 Web. As punishment, the Puritan community she resides in requires her to wear the letter A on her bodice for the rest of her life. In fact, public humiliation was sometimes considered a light punishment. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. In The Scarlet Letter, the idea of sin and punishment is the main theme of the novel and how Hester Prynne, the main character, has been punished for her sin of adultery. Throughout history, people have committed all types of sins, and whether they are major or minor, people have been punished. Perhaps the foremost purpose of The Scarlet Letter is to illustrate the difference between shaming someone in public and allowing him or her to suffer the consequences of an unjust act privately. After Hester refuses to name her lover, Chillingworth becomes obsessed with finding his identity. For a modern reader, Hester's punishment for adultery, being forced to wear a scarlet letter as a mark of shame upon her breast for life, may seem harsh and unusual. The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts punishment vs. … Some people feel that sinners should be deeply punished… Start studying The Scarlet letter chapter 3. What do the Puritan magistrates hope to accomplish with this punishment? In this novel, Hester Prynne becomes a highly respected person in a Puritan society by overcoming one of the harshest punishments, the scarlet letter. He finds his wife forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her dress as punishment for her adultery. Answer: because she would always have to live with he sin, and she will never be accepted by the community again. The letter was not required to be scarlet - just a different colour from the clothes themselves, so it would stand out. The Scarlet Letter happened in the 17th century in New England when punishment was very different and public shaming was conventional. The Question and Answer section for The Scarlet Letter is a great The Scarlet Letter's symbolism helps create a powerful drama in Puritan Boston: a kiss, evil, sin, nature, the scarlet letter, and the punishing scaffold. The punishment is pronounced at a public gathering, and Hester is asked to stand on a scaffold for 3 hours. 4–8 Track evidence of the difference between Hester’s inner feelings and the outer appearance she is presenting during this experience. The act of adulteyr is certainly a crime against the individual, be that individual, the wronged wife or a hsuband. Hester must bear her shame publicly while Dimmesdale is stricken silent of his misdoings. The child has been sent from God, or at least from nature, but the letter is merely a human contrivance. Thus, regardless of Chillingworth's desires, Hester and Dimmesdale deserve to be killed in accordance with community vengeance. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. The justification behind the concept of punishment takes many different forms. Hester's punishment is to stand on a scaffold in the public square for three hours with all of the people watching and mocking her. Please enable Cookies and reload the page. Even if a husband wanted his adulterous wife to be saved, she could be sentenced to die as a result of the community's obligations to its moral and legal statutes. In the novel, a woman named Hester Prynne, a resident of colonial New England, is convicted of adultery. The Scarlet Letter is a novel that deals with the never-ending theme of sin. ... and thus helps to point out the ultimate meaninglessness of the community’s system of judgment and punishment. According to the legal statutes at the time and the prevailing sentiment of keeping in accordance with a strict interpretation of the Bible, Beside above, what is Hester Prynne's punishment What do the Puritan magistrates hope to accomplish with this punishment? • Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter tells a story of love, collective punishment, and salvation in Puritan, colonial Massachusetts. The Scarlet Letter. Wearing the letter 'A' In The Scarlet Letter, the idea of sin and punishment is the main theme of the novel and how Hester Prynne, the main character, has been punished for her sin of adultery. Hawthorne recorded this case in his journal, and it became the subject of his story, "Endicott and the Red Cross," in which a Salem woman, required to wear the red letter A, added wonderful embroidery to it. So, the scarlet letter A that Hester wears is of that sort of color. So even though societys intent in this punishment of the scarlet letter was to make a bad example of Hester Prynne, the symbolism of this mark of shame was subject to change. This lesson examines the significance of the scaffold in Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 masterpiece 'The Scarlet Letter.' What is Hester Prynne's punishment. The Scarlet Letter : Crime and Punishment Cyber-bullying Many young people spend a great portion of their lives on social media and creating a world which evolves as they go. Question:why does hester say the scarlet letter can never be removed from her chest? But corporal punishment, or whipping, was the usual punishment in Puritan Massachusetts for adultery, signaling that the ultimate possible punishment offered by the Bible and the law was too harsh. The letter of “A” written in scarlet color and placed around the neck of Hester becomes a symbol of sin, especially adultery. 12. Get an answer for 'In The Scarlet Letter, what was the purpose of Hester Prynne's punishment?' The law also applied to both men and women. and find homework help for other The Scarlet Letter questions at eNotes To Hester she is the living embodiment of love. Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. and even if she did speak the name of who it was their would be controversy, and obvious denial drawing lire next to he name as well. Here the scarlet letter is expressed as a “token” representing her good deeds and showing the normalization of Hester back into society, doing the opposite of what the scarlet letter was intended for. The women in the crowd are talking about how Hester deserves a worse punishment. Performance & security by Cloudflare. Also, what is the meaning behind the scarlet letter? The narrator explains, “Thus the young an pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her … Read the Study Guide for The Scarlet Letter…, Hawthorne's "Witch-Baby" in The Scarlet Letter, Hester's Role as Both the Sinner and Saint, View the lesson plan for The Scarlet Letter…, View Wikipedia Entries for The Scarlet Letter…. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the different struggles that come face to face with Hester Prynne as the punishment persists and what wisdom she will gain from it. 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