Theme Sin and Judgment in"the Scarlet Letter"

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Sin and Judgment The novel “The Scarlet Letter” starts with the sin of Hester Prynne. She has committed adultery in the puritan society that the criminal must be punished in front of others and on the scaffold. In chapter 2, we see two different judgments of people about Hester. Some people want her to be punished and they think that wearing the scarlet letter “A” is not enough. For example “this woman brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it?” (Hawthorne 47). But as book describes her in a very “innocent” way “... this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity… of that sacred image of sinless motherhood…”(Hawthorne 51), some people might have thought that she is innocent. And some say that even wearing the scarlet letter “A” is a big punishment for her, as “ not a stitch in that embroidered letter, but she has felt it in her heart”(Hawthorne 49)or “let her cover the mark as she will , the pang of it will be always in her heart”( Hawthorne 47). Even scarlet letter “A” stands for “art” or “artist” as “She hath good skill at her needle, that’s certain” (Hawthorne 49). And people attitude towards Hester and the scarlet letter “A” change in chapter 13. In this chapter as she is doing charity works the meaning of the scarlet letter “A”, changes to “Able”. We could see it in “Such helpfulness was found in her- so much power to do and power to sympathize- that many people refuse to interpret the scarlet “A” by its original signification. They said that it meant “Able”; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 144). We could say that she was forgiven at the end of the novel, because of her public suffer during years “. . . in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester's
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