How Does Society Conform

In many ways our society demands that we conform to the “norm”. In the case of The Scarlet Letter that is the punishment of Hester Prynne and the Pressure put on Arthur Dimmesdale. Most of society demands that we follow their social folkways and mores, and whether we think it’s wrong or not we usually do anyway. People will spend so much of their time and money trying to conform to the majority that they might as well be the same person. The characters of The Scarlet Letter are very religious and frown upon adultery severely. In the 1600s certain acts of sin were treated equivalent to the way we treat a Second-Degree Murder. (FIND QUOTE) The act of adultery would normally be punished by death, but Hester was considered too young to be put to death. Arthur Dimmesdale is a well respected man because of his close relationship with God. The view society has on Dimmesdale made the expectations for him high. The high expectations for Dimmesdale put some serious pressure on him especially after the being involved with Hester. Society looked for perfection in Dimmesdale, so there
Hester being an outcast eventually made Pearl one as well. Pearl didn’t have much social experience with other people especially other children. If a child doesn’t have enough social interaction they can develop issues in communication and emotion. “But Pearl, who was a dauntless child, after frowning, stamping her foot, and shaking her little hand with a variety of threatening gestures, suddenly made a rush at the knot of her enemies, and put them all to flight.” (93 Hawthorne) The entire town and even the children are humiliating Hester. Most children in this time period wouldn’t even think to chase the others away, but her mother is all Pearl has ever had. Pearl is often called a devil child because she doesn’t know how to act around other people, but as she ages Pearl becomes more