Power In The Scarlet Letter

Power is a dangerous tool that mankind holds. Power, in the right hands, can lead to prosperity, but, if entrusted to the wrong set of hands, it will lead to major destruction. Power has been given to everyone just in different amounts. What people do with the power they have is up to them, but, in many instances, it is misused. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne creates a story that shows the abuse of power by people in different social statuses in Puritanical society. The abuse of power between the Puritans in Hawthorne’s story and people in American society today displays many common themes; the need to hide their own failures, the failures of people closest to them, and putting down the outcasts.
The need to hide personal failures can cause people to abuse the power they have. Roger Chillingworth abuses his power by threatening Hester to keep her quiet. Chillingworth makes Hester swear to not tell anyone that he is her husband, or else he will destroy the other man’s “fame, his position,
Hester does not fit in with the other women because “her beauty shone out” (46). This causes many of the other women in Salem to be jealous as they were not the most beautiful women. Instead they had “broad shoulders and well-developed busts, and round and ruddy cheeks” (44). Out of jealousy, the women suggest harsher punishments for Hester in an attempt to put her down and make themselves feel better. Hester is put down again when she tries to help the poor. She gives them food or clothing and then they “not infrequently insulted the hand that fed them” (68). The people in Salem abuse their power they have over others by putting down Hester, the outcast. Bullying is a way people put down others today. They use the power they have to make the other person feel worse about themselves. They may bully the person just based on what the other person may look like, do, or say, to gain