Synthesis Essay

Moral obligations can be seen a variety of different ways, depending on the person. Some may think it is a person’s moral obligation to submit to a law even if they believe the law is wrong. Others think the opposite, if a person believes something is unjust why would they follow it. Everyone has a different point of view and after reading The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne, The Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr., Laws Scarlet Letter by Korobkin and Lyceum Address by Lincoln, it is important to follow ones conscience. This may seem unjust, but is it just to support an unjust law? This is where the controversy comes in, and why after reading these three types of literature, the idea of supporting something unjust is completely wrong and breaks down the justice system. In the Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne begins the story standing up for her beliefs. She knows that the law says she cannot cheat on her husband but she was forced to marry him and doesn’t actually love him. When she finds the man that she does love she ends up cheating on her husband even though it is against the Puritan Law. Since she had Pearl, the magistrates punish her for sinning, and going against the law. If Hester stood up for her beliefs she may have been punished more severely or even killed but it would have allowed other women to see that they are not the only ones who think this law is unjust. “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws” (King 265), so Hester should have supported her belief even though she was breaking the law. If people didn’t stand up for what they believed in the law would control the people’s lives and the people wouldn’t be able to stand up for themselves. It only takes one person to start a chain reaction and if Hester stood up for herself then Arthur Dimmesdale would have to, and since he was the priest other women would have also stood up for what they believed, knowing others felt the same way. It is hard to decipher laws that are