The Scarlet Letter: The Judgement Of Sin

The Judgement of Sin in The Scarlet letter Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is an exciting romance novel. Hester Prynne had just committed adultery and is forced to put a scarlet letter A on her chest. She suffers punishment at the hands of the townsfolk, her husband, and the rules of puritan religion. Hawthorne shows us how people judge quickly when others sin, but forget quickly when they do the same.
Hawthorne uses imagery to show that there can sometimes be good at the end of a dark sinful tunnel. For example in the first chapter we are introduced to the prison door and we are shown that there is a rose bush outside all that danger. The rose represents blossoming of good from darkness. “...was a wild rose bush..might be imagined
Even her daughter can’t recognize her without the scarlet letter embedded on her chest. Prynne states “children will not abide any, the slightest change in the accustomed aspect of things that are daily before their eyes. Pearl (her daughter) misses something which she has always seen me wear!” (199). As if she were to ever take off her scarlet letter from her chest, Pearl would not know who she is or at least not believe that was her mother. In the beginning of the novel she is put up on the “pedestal” (58) in front of the whole town. They all look at her with great disgust and judgement in their eyes on how she committed adultery. The Scarlet Letter takes place in a very strong religious environment known as Puritanism. This was a very strict religious code that many lived by during this time of American History. Even her husband wants to humiliate her more by figuring out who was the man that she had an affair with. “He will be known!” (58) as if Chillingworth will do anything to figure out who he is. Josh Kennedy and Conley Oster both agree with my analysis of The Scarlet
While all of the townspeople look down upon Hester for committing adultery, Dimmesdale is never brought to justice for his sin. While Dimmesdale continued working in the church, Hester had to spend time in jail and be publicly shamed on the scaffold.They all look down on her, mock her, and insult her. Even the poor insult her like in chapter 13 the narrator tells the reader “ She never battled with the public, but submitted uncomplainingly to its worst usage; she made no claim upon it, in requital for what she suffered; she did not weigh upon its sympathies.” The narrator is telling the reader about Hester’s character and how wonderful she is as a person. Somehow though she still faces constant judgment of her character, which is mistakenly believed to be evil by the townspeople. Yet everybody looks up to Arthur Dimmesdale for all of his good