In the Scarlet Letter, sin is a recurring theme; if you are a sinner the book gives us a message that your sin should be on public display. For example, by making Hester wear the A on her chest for everyone to see she constantly subjected to the judgment of those around her. Also, she is constantly used as an example of a sinner in sermons. To me it seems that they are just making her wear the A to humiliate her, which I think is useless because Puritans believed that life is predestined, including whether they end up in heaven or hell. Why use her as an example when her life is predestined?
I kind of agree with you Nicki. I think there making her wear the A to represnet the sin she has commited. She is reminded everyday that the has it on her. When i was reading, I found it intresting that dimmesdale also felt the pain that Hestor has. He went up to the perch where Hestor was standing when she was being looked at. He was holding his heart where Hestor's "A" is. Then Hestor comes along and Dimmesdale makes Hestor and Pearl come up with him. Then he tells Pearl that they all will be on this perch later again because it will be judgement day. But i think his pain is emotional pain rather than Hestor's is physicall pain.
ReplyDeleteBecause the Puritans were suppost to be pure and it doesn't matter if their lives are predestined or not they still believed that you had to be the best you could in your life because you didn't know if you were going to Heaven or Hell. Hester committed adultery and that is a major sin. They wanted to make her suffer as much as possible because of her sin and they did this by making her wear the A to constantly remind her of the sin she has committed. The Puritans didn't know what anybodys predistiny was so they had to publicly display Hester as an example of what not to do and how not to act in their Puritan society.
ReplyDeleteI agree with John that the Purtians still punished Hester becuase they encouraged their society be the best Christians they could be becuase they didn't know their predestination. Hester was still used as an example of what people shouldd't do. I also think that the book supports the idea that sin should be on public display becuase Hawthorne emphasizes Dimmsedale's suffering and shows us that although Hester is miserable, Dimmesdale is worse off becuase his sin is hidden.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Puritans used Hester as an example so others would reflect on themselves. No one wanted to become the town "sinner" like Hester was. Although everyone's life was said to be predestined, they had to get there somehow. They had to be good and pure Christians in order to be sent into heaven with God after death. I also agree with Katie because Dimmesdale is hiding his sin from the community, therefore he is not confessing to God. Hester has confessed her sin to the community, therefore staying true to God. Although the Puritans believe in confessing their sins, it will not change the way their life has been predestined.
ReplyDeleteI think that this question is really interesting. Nicki brings up a great point. why would the puritans punish somebody if they were destined to sin from the day they were born? i think it brings up the bigger question of, why did puritans try so hard to be good when they were already destined for heaven or hell and their decisions didn't matter
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