In The Scarlet Letter, the base of the Puritan society is the church. The church and the religious beliefs are the most important things within the town of Boston; the church is directly involved in the judgment of the community. In the beginning of the novel, Hester Prynne walks out from the prison and stands in front of the public for her trial. There, she finds both the governor and the reverends as the judges for her case: “Here…sat Governor Bellingham himself…the other eminent characters… were distinguished by a dignity of mien, belonging to a period when the forms of authority were felt to possess the sacredness of divine institutions” (Hawthorne 52). When making important decision, the governor of the community is not the sole person.
…show more content…
Relationships between men and women are heavily controlled and adultery is seen as a terrible sin for the Puritans. In the novel, Hester’s sentences are standing on the scaffold for humiliation and wearing the scarlet letter ‘A’ on her breast to make the sin of adultery visible to all. The scene of Hester standing on the scaffold and showing her face to the public shows the general beliefs of the public at that time. The whole town people are there for a cruel public punishment; “They were stern enough to look upon her death, had that been the sentence, without a murmur at its severity, but had none of the heartlessness of another social state…” (Hawthorne 46). Even a townsman describes Hester’s punishment to a stranger as, “they have doomed Mistress Prynne to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then and thereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom” (Hawthorne 51). At this time, adultery is a heavy crime and should be punish severely. It shows the weight of values and morals based on the religious beliefs in the seventeenth century society and how public discipline is used to discourage people from committing the sin against the
Relationships between men and women are heavily controlled and adultery is seen as a terrible sin for the Puritans. In the novel, Hester’s sentences are standing on the scaffold for humiliation and wearing the scarlet letter ‘A’ on her breast to make the sin of adultery visible to all. The scene of Hester standing on the scaffold and showing her face to the public shows the general beliefs of the public at that time. The whole town people are there for a cruel public punishment; “They were stern enough to look upon her death, had that been the sentence, without a murmur at its severity, but had none of the heartlessness of another social state…” (Hawthorne 46). Even a townsman describes Hester’s punishment to a stranger as, “they have doomed Mistress Prynne to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then and thereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom” (Hawthorne 51). At this time, adultery is a heavy crime and should be punish severely. It shows the weight of values and morals based on the religious beliefs in the seventeenth century society and how public discipline is used to discourage people from committing the sin against the