The Scarlet Letter Intro Essay

In the 16th century. Puritans immigrated to America from Great Britain in align to get away ghost ilk persecution. and by the mid seventeenth century they had erected a good conventional society based on their theological beliefs. The Puritan faith was unmatched of asceticism and geared towards religious devotedness instead than secular ownerships. Puritans followed harsh Torahs which seldom changed with clip. They similarly had small tolerance for anyone who broke these Torahs. Persons who did go against these Torahs nevertheless. face penalization on assorted degrees and would hold to turn out their remorse to themselves and society. The Scarlet Letter. set in mid seventeenth century Boston. portrays much(prenominal) signifiers of penitence from two positions. The writer. Nathaniel Hawthorne. constructs the secret plan to go roughly around the journey of penitence of two characters Hester Prynne and Rev. Dimmesdale. Both characters set about committed the undermine wic kedness of criminal conversation together. but merely Hester has been punished for it. whereas Dimmesdale has until now to be discovered for his engagement in the misbehavior.Hesters terrible punishment is to transport the ageless load of the vermilion missive A. a attribute that apprises everyone of her position as an fornicator. and outcasts her from the remainder of society. Even though she is shunned by society. Hester allay manages to commit Acts of the Apostless of remorse to expiate for her wickedness. However. Hester is non the lone character who seeks penitence Rev. Dimmesdale self-inflicts penalty as a signifier of repentance. Throughout the impertinent. some(prenominal) characters strive to get to true penitence. a feeling of compunction which move intos from the psyche. Equally committed as they are to expiating for their wickedness. neither Hester nor Dimmesdale genuinely of all time make the state of penitence. Their failure to accomplish true penitence can b e sensed by means of their similar ends of repentance and their different signifiers of penalty.Through the class of the novel. Hawthorne ever evinces analogues and similiarities between the journeys of repentance of both Hester and Dimmesdale. Both journeys for penitence terminal in the same topographic appoint failure to experience compunction for their wickedness. In chapter 17. Hawthorne eventually brings Hester and Dimmesdale together in an confidant puting since their committing of criminal conversation. A positive and metaphorical symbol of their parallel journey. The lovers meet up in the wood. a dark topographic point symbolic of immorality. to talk in mysterious for the first clip in old ages about their programs for the hereafter. Throughout the novel the referee has been able to track the Acts of the Apostless of repentance. nevertheless. it has neer been obviously stated that these Acts of the Apostless of repentance have been in vain and no true penitence has c ome from them. Hawthorne decides that in this chapter both characters will blatantly province their failure to repent. In this chapter. Hester states to Dimmesdale. What we did had a consecration of its own ( 203 ) .Hester has non merely failed to atone at this point. but she has besides stated that their criminal conversation has had a valid intent. Due to the accompaniment that Pearl has come out of their fornication. she has non wronged in saying this but. any person who has genuinely repented for their action would be excessively contrite to warrant their misbehavior. literary critic. Samuel Chase Coale. summarizes Hesters vain journey for penitence by make up that her public show of unhappiness and repentance is in world a hollow rite. non echt penitence ( Coale 37 ) .In analogue. Dimmesdale admits his deficiency of sorrow for his criminal conversation with Hester. Of the two. Dimmesdale journey has been the most strict in repentance. yet. like Hester. his journey of repent ance has ended in failure. He openly admits. Of repentance. I have had adequate Of repentance. there has been none ( 200 ) . Dimmesdale does non experience the to the lowest degree spot regretful for his wickedness with Hester. Hawthorne parallels their journey for the end of penitence for 17 chapters. until he eventually brings about their ultimate failure. This length of clip allowed the reader to see two similar. coincident journeys which finally ends literally and metaphorically in one topographic point. failure in the wood. a topographic point of immorality. wickedness. and insincere repentance.Although both Hester and Dimmesdale have had a similiar end of true penitence. the inner informations of their journey are wholly different. Hawthorne structures the novel like this for assorted ground. the most obvious being redundancy. If Hawthorne had made Dimmesdales and Hesters journey but likewise. the narrative would look highly excess and would lose the involvement of the rea der. On the other manus. Hawthorne creates this contrast in their journeys in order to set up some societal commentary. He establishes a journey of repentance by means of two different repugns. individual vs. society and individual vs. ego. Hester repentance. of class. is established by means of individual vs. society. Spatial relationships. those based on the arrangement of images within the text. endanger a set of constructions and codes that embody the societal organisation of a community. both in footings of its political orientation and its civilization. How one is seen and for what reasonsand what is being seensuggest the nature of societal powers at work in early Boston.Therefore when Hester emerges from the prison house to stand fully revealed ( 52 ) before the crowd. she is traveling from enclosed dimness to open sunlight. from the present enclosure of her offense into the public regard that has brand her a felon. Hawthorne has made so much of the prison to get cumul us with. nevertheless. that no affair how cherished the un limited air now seems. to tread from that prison and mount the scaffold is to travel from one enclosed unnumberable to another. each underscored by the whole blue badness of the Puritanic codification of law ( 52 ) as embodied in the people and the magistrates who fasten their thousand unrelenting eyes ( 57 ) upon her. Their eyes go our eyes. for we as readers are as interested in detecting the spectacle. in order to understand precisely what is traveling on. as they are. although unlike us they do so assured of justness in their regard. In contrast. Dimmesdale. faces internal struggle in the signifier of individual vs. ego. He self inflicts anguish as a signifier of his repentance in an effort to repent.Both supporter. Hester and Dimmesdale have failed to make a similar end of true penitence through really distinguishable journeys.