In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne committed adultery and having an illegitimate child took her beyond the boundaries of polite society . It is difficult for us, at the end of the 20th century, to understand exactly what this means. She is allowed to remain in Salem, to work among the citizens and interact with them. But she will never be allowed to forget for even a minute the enormity of her sin. To reinforce this, she is obliged to wear a huge embroidered "A" on her chest at all times. At first glance this may seem like a peculiar punishment; Everyone in town already knows Hester's story, and with Pearl in tow it would be difficult for Hester to act as if it never happened. But the wearing of the "A", and more generally the way Hester is required to live, shows the extent of the religious oppression under which the Puritans lived. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Initially it would help to understand something about the background of the Puritan movement. The separation of the Puritans from the mainline Anglican church began in England in the late 16th century. Although England was nominally a Protestant country, the Anglican church was created for political, not religious, reasons, and the church established by the English monarchy was very similar to the Roman Catholic one they had just left. Carroll and Noble point out that many fundamentalist-minded Protestants believed that Henry and Elizabeth's reforms did not go far enough: "Protestant dissenters opposed 'popish' practices in the established church and hoped to further reform by eliminating such 'impurities.' In particular, they wished to simplify the religious service by reducing some ceremonies and advocated the removal of higher ecclesiastical officials such as bishops and archbishops" (Carroll and Noble, 30). All these dissenters desired to purify the church, though. not everyone wanted to part with it. Carroll and Noble continue: "The Puritans, more moderate and more numerous than the Separatists, believed that the Church of England was a true church even though it was in desperate need of reform. The Separatists, on the other hand, insisted that the established church was beyond salvation and he felt that a believer who worshiped in that church would be defiled by his sins" (Carroll and Noble, 30). Both groups, which soon became virtually indistinguishable in America, were greatly influenced by the teachings of the sixteenth-century theologian John Calvin, who believed that God had chosen certain saints as His chosen people and condemned the rest of humanity to eternal damnation. “Salvation or damnation did not depend on human action or quality of life, but rather on the inscrutable will of God. The Lord, according to adherents of Puritanism, imputed His grace into the souls of otherwise corrupt people, thus confirming the their eternal salvation This act of conversion became the central aspect of Puritanism, the one event that separated the saint from the sinner for eternity. Although in theory, belief in these principles of predestination freed the saints from specific moral obligations in this world. Puritans expected believers to live godly lives on earth as a way to prepare for the comforts of heaven" (Carroll & Noble 30-31). And Edmund S. Morgan in his Visible Saints: A History of the Puritan Idea, observes that "A church, the Separatists insisted, must be composed entirely of people who understand and accept the doctrines of Christianity, submit voluntarily to the church, and lead lives free from apparent sin" (Morgan, 53).Officially, the Puritans were willing to acknowledge that even godly people occasionally fell from grace, perhaps not as dramatically as Hester, but at least a little bit. They felt, however, that to return to communion with God's saints, a public confession was necessary, not only of sin but also of repentance and abject submission to the will of God and the ecclesial community. Edmund S. Morgan notes that among the Separatist churches, "in cases of adultery, the church refused to forgive unless the offender publicly expressed his repentance before the church. The Separatists were thus careful in their exercise of discipline who ultimately found themselves arguing that failure to punish a single known crime was enough to destroy a church" (Morgan, 52). Looking at this in the context of Hawthorne's novel, we can see that this is what the elders were looking for from Hester in chapter 3, when Governor Bellingham says to Dimmesdale, "It behooves you, then, to exhort her to repentance and confession, as proof and consequence of it" (Hawthorne, 64). What they claimed to want was the name of the child's father. What would he accomplish? It would certainly have ended Dimmesdale's career and subjected him to the same kind of treatment as Hester. On this point the Puritans were not proponents of the double standard. And, short of allowing Hester to get the letter "A" off her chest, identifying her father wouldn't have helped her at all if she didn't actually believe that confession will save her immortal soul. Craig Milliman wrote an entire article for The Explicator magazine about Hester and Dimmesdale's veiled meanings when they speak to each other in this scene. Dimmesdale is caught between a rock and a hard place; the Governor has ordered him to try to get Hester to identify the father of her child, who, of course, is Dimmesdale himself. If Hester confessed this it would ruin him; he then formulates his words in such a way that they sound good to the general audience, but contain an entirely separate level of meaning just to Hester (Milliman, 83). He speaks, Hawthorne tells us, in a voice “tremendously sweet, rich, deep, and broken” (Hawthorne, 65). The audience perceives this as a reflection of the depth of his pastoral feeling for the young sinner. It certainly reflects the depth of his feelings for Hester, he loves her, but it equally reflects his terror at the situation he finds himself in, and his fear of what she might say. Consider his words: “If you feel it be for the peace of your soul, and that your earthly punishment may thereby be made more effectual for salvation, I command you to pronounce the name of your companion in sin and misfortune!” (Hawthorne, 65). What he hopes is that she decides that ruining his reputation would in no way add to the peace of her soul. He twists the knife by pointing out that not only is he a partner in sin with her, but he is also a partner in misfortune. He concludes his speech with: "Heaven has granted you open ignominy, that you may thereby gain an open triumph over the evil within you and the pain without. Be careful how you deny him who, perhaps, has not the courage to grasp for oneself the bitter but healing cup which is now presented to your lips!" (Hawthorne, 65). Once again he speaks on two levels, trying on the one hand to say what a thoughtful pastor would say and on the other trying to gain his sympathy. He's saying, "Your part in all this is out in the open, displayed in the presence of the child. What good would it do you to involve me, who doesn't have the courage to involve myself? Can't you see that I'm suffering with you as it is?" He apparently believes this argument, because he refuses to tell the crowd his name and keeps his ownletter "A" with pride. In the words of Mara Dukats, “Hester transforms the sign into a complex and ambiguous symbol, signifying both Puritan control and domination and the rejection and delegitimization of this control” (Dukats, 51). John K. Roth observes that "The Puritan intention to subjugate the sinner has the opposite effect on Hester, who, with a pride akin to humility, tenaciously makes her way into the community. As an angel of mercy towards the suffering, the sick and those who are heavy-hearted, he becomes a living model of charity that the townspeople, rigidly entangled in their Puritan theology, are unable to emulate. Hester's exile strengthens her pride until, as she tells Dimmesdale in the forest, their act has 'its own consecration.' Adultery, in short, achieves validation entirely outside the letter of Puritan law" (Roth, 78). As Roth points out, in The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne presents Puritanism as a extreme form of legalism: a reduction of moral values ​​down to a list of dos and don'ts. Hester, however, finds her moral guidance in the testimony of her heart it is not known, somewhere. she could simply become a widow with a small child and continue to live the virtuous life she would have led anyway under normal circumstances. Of course, there are several major obstacles against this step. For starters, she's a woman. and it was unheard of and probably suicidal for a woman to travel alone unaccompanied; besides, it is unlikely that there were settlements in the vicinity where her reputation would not have followed her in a very short time as a woman of great wit and resource, and it would seem that with a little help she certainly has an ally in Dimmesdale; a secret transfer to another colony could have been arranged. However, Hester gives no indication of wanting to leave. On the contrary, he seems to believe that his presence there constitutes some sort of moral statement for the citizens. She has found a method of earning a stable living, doing fancy embroidery for ceremonial and ritual use, which allows her to support herself in a respectable way. As busy as her customers keep Hester, Hawthorne tells us she still has time to use her needle for personal use, too. The two things she chooses to adorn with such intricate embroidery are significant: the letter "A" that she is forced to wear on her chest, and Pearl's little dresses. On the surface, it may seem strange that Hester embroiders with expensive gold thread the scarlet letter she is forced to wear as a sign of her shame. The fact that he does so shows that he actually doesn't wear this letter at all as a sign of shame, but as a sign of pride. The adulterous act gave her Pearl, the being she loves most in the world and, it should be noted, she also dresses conspicuously. By adorning her "badge of shame" with the kind of embroidery normally reserved for magistrates and forbidden to plebeians, she deliberately distinguishes herself from her society, just as she reminds the community of her presence there. And why is it so important for Hester's presence to be evident? Because with his virtuous behavior he brings shame to the society that shames him. He won't accept Salem's religious oppression, but he won't allow it to be driven out of town either. Just because she gave birth to a child out of wedlock doesn't mean she's bad, or even fallen; instead it is pervaded by a very special grace. But it is a grace she has forged herself, rather than a grace bestowed upon her by Puritanism. Hester lives within, and yet "beyond" the oppression of Puritan society because by her very presence there she is setting an example of self-realization, and this is the most,, 1995.