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 The Scarlet Letter By, Nathaniel Hawthorne

// “[Hester] the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman’s frailty and sinful passion," (Hawthorne, p. 71). // “The public is despotic in its temper; it is capable of denying common justice when too strenuously demanded as a right; but quite as frequently it awards more than justice, when the appeal is made, as despots love to have it made, entirely to its generosity," (Hawthorne, p. 141).

 In Hawthorne's novel, //The Scarlet Letter//, the Puritan aspect of the American Character was personified in the community in which the heroine, Hester Prynne, lives. In committing adultery, she conceives a child which not only is the product of her spiritual fall from grace, but the reason she is rejected from her society. She is made a public symbol of iniquity before the entire community despite the hypocrisy of those who sin in secrecy. In this novel, Hawthorne reveals an American tendency to target members of society and make specific groups scape goats for our social problems. Americans no longer put people on scaffolds as early Puritan did, however certain sins are condemned by the public while other sins are accepted as "normal" or "harmless." American society is still despotic in its view and condemnation of sinners. One example of this despotism in the 21st century is the way in which adultery committed by popular American icons is frowned upon, but pornography is seen as an acceptable entertainment.  NEXT

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