The Scarlet Letter Question #3

Back in the Puritan periodin the book, Hester is caught with the priest so she is thrown in jail. Nothing happened to the priest so he could live his normal life. In some countries in the 21 century, a man can have many wives but if a woman has more than one man, she could be punished. That is the same thing that happened to hester and the priest.

There are similar ideas in the Puritan period in The Scarlet Letter that are still seen in the 21st century. Like when Hester Prynne commits adultery with Arthur. She was punished by having to wear the scarlet letter 'A" on her bosom. Arthur was suppose to receive the same punishment but because Hester never told anyone his name, he never had to. But instead he internally had to deal with his sins. Hester was also treated like an outcast from her community. In the 21st century a woman or a man who commits adultery would be looked upon negatively. They might not have to wear any symbol to represent there sins, but they would have to deal with the burden. Also in the Puritan period man and woman weren't treated equally. In the 21st century, we're suppose to be treated equally. But is that true? If so, why does it still say on the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equally?" Why are women expected to be stay-at-home moms? Do we not have dreams? Goals? Wishes? The 21st century has been tricked into believing that inequality between man and woman doesn't exist. But it is a lot better than how different women were treated in the Puritan Period.

The laws and ideals that are in The Scarlet Letter are most defiantly still used today. In the Puritan period it was punishable by death. Nowadays its not punishable but its still looked at as wrong.

When Hester was labeled with an "A" on her breast for being a adulterer, everyone talked horribly about her. She was the news everyone talked about for a long time. Things like this that happen in the 21st century include the Casey Anthony trial where everyone had their own opinion but everyone was mean to Casey. No matter who was right people despised knowing that she could have killed her baby. Another thing the Puritan period and the 21st century have in common is that adultery is still wrong. "It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility.” Adultery is still looked down on because people think other people shouldn't cheat on their husbands or wives.The consequences of this happening in the 21st century is not as horrific as the puritan period was. The rules of the Puritan period was a lot more strict but now since it is the 21st century a plethora amount of things have changed. 

Now America is known as the somewhere where people have freedom- freedom of worship, beliefs, etc. The Puritans came to America following this dream, and also to have the opportunity to make a good living based on their abilities and their drive, not based on who their family was and their background. But when the Puritans came over, they still carried with them strong beliefs- beliefs that marriage was very important, and that women were to support the men and were inferior to them. The book covers the topic of adultery, which at that time was an unforgivable sin. In the book, some of the townspeople thought that the scarlet letter should have been branded on Hester's forehead so that she could never escape her shame or cover it. The feeling about adultery is still very negative today. Maybe not to the extent that it was back then, but today people who cheat on their husbands or wives are still looked at negatively, and their husband or wife is considered a victim. In the 1600's though, if a woman committed adultery, it was much more horrible than if a man did it. Today I think that both are considered equally as bad. As far as women being inferior to men at that time, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrayed Hester as someone with her own ideas and beliefs, and an independent person. Hawthorne was saying that women have rights too, which has definitely carried forward to today, with women getting the right to vote in 1920, and women getting the same jobs and education as men today. The book did include some of the positive things that the Puritans brought to America, like the importance of their democratic government (Election Day was very important to the townspeople in the book), and it did portray the townspeople as people that worked to make their community better- the townspeople accepted that Hester was a good seamstress and had the right to earn a living being a seamstress. Many of those good ideas that the Puritans settlers brought, like having a democratic government, the importance of education, and focusing on hard work to be successful, still are the basic ideas of what America is all about today. 

There are multiple similarites between the ideals, laws, and regulations of the Puritan Society and the society of the American 21st century. One being that adultry is looked at negatively. The people of the public still look at adultry as a disgrace to their society. But the punishments are not as severe now as they were then. Another similarity is the false sense of equality. Men are seen as superior to the women. If a man were to commit adultry in Islam, it would be seen as the wife's fault for not controlling her husband. But if the wife commited adultry, she would recieve a punishment and would be looked down upon.