Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Purity in its Sense Essay
Puritans have established a very conservative culture that seeks to impose on its believers a way of life that strictly adheres to God’s biblical laws. Small mistakes are virtuously corrected but a sin such as adultery merits the disdain of the whole community. Despite the Puritan principle that one must continually cleanse himself through following the rules of conduct that society has structured, it has not taken into consideration that forgiveness is a strong dictate of God in order for one to truly deserve his kingdom. Senseless yet purifying are the morals of Puritans even for men and women who had gone astray.            In the book, The Scarlett Letter, its author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, sought to show the foolishness of Puritans to follow God’s laws while the community is prone to misjudgments on people’s characters. It has led to their minister’s, Arthur Dimmesdale’s, hypocrisy in dealing with his own fear of being ostracized by society. This social stigma has also brought forth Roger Chillingworth’s idea of revenge against the preacher and his wife as he tries to do so without embarrassing himself as a man fooled by Hester. It has condemned Hester Prynne to a life of misery and shame because of her adulterous relationship with a man whose identity was hidden from the public. It has likewise shunned her daughter, Pearl, and given harsh scrutiny to the actions of such an innocent child. These misjudgments were all part of the author’s critique of how Puritans can blindingly follow a very â€Å"moral†life when it actually pushes people towards immorality.            Dimmesdale hid behind the cloak of his position in society to avoid the social injustices that he would have gotten if he honestly proclaimed his wrong acts. Arthur Dimmesdale was highly revered by everyone because of his ministry of humility and kindness. However, the Puritans were so blinded by his stature and seemingly wise image that they could not understand that he was actually giving his sermons based on his own dealings with sin. Instead of revealing the truth, he had succumbed to the mental torture of his guilt. He was driven to punish himself privately to endure the mask that he had created to avoid being outcasted. The moral code of Puritans had turned him into a prisoner of his own secrets.            Although the author lacked enough description of the town’s reaction to Dimmesdale’s revelation of his immoral mistakes, readers are still led to believe that Puritans did not have any discrimination on one’s gender when sin was the topic. The first chapters of the novel were explicit in showing how the people were thirsting for Hester’s revelation as to who was her lover and that all were waiting to give their own judgments on the mysterious person. There were many instances wherein the people had asked for her lover’s name so that he shall also share Hester’s punishment. The scarlett letter on Hester’s clothing is proof that the community disdains not only her act of infidelity but also her loyalty to a co-sinner by not divulging his identity publicly.            However, Dimmesdale still seems to have gotten a lighter treatment from society because his declaration of the truth was still twisted by some people at the end of the story. Instead of getting angry, the shocked community had different views on what had transpired and were focused on explaining Dimmesdale’s death instead of his immoral acts. These may probably be because he was well-respected and had already passed away and not because he was male. It is very ironical that he, the preacher, became free to be happy only when he was able to finally declare the truth which released him from the confining binds of a Puritan society.            Roger Chillington decided to avoid the Puritan society’s condescension by hiding his true personality in the guise of a doctor instead of a husband seeking revenge on his unfaithful wife and her lover. Although his embarrassment really did not have anything to do with his own wrongdoing, it drove him to seek revenge deceitfully and thus pushed him to immoral acts too. There is also the probability that Puritan culture was so conservative that a man of knowledge such as he felt tied down in his thirst for information that could further his career. Instead of criticizing a husband’s intentional abandonment of his wife in pursuit of something earthly such as knowledge, the community absolved him by the sheer adulterous act of Hester. This may seem that in some principles, the Puritan society can actually be more biased when it comes to the male gender.            Despite society’s burning scrutiny of Hester because of her mistake, she seems to show that her grasp of God’s love is clearer compared to those who have condemned her. Shunned as one who does not know how to obey God’s will, people looked down at her and tended to view her as a sinner who did not understand what God was asking of her. Her reflections throughout the story show how much she has taken each embarrassing glance and condescending remark as her way of penance to purify herself in the eyes of God. The strength of her own faith was able to make her endure all that society had to spit on her shamelessly. In embracing the true teachings of a Puritan life, she was able to recognize her daughter, Pearl, as a unique gift from her God that could help achieve her happiness despite society’s snub. Despite her mistakes, she was able to rely on God’s teachings to pursue a selfless life of serving her daughter and others through kind acts of charity instead of giving in to the temptation to join a cult that would go against her Puritan community. She had a better grasp of what it meant to be a Puritan compared to all of those who were busy adhering to every rule of their society.            Pearl was the subject of intense hatred because she was the symbol of the immoral deeds of her parents. Puritans, despite their profession of love for God, had forgotten that Pearl was innocent of any of the crimes committed by her father and mother. The child was seen as wild in the eyes of the community and they were bent on separating her from Hester because she needed to be protected from her mother’s seemingly twisted view of faith. The Puritans took it upon themselves to decide upon the lives of Hester and Pearl making it look like it was their moral obligation to ensure that Pearl learned their faith better. The community’s judgmental nature showed that they were willing to play god in the life of a guiltless child but it was the girl’s unique and powerful innocence that drove both her parents to strive for atonement for their previous sins. The Puritans perceived Pearl as the bad fruit of sin but it was this child that made Hester tightly hold on to her faith despite the odds against them.            The Puritans strived so hard to maintain clean souls by taking very conservative principles based on their Christian beliefs. However, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel totally criticized this aspect of Puritan life by showing how the lack of understanding of their faith has led them to misjudge sinners instead of truly showing compassion as Christ did when He was alive. The author attacks the Puritan culture’s sense of propriety by showing how real sinners can actually be more devoted to preserving God’s will on earth.
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