The Scarlet Letter

1) A s the crowd watches, Hester Prynne, a young woman holding an infant, emerges from the prison door and makes her way to a scaffold (a raised platform), where she is to be publicly condemned. The women in the crowd make disparaging comments about Hester; they particularly criticize her for the ornateness of the embroidered badge on her chest—a letter “A” stitched in gold and scarlet. From the women’s conversation and Hester’s reminiscences as she walks through the crowd, we can deduce that she has committed adultery and has borne an illegitimate child, and that the “A” on her dress stands for “Adulterer.”

2) I chose the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This book occurs during the 17th century in Boston. The story is about Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, who fall in love and leads to Hester committing adultery on her husband Roger Chillingworth. They are caught because Hester became pregnant and gave birth to Pearl. I chose this book because in the book Hester was forced to wear a scarlet A on her breast for committing adultery, while Dimmsedale did not confess to being Pearls father. The scarlet A was to show the community that she was a sinner and to make the people of the community look down on her.

3) The book The Scarlet Letter relates to what we have read in class because Hester Prynne was punished worse than Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester was forced to wear a scarlet A on her breast as punishment for committing adultery. This relates to Takaki chapter 3 The Giddy Multitude because during that chapter Takaki talked about how the black slaves were given worse punishment than the white servants. An example of this occurs on page 57 of Takaki, where he states “white servants were to serve their 'full term of time' and Negroes 'forever'”. The author continues to talk about how if the black slaves tried to run away along with the white servants that the black slaves were often given worse punishments. Like the black slaves, Hester was given a worse punishment because the father’s of the town wanted to make an example out of her. They knew that if they were to embarrass her and make her shameful that other women in the town would not commit adultery. This was the same theory used by the slave owners. They knew that if they punished the blacks worse, that the other slaves would not be as willing to run away them. Takaki writes “Blacks were serving longer time periods for indenture as punishment for running away” (pg 56). Takaki mentions this to show that the blacks were given harsher punishments than the white servants when they would run away. This relates to the book The Scarlet Letter because it shows that Hester was given a harsher punishment for her actions, when Dimmsedale who committed the same sin was not punished and was not even considered to be punished.

4) I believe that the white males knew that if they wanted to be the ruling class and gender that they would have to make the other races and genders appear worse. They knew that the best way to do this was through punishment. In both stories the punishments were used as examples to other people in the groups that this is what will happen if you are caught. I believe that it is wrong for people to be punished based on their gender and race. They did not choose to be born a woman or a person of color yet they are practically being punished for being that way.