The Scarlet Letter

The main theme for The Scarlet Letter was sin and Hester Prynne's life because of it. Hester Prynne had committed adultery, and her town immediately sought punishment. Now in today's society, the view of adultery is very different then it is now.

In the beginning of the novel, we are immediately thrust into the story and come across Hester and her exit from the prison to the scaffold. In the Puritan society back then, adultery was viewed as a horrible crime and they firmly believed in strong, harsh punishment. In chapter 2, a group of them says, "...they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead..." (47). This suggestion from a Puritan woman gives an insider to how bad the punishments were. Back then, a crime like adultery was usually dealt with by hanging the person or people involved. Instead though Hester Prynne wore an embroidered 'A' on her bosom. She was not hung, like tradition, because of another reason. That reason being little Pearl, so the punishment set by the minister was that she must publicly wear a marking on her that declares her as an adulteress. Also, in the Puritan days, it wasn't a small deal, it was HUGE. People back then were shunned in a sense. Adulteresses in those days had it twenty times worse than girls and guys now a days.

Today's society is such an easy society to live in if you commit adultery. If you commit it, then there is more a chance no one will ever find out. Take Tiger Woods for example. He committed adultery and no one knew about it until it went national. These days, nothing publicly marks a girl if she commits adultery, not even a baby if she doesn't want it. Today, if someone commits adultery, it's not between the entire town, just those two people. Honestly now, in 2011, adultery isn't a big deal, it's just something that happens in the heat of the moment.

Adultery. Yes it's horrible, but sometimes its not something you can stop. How it was viewed in the Puritan society and how its viewed now are two completely different things. It doesn't matter if it's love or lust, it's a sin to religious people and it'll always be that to them, but how people act on it are as different as magic and reality.