Everyone commits sins, but in Puritan times, one was looked at as somewhat of a lower class if a sin was committed. Not only that but the punished was very cruel. That's exactly what happened in The Scarlet Letter. In this book there are a great variety of themes, conflicts, and of course the symbols that can help understand a story better.
The scarlet letter took place in Boston in the year 1642. Hester the protagonist of this story had committed adultery. She had come to the New World and was supposed to wait for her husband, who was kept by the indians when trying to reach Boston. Hester was married to to a scholar named Roger Chillingworth, an older men whom hester had married without love. In Boston, Hester and the priest of the region sustained a relation ship. Later Hester was acused of adultery since she had gotten pregnant.
The Scarlet Letter (1860) by T. H. Matteson. Oil o...
English: Hester Prynne & Pearl before the stocks
This is the title page for the first edition of Th...Here we can find one of the many themes of the story which is religious beliefs. In the town were Hester lived, "The bible and the law say that adultery should be punished by death."(Hawthorne, 30). In The Scarlet Letter, adultery was punished with death but Hester only received society's punishment since she had a child she had to take care of.
One of the many conflicts and most important that we can find in The Scarlet Letter is person vs. society. Hester committed a sin and society had to punish her. "...has to wear a cloth letter on the clothes!" (Hawthorne, 29). Hester was punished wearing a scarlet letter on her chest for the rest of her life. An 'A' that stands for adultery. She had committed adultery and the product of that sin had been her daughter. After Hester was punished, Reverend Dimmesdale, the...