Ills of Societal Oppression
"The dungeons were never empty; the streets of almost every village echoed daily with the lash; the life of a woman, whose mild and Christian spirit no cruelty could embitter, had been sacrificed; and more innocent blood was yet to pollute the hands that were so often raised in prayer." (TGB 49) These were the times of the disciplined Puritans, times in which individual behavior and beliefs fell under strict Puritanical, authoritarian rule. Nathaniel Hawthorne criticizes the Puritan society of the 1600's in two of his works of fiction, The Scarlet Letter and "The Gentle Boy". In both of these stories, Hawthorne sets out to show how devastating social oppression can be on individual souls, even when some are innocent of any crime. In The Scarlet Letter, we are introduced to certain characters who feel the overwhelming impact of social oppression. One of these characters is Hester Prynne. For her sin of adultery, she is made to wear the letter A upon her chest and stand upon the scaffold so that her shame and guilt can be observed by all. The townspeople show no sympathy for Hester. Indeed, some even feel that the punishment given is too kind, with harsher punishments of death and branding implied. Hawthorne criticizes
Over the next seven years, because he cannot publicly admit his guilt, due to the harsh penalty, he secretly punishes himself: "In Mr. Through the isolation imposed on Hester, Pearl was learning life's astringent lessons about society. New Riverside Editions, 2002Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Society, by condemning an innocent child for something he did not have control over, also sought to destroy its own for simply opening his heart and home. He was the esteemed and well-loved minister of the people: " They deemed the young clergyman a miracle of holiness. In an instant, he was the center of a brood of baby-fiends, who lifted sticks against him, pelted him with stones, and displayed an instinct of destruction, far more loathsome that blood-thirstiness of manhood" (TGB 47). In their eyes, the very ground on which he trod was sanctified" (TSL 188). However, the contempt he had held for this sect he turned on himself. He knows that if he openly admits to being Pearl's father, he may be put to death by the strict Puritan authority. His Puritan heart was softened, eventually leading him to become a Quaker. His soul began to die, taking along his physical health: "His form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy prophecy of decay in it; he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain" (TSL 172). yet within a week after his adoption of Ilbrahim, he had been both hissed and hooted. Another character in which we see the impact of societal oppression is the Reverend Dimmesdale. Ilbrahim does not recover and goes to an early grave. Oftentimes, this protestant and puritan divine had plied it on his own shoulders" (TSL 190).
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Acceptance Essays
