The Scarlet letter
As the 18th century came to a close and the 19th century began. There was no monumental change in the way people loved or thought. However, In America, it did serve as the platform for the evolution of New England's Puritan society, which was a system of rigid structure and strict religious beliefs that allowed no deviation from the rule. It is no surprise then that the short story, The Minister's Black Veil and the novel The Scarlet Letter, which were both authored by Nathaniel Hawthorne, both deal with this same time period. Therefore, it is also no surprise that the two are very similar in several aspects, the main similarity focus on the themes of both of these pieces of literature. Both pieces of writing by Nathaniel Hawthorne center around the idea that everyone sins at some point in his or her lifetime and that how you bear these sins can be the determining factor in how you live your life. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story The Minister's black veil the main character is a member of the clergy by the name of Reverend Parson Hooper who resides in a small puritan village in Massachusetts. The story is aptly named, as Reverend Hooper wears a black veil throughout the entire story. "Swathed about his forehead, and hanging
" While she does bear the consequences every day in her isolation from the rest of the community, it doesn't appear to have the effect on her psyche that it does on Revered Hooper. Nevertheless, in the strict Massachusetts Puritan society, both are irredeemably guilty in the eye of the "Omniscient. However, where as Hester's sin of adultery is widely recognized in the community, Reverend Hooper's is some what left a mystery. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore, and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony. down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. "On the breast of her gown, in find red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A. In the Minister's Black Veil reverend Hooper wears a black veil to represent his sin, while in The Scarlet Letter Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter, although both serve the same purpose. "Know, then, this veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it ever both in light and darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes, and as with strangers, so with my familiar friends. "Hester looked, by way of humoring the child, and she saw that owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. " At times, Hester views the scarlet letter as being the sole dictator of who she is, and the sole verdict of the judgment of others. " In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, he deals with exactly the same theme, that being that everyone has a sin that they would rather not be known and that how they bear it can dictate how they live their life. " When the townspeople first see Reverend Hooper and his black veil they assume that it must be due to a physical ailment or perhaps even a sign of mourning, but as time goes by without the veil being removed, the subject becomes a great mystery to the people. In fact, her illegitimate child pearl even picks up on her sometimes-melancholy disposition. Both pieces of literature, authored by Nathaniel Hawthorne, dealt with the theme that everyone will sin sometimes in their life and the only difference in how it is dealt with.
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