In the Introductory to The Scarlet Letter,
Hawthorne writes about his progenitor from Salem,
Massachusetts:
He was a soldier, legislator, judge; he was a
ruler in the Church; he had all the Puritanic traits, both good and evil. He was
likewise a bitter persecutor; as witness the Quakers, who have remembered him in their
histories, and relate an incident of his hard severity towards a woman of their sect,
which will last longer, it is to be feared, than any record of his better deeds,
although these were many. His son, too, inherited the persecuting spirit, and made
himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be
said to have left a stain upon him....
Planted deep, in the
town's earliest infancy and chilhood,...the race has ever since subsisted here; always,
too, in respectability; never, so far as I have known, disgraced by a single unworthy
member....
This is milieu
into which Hester Prynne finds herself judged and marked. With its prison as a reminder
of its fiercely strict laws, as well as the scaffold, few of the community have dared to
defy Puritan law. So, when Hester does, the punishment is terrible in order to make an
example of her since sinners are perceived as the foulest of souls and must be severely
punished. Added to this, in this location there live the Governor and other
dignitaries who wish to avert any other scandal by punishing Hester Prynee
severely.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony wanted to be a model
community. So, toward the realization of this ideal, the Puritans required a strict
moral regulation that demanded that anyone in violation be punished because whoever
sinned threatened both the religious and the civil perfection for which the Puritans
strove.
No comments:
Post a Comment