Essay About Human Soul And Harsh Values Of The Puritans

The Scarlet Letter
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People judge others they encounter based upon their own
values. These values are acquired through experiences in
the home, school, at work, and with friends. A person is
taught from their parents at a very young age what is right
and wrong, but they may fail to realize that the values they
are taught are filtered through the minds of those who
teach. Therefore one is a product of their previous
generation adding our his or her judgement to the values
that we will pass on. Hawthorne judges the characters in
The Scarlet Letter by using his own values. These values
were drastically different from other Puritans. Instead of the
stern, harsh values of the Puritans, Hawthorne sees life
through the eyes of a Romantic. He judges each person
accordingly, characterizing each persons sin as the
pardonable sin of nature or the unpardonable sin of the
human soul. One can infer, by the writing style, that
Hawthorne is most forgiving to Hester. He writes about
Hester with a feeling of compassion that the descriptions of
the other characters lack. Hawthorne approves of Hetsers
feeling, vitality, and thirst to overcome the iron shackles of
binding society. He shows us that although Hester is not
permitted to express her feelings verbally because of social
persecution, there is no one that can restrain the thoughts of
the human mind. Hawthorne, being a romantic and man of
nature himself, can relate to the this. – If you were to look
up the human mating characteristics in a science book you
may surprise yourself. The human instinct is to have more
than one partner not to stay loyal to one partner- In fact
Hester is often contrasted with the Puritan laws and rules,
especially when Hawthorne states: “The worlds law was
no law for her mind.” (70) Roger Chillingworths
personality is one of intelligence and knowledge but no
feeling. Hawthorne considers Roger Chilingworths sin the
worst in the book. In one of his journal entrees he labels it
the “unpardonable sin.” Hawthorne describes him as very
cold and Puritan-like, an educated man that looked very
scholarly. As stated here: There was a remarkable
intelligence in his features, as a person who had so
cultivated his mental part that it could not fail to mould to
physical to itself, and become manifest by unmistakable
tokens. (67) Hawthorne frequently refers to Chillingworths
genius and diction, but purposely fails to have Chillingworth
show any slight sign of compassion. This lack of
compassion is what made him the monster that he is. He
treats people like a mathematical problem analyzing only
the facts, caring nothing about the harm that he might
cause.(my notes) He picks at Dimmsdale the same way as
described here: He now dug into the poor clergymans
heart like a miner searching for gold or, rather, like a sexton
delving into a grave Possibly in the quest of a jewel that had
been buried on the dead mans bosom, but likely to find
nothing save morality and corruption. (127) Chillingworth
now takes room with Dimmsdale only pretending to be his
friend but secretly plotting his demise. Shortly after people
begin to notice “something ugly and evil in his face which
the had not previously noticed and grew to the more
obvious to sight the more they looked upon him.” (67)
Chillingworths face seemed to change more and more.
Hawthorne soon refers to Chillingworth as the black man,
which is a derivative of the devil. Hawthorne