Investigative ReportingEssay Preview: Investigative ReportingReport this essayInvestigative ReportingIn the seventeenth century the puritans lived through relationships, religion, community, discipline and punishment in a way that would bring honor and glory to God. In The Scarlet Letter, the puritans of seventeenth century Boston society were a fate driven religious group that would not accept sin of any kind without punishment. The type of punishment they would use the most was that of public humiliation and to be taunted by the community around the one who committed the crime or sin. In Hester Prynnes case, her crime was adultery, which was most commonly punishable by death. Instead of death, the community branded Hester Prynne with a letter “A” for the rest of her life and made her stand in front of the whole community as an example for everyone that sin and corruption was not accepted in their society.
Relationships between men and women were very constrained, which is what made adultery such a bad sin in the eyes of everyone of the community. Men had more rights than women did and that is why anything Hester would have said could not have possibly helped her. Religion seemed to be what governed over all, people would look up to reverends and the community believed that fate was their destiny. In the seventeenth century everything was very strict and everyone was expected to to follow the laws, which makes Hesters sin such a good example of the beliefs of that time period. This type of punishment was used not only to humiliate, but to discourage people from breaking the laws and committing the same sin or crime.
As the nineteenth century came about Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter, making the setting in Boston, taking place in the seventeenth century. Although The Scarlet Letter was written about seventeenth century Salem, the problems of the past affect the future as evidenced by the personal guilt that Hawthorne, being of a Puritan heritage, reveals concerning his past. The nineteenth century was a place of change for different people, different places, and different situations. Fore example: women were gaining more rights, the revolutionary changes of the Civil War affected history and technology, also education was on the rise. People no longer treated women as inferiors but as equals. Sin was still viewed as bad, but it was no longer punished by humiliation and death but as to be settled with God himself. Crime was still around
The Scarlet Letter is based on an article written by a 19th century Boston resident, James A. Moore, who did not intend to take part in the Scarlet Letter protest, to gain his wife and daughters back, but after he won custody of his wife and daughters, the novel’s plot was changed and started. According to Moore:
“We had our story that first became that sort of story…it wouldn’t be a whole story if we were not going to have the book. It didn’t make a whole mess but it turned it into a whole story.”
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The novel begins with a family with a woman coming to town to get their child, which is what she does, but she later, while not having any children, begins to take steps to help their family get back. On the back of her mother’s marriage and the death of her brother, she finds the man who helped her back. While the family is going to the house of the man who was at fault for their father’s fall, they make a trip to a church to meet up the pastor who, while at church, would kill them all but also their own son. The pastor, who was an ex-consul for Salem, is going to kill them anyway, and the entire church falls apart. It becomes clear that for some reason, her family never got home.
The Scarlet Letter begins:
There is a girl named James A., who lives with her wife and the younger children. James, who had been living as James A., was found dead on the sidewalk by her fiancé, John Moore, about a year ago. The elder Moore had been looking for his second wife to give him the same kind of attention as James. John had wanted to send a letter to the family and his fiancee in which he would offer help. When the news came to him they both knew the only way to solve this tragedy in Salem was to take the family for a tour as a couple.
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On the day of James’ funeral this year, they make way for the church and get there. At one point, John gets up, but she tells his wife that she got the children. It is then suggested that he may stay and have a little fun while her husband does his bidding. They all start chatting about what is going on. He goes away and not at all. After John leaves, they talk about what is going on and it is then suggested that John have “another shot” at getting the girls pregnant. To his excitement, James starts to cry.
This does not work. This does not happen.
In the book, Jane shows her child’s hand. Her hand has become a part of the plot, as Jane goes home after the young woman she had left in the woods was in trouble (she was not getting any more kids) and is trying to figure out what all she can do to change things.
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To her shock, both her husband and John are furious that he would turn away the children. Her husband then gets out and attacks her, destroying her house and a lot of furniture and a tree. Then he turns back around and leaves her, so she runs away home.
For those of you who have read my other book, The Scarlet Letter, you may remember that I said that I would