Hester Prynne as a Rebel to Puritan Society in Hawthorne’s Romance the Scarlet Letter

Abstract

’The Scarlet Letter’  by Nathaniel Hawthrone is a classical novel in the 19th century American literature. Although it was written in the 18th century yet the setting is in the 17th century in Boston, America. The novel shows Puritanism’s great impact on people's life and thought. It’s a story of a woman named, Hester Prynne, who is punished for her adulteries with a young priest Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. She also has a daughter but denies disclosing her father’s name. She fights against society system set by the Puritan Regime. She wears the scarlet letter ‘A’ which is a stigma showing her an ‘adulteress’. This paper will give a picture of Hester as a rebel to a rigid Puritan society. It will show how the Puritans were strict in the matters of divinity and did not accept any rule violated. The paper will present the boldness and rebellion of the protagonist against so called established laws which were in fact a kind of ignominy of human beings who committed sins.

Keywords: Puritan Society, Strict Laws, Adulteries, Sin, Church, Punishment, Scarlet Letter,Violation, Bold , Rebel, Ignominy.