Free Essay: Passion and Evil in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

Passion and Evil in The Scarlet Letter   In Nathaniel Hawthorns novel, The Scarlet Letter, the puritan society of capital of Oregon excludes anyone who is in any way deviant and renders that someone sinful. However, the society, the towns mass themselves, is not without fault. However they try to conceal and contain their passions and in all their faults because of their fear of expulsion. All the characters in the book that ar excluded from society are the most natural and true and possess a second-sense perception and just about magical intuition.   Hester Prynnes withdrawal from the townspeople is both physical and mental. She is expelled from the town as an adulteress, and she goes to live with her illegitimate daughter to a cottage not in close vicinity to any other habitation. (68) They are despised by the whole town. Even children throw stones at them and chase them down the street. raft do not dare to come close to Hester because of the tell apart as an outc ast. To the townspeople, Hesters character is something different and uncertain from the values that they are used to. wheresoever Hester stood, a small, vacant area - a sort of magic roundabout - had formed about her, into which none ventured, or felt disposed to intrude. (206) Hester is bound to forever wear a scarlet letter A on her chest - A for adulteress - a sign of her sin, shame and separation from the righteous people.   However, by being separated from the Puritanical town of Salem and all its prejudices, Hester is able to look at the people objectively and wait much she was not able to see before. Walking to and fro, with those lonely footsteps, in the little world with which she was outwardly connected, it now and then appeared to Hester that the scarlet letter gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts. (73) The people of the town are so busy covering up their faults and conceal their human passions, that they cannot see their own or ea ch others faults. Hester, who wears her Cains mark of exclusion openly, does not have to worry about the opinion of others, and gains an intuition - an sagacity into the hearts of the people who throw her out.   Hesters mark of shame becomes a mark of being different, a mark of nonconformity.