Examples Of Justice In The Scarlet Letter

"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it; he is obligated to do so.” - Thomas Jefferson. "An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law" - St. Thomas Aquinas. "This nation I cannot survive half slave and have free." - Abraham Lincoln.

These laws are usually created with an unjust representation of the community. When unjust laws exist, individuals need to break that law to reveal the underlying injustice. King argues that an individual must follow the just laws and fight the unjust laws. In contrast to Socrates, King believes, "groups are more immoral than individuals" (King, pg 121). He knows that eventually an individual will have to stand up for themselves and their beliefs, when that time comes the entire society will not fall apart.

In the beginning the scarlet letter represented adultery and shame, but then the A represented “able.” Hester Prynne showed people that greatness can come out of huge mistake. One bad chapter does not mean your story is over. Willingly, Hester wanted to pick herself up again and move on with her life and eventually people noticed that. They began to respect her and think of her as strong and commendable

The law should hold itself to it’s own standards in order to be

Moreover, when a woman becomes pregnant it is a physical sign that makes the promiscuity a known fact. Hester pays a different price from Dimmesdale, who's secret is hidden throughout the story, because she is a woman. This illustrates the inequality between the two. By committing adultery, Hester defies her moral obligations towards her husband. When he arrives in Boston, however, she affirms her submissiveness to him by promising to keep quiet about his true identity.

The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne has known to become his masterwork and is thus far his most illustrious novel. A tale of sin and its gruesome consequences, one’s temptation to passionately love, revenge and guilt, and most importantly the immense repercussions of social stigmatizing and public shaming are all profoundly implicated throughout this story Over the course of twenty-four chapters, Hawthorne illustrates the life of Hester Prynne, the female protagonist who has been brutally condemned by the Puritan society to wear an “A” on her bosom as a symbol for adultery, the horrible sin she has committed. Nkechi Diallo, commonly known as Rachel Dolezal, a former civil rights activist and former president

Scarlet Letter Analysis Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, The Scarlet Letter, was published in 1850 and has become one of the most famous books in literature history. The Scarlet Letter starts when a young woman who committed adultery is being shamed by the town, her punishment -- to were a bright red “A” and the bosom of all of her shirts, for the rest of her life. Throughout the book Hester becomes stronger, this is due to the fact that the town as shamed her. Pathetic Fallacy reflects the idea that we need society to guide us and while nature makes us feel good, it is useless and can’t guide us to make good decisions. Nature reflects the way a person feels, but can’t give them any guidance.

Punishment of Puritans for their sins occurred harshly and frequently, and these punishments ranged from fines, branding, and severe whippings to hanging and death. Many of these penalties involved public humiliation of some kind, which made it extremely difficult for townspeople to accept by their peers after they had sinned. Because the Puritans believed religion was immensely important, the community was often reluctant to allow citizens that exhibited sinful behavior to achieve redemption (Cox). However, in the case of Hester Prynne, an adulterer in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter, the townspeople eagerly made amends with her. This novel narrates the life of Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and courageously accepted the repercussions

The townspeople “[began] to look upon the scarlet letter as a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” This quote exemplifies how sin is not a death sentence for Hester. Through hard work and charity it allowed the rigid Puritan society to see her as something different, and as someone who would not let society define who she was. Hester, thus, was not only able to change herself, but also the image in which society viewed her by working hard to benefit the public. Likewise, the scarlet letter which was supposed to represent sin was instead “fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.”

In the “Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays hypocrisy of the Puritan society, where the protagonist Hester Prynne face many consequences of her actions and the how she tries to redeem herself to the society. During the seventeenth puritans believe that it is their mission to punish the ones who do not follow God’s word and it is their job to stop those from sinning. Therefore, the hypercritical puritan society punishes Hester harshly for committing adultery, but in Hester’s mind, she believes that what she did was not a sin but acts of love for her man. Eventually, she redeems herself by turning her crime into an advantage to help those in need, yet the Puritan society still view her as a “naughty bagger.” (Hawthorne 78)

It also states that ethics and the law typically go hand in hand, however it is not always the case, as the law must be based on ethical principles for it to be legitimate, and not only on their legal implementation by fear of being punished, ethical principles must take superiority when the law disagrees with ethics (Breit, 2007). Breit (2007) wrote that practitioners should choose the ethical choice rather than following the law, however the choices must be motivated by the right reasons, and the consequences of action must be well thought

To say that if you are following an unjust law makes you unjust, it is based by your opinion. People have different meanings of what is just or unjust, thus we cannot determine whether a law is just or

The hardships and punishments of both Hester and Dimmesdale, while difficult to endure at the time, were eventually beneficial and allowed them to free themselves from the Puritan community and escape their pain. Hester, throughout the beginning and middle of the book, is forced to face alienation and humiliation from her town, though by the end of the book, she is able to use her punishment to set her free from her society. First, Hester reflects on the effect of her sin, and realizes, “ . . . the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul . . .” (72).

The law is an intriguing concept, evolving from society’s originalities and moral perspectives. By participating in the legal system, we may endeavour to formulate a link between our own unique beliefs and the world in which we live. Evidently, a just sense of legality is a potent prerequisite for change, enabling society to continue its quest for universal equality and justice. Aristotle once stated that "even when laws have been written down, they ought not to remain unaltered".

Hawthorne described three things in The Scarlet Letter. Sin, guilt, and redemption. Hawthorne uses people to symbolize them. Hester Prynne was one. Hawthorne allows the reader to get a better understanding by using biblical references.