The Scarlet Letter Group

Topic: What more do villagers most want and fear, other than death and sin?

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1

kitkat951

What more do villagers most want and fear, other than death and sin?

2

missrice

The Puritans in the story fear an end to propriety, to the order that they have created in their society.  Because of their fear of God and punishment of sin, Hester is a conundrum to them--she seems to glory in her punishment.  One of the reasons she does is because it frees her from being trapped by all of the "rules" of the society--she's already a fallen woman.  This is shocking to the others; the only response they can give is further alienation of Hester and her ways.

3

There are a couple of arguments that you could make, and they could be intertwined.

Commenting on the answer below--they want order. Hester threatens to disrupt their order, and just like most human beings, the Puritans feared change or things they didn't know or can't understand. What could make Hester go against the rules AND seem to enjoy her punishment? So they must take care of her--get rid of her--because they cannot adapt to fit her into their ideology.

Also, they want leadership. They want a strong person to show them what is right and what is wrong--that's what the church leaders were in their communities. The people could rest safe as long as they had a preacher telling them what was right and wrong, and they followed those orders. It was a society that was built on fear of punishment (especially eternal punishment).

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