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   mwestwood Teacher
   Community / Jr. College

   eNotes Editor

   Of course the Old Testament's "an eye for an eye" (Exodus 21: 23-25) immediately comes to mind, but so do verses from the New Testament as being appropriate to "The Scarlet Letter's" Roger Chillingworth's violation of the human heart as he seeks revenge against the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale:

   Judge not, that ye be not judged/For with what judgment ye judge: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again./And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eyes, but consider not the beam that is in thine own eye?/ (Matthew 7:1-4)

   Of course these lines can also apply to the Puritans who judge Hester so severely but have secret sin in their hearts.  One example is the Governor, whose sister is known to go into the forest for the Black Mass.  The following lines from Matthew also apply:

   Thou hypocrite!  First cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. (Matthew 7: 5-6)

   Certainly, the humbled Hester learns to follow the "golden rule" of Matthew 7:

   Therefore all that you wish men to do to you even so do you also them (13-15)

   And, the townspeople learn to revere Hester, seeing the once disgraceful letter as meaning "Angel":

   Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them (Matthew 7:  20)

   In the final scaffold scene, Chillingworth is unable to harm or reach Dimmesdale any more.  When the malevolent physician says, "Thou hast escaped me," these lines come to mind:

   ...depart from me, ye that work iniquity (Matthew 7:23)

    

    

   Sources:

   http://www.bartleby.com/108/40/7/html

   http://www.enotes.com/scarlet/characters

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   Posted by mwestwood on Wednesday May 6, 2009 at 6:53 PM