The Scarlet Letter

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   ms-mcgregor Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   Since Boston was a theocracy, a government where church and state are not separated, the consequences of breaking the moral code could range from being put in the stocks, wooden gates with holes for people's heads and hands, to execution. The punishment for adultery was death, so the town believes that Hester's punishment of having to stand on the scaffold for three hours and then being forced to wear a scarlet letter for life, was lenient. In addition to physical punishment, the moral code breaker could be banished or simply ostracized from the town. Hester suffered this ostracism when she visited the town and she lived on its outskirts. Her daughter, whose only crime was being born, was also ostracized and sometimes even physically attacked.

   Sources:

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

   http://www.enotes.com/scarlet/historical-context

   http://www.enotes.com/scarlet/summary-analysis

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   Posted by ms-mcgregor on Monday October 6, 2008 at 8:06 PM
   
   

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