Critical Lens Close Reading

"The grass-plot before the jail, in Prison Lane, on a certain summer morning, not less than two centuries ago, was occupied by a pretty large number of the inhabitants of Boston, all with their eyes intently fastened on the iron clamped oaken door. Amongst any other population, or at a later period in the history of New England, the grim rigidity that petrified the bearded physiognomies of these good people would have augured some awful business in hand. It could have betokened nothing short of the anticipated execution of some rioted culprit, on whom the sentence of a legal tribunal had but confirmed the verdict of public sentiment. But, in that early severity of the Puritan character, an inference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn." (Hawthorne 44)

This Quote taken from the book, The Scarlet Letter, shows how the Puritan society influences the laws in the community, which at this time is Boston. It shows the harshness of the time period which happened to be very religious and based many of their laws around such practices. It also mentions that the verdict of one could be decided on the emotions of a crowd rather than judges and law. It reflects the society as a whole that would rather cleanse itself of all the sin in any means necessary. They see sin as a disease that has to be cleansed in the community and can not survive in a functioning society. It show the character of the community and how that effect Hester directly. Hester was put on trial because of her adultery that was seen as a major sin in those times. She was forced to be publicly humiliated by the public and forced to wear a scarlet A on her clothes to show her sin and to publicly shame her. In today's society this would be seen as a minor moral offense in today's culture. It would not be carried out to the full extent of the law as it was in the novel. In the passage you can also see that the narrator seems to think that Hester might be the result of a "rioted culprit" saying that she was probably in the position she is in because the society decided that. Instead of order her fate is being decided by the religiously driven crowd. Only proving the point that the Puritan society controls the historical context of the book.