Modern Day Scarlet Letters
How would Hester's scarlet letter compare to some of the scarlet letters of today? Would Hester's act of adultery really be considered as bad as some of the other problems that occur in our world today? Hester's actions today wouldn't have received the same attention as they did back in her time. People today are much more accustomed to issues such as adultery because they constantly hear about it and have really just learn to deal with it in a normal every day sort of way. We still see many problems with the actions of people in our society today; it's just that we have many different and more severe problems in our world. Contemporary scarlet letters are more serious than the ones in the Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, but still relate to what Hester experienced. Adultery was the theme of The Scarlet Letter it was seen as one of the most awful and disrespectful acts that could be committed at that time. All people back then were fairly religious, and the church played a key role in their lives; it gave them a set of morals and rules they had to follow to live a happy, respectful, and fulfilling life. Whenever some one broke the laws and morals set by the church, as in the case of
adultery, they were severely punished, because they went against morals and laws that were higher than government, they broke the law of God, which was more important to people back then than government. Rape is a modern day scarlet letter. Like Hester's scarlet letter, the reputation of being a rapist stays with you for life. No matter what you do you would not be able to escape the social consequences of being a known as a rapist. People look would see you as being lower than them and wouldn't give you the respect you would get otherwise if you didn't do the things you did. The punishment for sex offenders and rapists today is very to the punishment Hester received for her adulterous act. They both receive jail time and are marked with something that would constantly remind people of what they had done. For Hester it was the eloquent scarlet letter on her bosom; while sex offenders and rapists have to constantly remind the people around them what they had done. Whenever they move to a new place, the people in the community are notified of what that person had done. Both the letter on Hester's breast and the notices to people in the community are constant reminders for the people that committed the crimes. It reminds them and the people that they interact with of what they have done and what they have to live with for the rest of their lives, and they won't be able to forget it. People today treat adultery very differently. The idea of God isn't as influential as it was back in the 1700's, because not everyone shares that belief in God; in the United States, there is a very m
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Approximate Word count = 1074
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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