The Scarlet Letter & A Model of Christian Charity Essay Sample

Nathaniel Hawthorne lived during an extraordinarily disruptive clip in American history. Our immature state was hardly into its 2nd coevals of independency from England. Emotionally volatile issues go arounding around faith. bondage. and autonomy abounded. During American’s antebellum period. citizens struggled to specify themselves in a quickly changing universe. Questions refering spiritual philosophies. the morality of bondage. and the definition of autonomy abounded. The Revolutionary War had provided America with her independency. but she still was a immature kid fighting to happen her ain individuality.

America was besides heading quickly into an explosive struggle with herself–the issue of bondage was shortly to be solved merely through civil war. Judeo-christian philosophies were being heatedly debated and many religious orders were turning stronger. One of the most outstanding was transcendental philosophy. Ralph Waldo Emerson. David Thoreau. Margaret Fuller. and several others were at the nucleus of the transcendental philosophy motion. which held intuition or cognition from within over Divine intercession. But even its Godheads argued over the exact nature and practical application of transcendental philosophy.

Hawthorne. on the peripheries of the Transcendental nine. wrestled with deep ethical jobs that transcendentalism did non adequately reference for him. It is non surprising that. in a state fighting to happen balance. he would oppugn the authorization of spiritual philosophy. In his novel. The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne enterprises to research. among other subjects. the type of single who can genuinely populate as a theoretical account for Christian Charity. As a bookman. Hawthorne was non merely familiar with Winthrop’s work. but besides had many rigorous Puritan ascendants. By puting The Scarlet Letter 200 old ages in his yesteryear in a Puritan community. he sets up an environment unambiguously ideal to oppugn cardinal Christian philosophies without overtly antagonising his readers.

In 1630. John Winthrop. a Puritan curate. preached a discourse entitled “A Model of Christian Charity” wherein he expounded on the definition of Christian charity or love from a puritan position. In kernel. Winthrop claims a true Christian will expose the undermentioned actions and attitudes:

To make rightly. to love clemency. to walk meekly with our God. For this terminal. we must be knit together in this work as one adult male. We must entertain each other in brotherlike fondness ; we must be willing to foreshorten ourselves of our overpluss. for the supply of other’s necessities. We must continue a familiar commercialism together in all submission. gradualness. forbearance and liberalness. We must please in each other. do other’s conditions out ain. rejoice together. morn together. labour and endure together. ever holding before our eyes our committee and community in the work. our community as members of the same organic structure ( Winthrop. 216 ) .

This was an ideal theoretical account based on the scriptural illustration of the actions and attitudes of Christ. Winthrop was besides cheering his fold to populate this ideal being in order to be an illustration to England of how a genuinely committed Christian community could populate and boom. He besides believes. as did many Puritans of his twenty-four hours. that the outward symbol of God’s approvals on a individual was shown through his or her prosperity. “God…hath disposed of the status of mankind…some must be rich. some hapless. some high and eminent in power and self-respect ; others mean and in subjection” ( Winthrop. 206 ) . Those that were high and eminent in power were being blessed by God for their inward piousness and attachment to Christian virtuousnesss. but those that were hapless were in subjugation to those who were non in order for them to larn how to go pious. It was the responsibility of the eminent to give and/or lend their excess to the mean in order for them to see charity ( unconditioned love ) in action and hence larn to be more charitable themselves. It is this underlining thought that the wealthy so are generous are more worthy than the hapless that Hawthorne inquiries in The Scarlet Letter.

There are two principle characters involved in this construct of who is an appropriate vas of Christian charity–Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. Arthur is a outstanding curate. a scriptural bookman much admired by his community and fold. He is described in elevated footings such as:

immature reverend. who had come from one of the great English universities. conveying all the acquisition of the age into our wild forest land. His fluency and spiritual excitement had already given the earnest of high distinction in his profession. He was a individual of really dramatic facet. …expressing…a huge power of ego restraint…so far as his responsibilities would allow. he trod in the shady by-paths. and therefore kept himself simple and childly. coming forth…with pureness of idea. which. as many people said. affected them like tile address of an angel ( Hawthorne. 48 ) .

Hester Prynne is a immature. married adult female who has non seen her hubby in more than two old ages. She has merely had a babe. evidently by a adult male who is non her hubby and is being publically punished for her offense. Winthrop would hold considered adultery a civil offense since the “government [ of a Puritan community ] was both civil and ecclesiastical…for it is a true regulation that peculiar estates can non exist in the ruin of the public” ( Winthrop. 215 ) . It would hold been entirely sensible to penalize anyone both male or female for the offense of criminal conversation. but in this instance merely Hester is being punished since in order to find who the male parent is she much name him and she refuses to make so. It is interesting to observe the manner Hawthorne describes Hester:

The immature adult female was tall. with a figure of perfect elegance on a big graduated table. She had dark and abundant hair. so calendered that it threw off the sunlight with a glow ; and a face which. besides being beautiful from regularity of characteristic and profusion of skin color. had the grandness belonging to a marked forehead and deep black eyes. She was ladylike. excessively. after the mode of the feminine breeding of those yearss ; characterised by a certain province and self-respect. instead than by the delicate. evanescent. and indefinable grace which is now recognised as its indicant ( Hawthorne. 39 ) .

Where Arthur is described in elevated footings of religious symbology. Hester is described in footings that emphasis her physical beauty and strong character. Her attitude is stately and dignified instead than humbled as the public show is supposed to transfuse. Hawthorne has created two polar antonyms in these two characters. As a well-thought-of curate. Arthur Dimmesdale is the ideal individual of “high and high power and dignity” that Winthrop suggests are having the favour of God due to their inward piousness. whereas Hester Prynne is the ultimate “poor…mean and in subjection” individual as a adult female basically shunned from her community for perpetrating criminal conversation. She is the dark lady of classical literature who committees indefinable Acts of the Apostless against God’s order. Yet. as the reader shortly finds out. Arthur Dimmesdale is her lover and male parent of her kid. Which one is more a true theoretical account of Christian Charity?

This is the inquiry Hawthorne expects his readers to inquire and reply. By looking at the actions both characters display throughout the narrative. it is easy to see that Hawthorne shows Hester to be a better theoretical account than Arthur regardless of her low position. Winthrop claims that the true Christian will “be knit together [ and demo ] brotherly affection… [ and ] be wiling to foreshorten ourselves of our overpluss. for the supply of other’s necessities” ( Winthrop. 216 ) . Arthur is shown throughout the narrative to be more concerned over his ain position within the community than with the position of Hester or anyone else for that affair. On the one juncture that he has the chance to assist Hester when the seniors are sing remover her kid. Pearl. from her detention. he does non instantly come to her assistance. Alternatively Hester has to demand his support and protection before he will defend her ( Hawthorne. 78 ) .

Hester. on the other manus. “bestowed all her otiose agencies in charity. on wretches less suffering than herself. and who…insulted the manus that fed them” ( Hawthorne. 58-59 ) . Winthrop clearly expects the wealthy to give to the hapless. and merely seldom expects there to be an “occasion of [ a hapless adult male ] demoing clemencies to a rich man” and than merely when the rich adult male is “in some sudden danger of distress” ( Winthrop. 207 ) . Hawthorne reverses this construct with Hester by demoing a disfranchised adult female populating below substance degree moving more in the theoretical account of Christian charity than those who are purported to be righteous leaders blessed by God. Hawthorne wants his readers to look beyond the surface and justice people on their virtuousnesss and virtues instead than their visual aspect. This instead elusive commentary is competently applied in Hawthorne’s twenty-four hours with the contention over slavery making volatile proportions.

Equally far as actions are concerned. Winthrop believes that the true Christian will seek to make assist those in their community. Although the community believes that Arthur Dimmesdale is giving them the more valuable gifts of religious penetration. he is in world merely populating a prevarication that is devouring him from the interior out. A adult male who is supposed to be inordinately blessed by God for his deep inward piousness is blacker than Hester with all her wickedness displayed on her outward visual aspect in the signifier of the Scarlet Letter. In the terminal. Hester turns the vermilion A for criminal conversation to angle. She is invariably assisting those in demand by sitting decease vigil. confering needful points on the hapless. etc. She is merely marginally recognized for these good plants. whereas Arthur is praised and worshipped for his purportedly extremely religious properties. In world. Hester. regardless of her wickedness of criminal conversation. is more pious than the curate. In many ways. this is contrary to some Christian philosophies of Hawthorne’s epoch. It was really much a work that was intended to acquire reader to reassess their prepossessions. Even the twenty-first century discoveries value in the inquiries Hawthorne subtly encourages his readers to inquire.

Plants Cited

Winthrop. John. “A Model of Christian Charity. ” 1630. Norton Anthology of American Literature. 6th erectile dysfunction. Vol A. New York: W. W. Norton & A ; Company. 2003. 206-217.

Hawthorne. Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Norton Critical 3rd Editon. New York: W. W. Norton & A ; Company. 1988. 4-178.