Puritan community means

a place where the "eyes of all people are upon us." In such a place and as long as they followed
His words and did their work to glorify His ways, God would bless them, and they would
prosper.

Women were educated from very young and prepared to take over the domestic duties. They were
expected to be, like their mothers, good wives and mothers and to uphold the puritan belief systems.

Into the Woods

The puritans think that here were savages

But also in..

The forest is an open door to love and freedom for both Hester and Dimmesdale.
It is a place where the letter on their bodies can no longer have an effect on them
if they choose. A world ruled by nature and governed by natural law as opposed
to the artificial strict community with its man made puritan laws.
To the townspeople, the forest is the unknown. It's outside of the town, it's full of American Indians and
scary creatures, and, worst of all, it's utterly lawless. The town is ruled by law and religion; the forest a
place of passion and emotion.

T he forest seen by the Puritans as the haunt of the Black Man or devil was a place of
little law and order. Those who chose to follow evil signed their name in the Black Man's book
and chose a life of sin. Mistress Hibbins symbolizes this world in TheScarlet Letter. And, in fact,
she says, "Many a church-member saw I, walking behind the music, that has danced in the
same measure with me." These Puritans may speak of branding Hester Prynne in one breath
but dance to the devil's music in the forest in their next breath. The meeting between
Dimmesdale and Hester takes place in the forest, away from the stern, repressive laws of
society. There they can discuss a central conflict of the novel: the needs of human nature as
opposed to the laws of society.

*But while the Puritans seem to be kind of terrified of the forest, the narrator isn't. In fact, the narrator
associates Nature with kindness and love from the very beginning of this story, when the wild rosebush
reminds all that "the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him" (1.2).

*It's not that the woods are all sweetness and light. They can be dangerous, too. After a few hours in the
woods with Hester, Dimmesdale becomes so mischievous that he can hardly keep himself from
whispering an "unanswerable argument against the immortality of the human soul" (20.7). (Shock!) But
we get the feeling that the narrator kind of wants to see it happen.

It may be childlike, but it's a sad child, a child who doesn't know how to play, like Pearl,
Here, the forest seems to represent potential: that part of human nature.It's a place where the soul can
be free, with all its wild passions and crazy ideas and secret sorrows; it's a place for Hester and
Dimmesdale to meet in "solitude, and love, and anguish" (22.6), where they "deeply" can know each
other.

If life on the town is all surface and appearance and rules, then life in the forest is all depth and emotion.

The Coustom House

Pearl is too smart for her own good. When she sees her mother meet with Dimmesdale in the
woods, she knows that something's up: "Doth he love us?" she asks her mom. "Will he go back
with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?" (19.33). Somehow, Pearl picks up on
what no one else does: that Dimmesdale is her father.

She cries over her dad's dying body. The moment that Dimmesdale acknowledges her
as his childhis "little Pearl" (23.31), she kisses him and "a spell was broken":
The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part had developed all her
sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were the pledge that she
would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with the world, but be
a woman in it.

The leaders..

Like Governor Bellingham, Wilson follows the communitys rules strictly but can be swayed by
Dimmesdales eloquence. Unlike Dimmesdale, his junior colleague, Wilson preaches hellfire and
damnation and advocates harsh punishment of sinners.

https://bvaenglish3.weebly.com/questions-for-chapters-7-12.html

9)What happens as Hester puts up her hair? Why?

-As Hester puts up her hair, the sunshine and light go away, the world darkens, and Hester herself loses
all her feminity and beauty. This is because the letter overshadows her and takes away all happiness and
beauty that she has within.

* The irony, of course, is in the difference between public knowledge and private actions.
Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, both "sinners" for their part in this drama, are valued and
revered members of this repressive community, while Hester is an outcast because of
her publicly acknowledged sin. These "iron men and their rules" provide a backdrop for
Hawthorne's story that keeps the conflict alive because public appearances and penance
were dramatically important parts of the Puritan community.
@
is a very strong conflict between what it is and what it wants to be.

the letter removes me from passion and affection. she is leaving me to be a
woman.

Loved by the community because she knew how to to sew clothes

The Scarlet Letter" vs. "The Crucible"

One common element of these two literary works is the setting. Both The Scarlet Letter and
The Crucible take place in the early days of the Massachusetts colony in North America.
Both of these literary works take place around the mid 1700s to the early 1800s. During
this time period, many people were highly religious, and believed that things that couldnt
be explained by normal means was the result of witchcraft. Both the town of Salem in The
Crucible and the town of Boston in The Scarlet Letter, were colonized by Puritans, who had
many religious beliefs and rules. This setting contributes to the importance of how severe
Hesters and Johns sins were in this time period.

A common element of both of these works is the main conflict. In The Crucible, John
Proctor had an affair with Abigail Williams, and Abigail tries to get revenge on John by trying
to get his wife tried as a witch. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne cheats on her husband,
Roger Chillingworth, with one of the ministers of the town, Dimmesdale, and has a child
through their relationship. Roger Chillingworth tries to get revenge on Dimmesdale through
careful prying and assaults on his guilt stricken conscious.

Another important use of this theme is to show the effects of their confession when they
finally confess their sins. When John Proctor confesses, he realizes that he has a shred of
good in him, and he is not afraid to be hung as a witch. When Reverend Dimmesdale
confesses, he lets the whole town of Boston know that anyone is capable of sinning. After
he confesses, he is finally able to
let his daughter, Pearl, kiss him in public and to die a happy man.

Overall, in both works, the major theme is sin and how it affects the lives of the people and their
communities. In both works, the forest was where the evil Black Man was fabled to meet with
witches and sinners. The forest was also away from society's prying eyes and harsh judgments.
Here events could be open and free. Here was the only place where Hester and Dimmesdale can
meet and talk freely of the sin they shared seven years previously. The forest is not only an
important location for meeting of sinners but also conjuring of spirits and greeting the devil. As seen
in The Crucible the girls met with and conjured the spirits of the devil and the underworld.

In the end both male character died, both for freedom.