Sex, Sin, and Salvation
True, Hester Prynne does sin; her illegitimate child is the telltale sign of a forbidden union while she was married to another man. Yet by shunning and tormenting Hester and her child, Pearl, the people of Salem, Massachusetts themselves sin against God, as they break laws such as “and you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Leviticus, 19:18).
All individuals sin and make mistakes, especially when it comes to sex. Even Biblical characters are not immune to listening to their desires rather than that of the Divine when it comes to sexual urges. King David shows this when he is punished for committing adultery with Bathsheba which resulted in a child, and then intentionally sending her husband off to die in the front lines of war. Yet David repented, accepted his punishment, and was forgiven by God. The townspeople of Salem repress Hester for the same sin that David committed, only to a lesser degree, as Hester was not responsible for the death of another party. God was able to forgive David, yet the townspeople cannot forgive a woman for the same weakness exhibited by one of the great Biblical kings.
Instead of focusing on the sins of others, Nathaniel Hawthorne leads his reader to understand that the townspeople should be focusing on their own. There are also Biblical laws against gossiping, yet the neighbors do not adhere to this decree the way they punish Hester for exploring her sexuality outside of marriage. Even little Pearl, the child conceived from the union, is targeted by the townsfolk and their children who fling mud at her, despite having no part in the “immoral” act that brought her into the world.
It seems that the people of Salem, renown for their witch trials that were responsible for the deaths of nineteen people in 1692, feel a need to find a scapegoat for the problems of their society. To accomplish this goal, they pinpoint marginalized women and blame the debasement of society as a whole upon these women and their influence. This is also true in the case of Nicholas Sension, who in 1677 was accused of committing acts of sodomy in Windsor, Connecticut. Once again, those who are considered a threat to society in colonial England, in this case where sexuality is concerned, do not adhere to the norm and consequently are punished and repressed, and their voices are silenced.
Perhaps the leaders in colonial society feared divergence from the sexual norm because they were afraid of the questioning of authority in general. As the fictional story of Hester Prynne and the true anecdote of Nicholas Sension show, they were publicly humiliated and punished for sins that they committed against God inside their homes. It is hardly conceivable what punishments they would have had to endure if their sins were of a different nature, ones which questioned religious authorities of their communities in an outside, public manner.
-Ariella Medows
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Tags: God, Salem Witch Trials, sex, sin, The Scarlet Letter
February 18th, 2013 at 9:10 pm
Hi Ariella,
The Puritan worldview is antithetical to the one you presume. As a theocratic society, in keeping with the system of Alliance that Foucault describes, forgiveness was not a virtue that the populace was to bestow, for fear it would undermine obedience to God’s law and the earthly practice of it. For tomorrow, see if you can figure out the logic of why judgment should be made against the sinner from this perspective. As Godbeer points out, some of the Sension’s townspeople tended to be more tolerant than they should have been within their belief system.
February 19th, 2013 at 12:27 am
Hey Ariella,
I really liked your post but I’m having trouble with the conclusion that Hawthorne intended for us to believe that Salem’s townspeople should focus on their own sins. Granted, so far in the text, it appears that many of the characters are obsessed with the discussion of sexuality–that there was a sin involved and multiple absent parties (Pearl’s father and stepfather), but where exactly does he imply that the other townspeople (save for the Governor’s sister) have sins that require their attention? I hope to discuss this with you in class tomorrow. Happy President’s Day!