entry one: setting

So- the setting of the Scarlet Letter. Here we go...
In the beginning of the novel, the Puritans of Boston, Massachusetts surround the town prison waiting for news or action. It is the day that Hester Prynne is going to be released, and people being people, everyone was very curious to know what was going on. " A throng of bearded men, in sad colored garments, and grey, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes." With everyone standing around, Hester walks out of the prison doors, holding her baby (of course conceived while committing the sin of adultery) and everyone looks at her, her baby, and the scarlet letter "A" that she has waved on her chest to represent her sin. After deciding to show off her baby and scarlet letter, she "passed through this portion of her ordeal, and came to a sort of scaffold, at the western extremely of the market-place." 

So, pretty much, the townspeople surround the town jail on a bright summers day to watch Hester Prynne be released from her sentence in prison for committing adultery. 

The Puritans of Boston are very into god and religion. So, when Hester slept with another man and had a baby, she was sent to prison, because she committed a big sin and, in the eyes of the Puritans, needed to be punished for it. Our community would have done the same to a woman who had a bay out of wedlock. She would have been "shunned" from the community, sadly her child along with her. However she wouldn't of been sent to jail, because here in New York, we have a separation between Jewish law and American law. 

I find that the Puritans are also quote nosy- they're all up in everyones grill and are interested in the entire communities business! The book even says that Hester was relieved "from this intense consciousness of being the object of severe and universal observation." Hester was relieved that everyone wasn't all over her for a few minutes! In our community, we tend to talk... news travels fast. Everyone talks and and watches what others are doing (don't mean to be bashing- I love the community!) But I feel like I could see our community doing the exact same thing. Now that i think about it the Puritans aren't so different than the SY's! The puritans are more extreme, of course, however some of the same attitudes and ideas are the same.