Lavender's AP Lit Class Blog
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Theocracy and Patriarchy vs. Free Thought
The Puritans' theocratic and patriarchal society suppresses free thought. Hester wasn't able to develop her own ideas about how society should be reformed until she was pushed away from its oppression. We see this when she, "[assumes] a freedom of speculation," which "would have held to be a deadlier crime than that stigmatized by the scarlet letter." (325) Also in the chapter "Another View of Hester," we see that she is not used to "[measuring] her ideas of right and wrong by any standard external to herself." (315) In my essay, I want to explore the idea that free thought is stifled by the Puritan society. When Hester visits the city, we see her being pushed back into her place in society. Most notably at the end of the book, Dimmesdale says, "God is merciful! Let me now do the will which He hath made plain before my sight." (509) This quote perfectly shows the connection between theocracy and men in the Puritan society. Dimmesdale, who is arguably the weakest man in the book, says that only he has seen God's will. This mentality keeps women from leading in Puritan society.
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Brian,
ReplyDeleteIronically, while I'm calling for more focus from many of your peers, you may want to back up a step and consider more broadly what Hawthorne is saying about theocracies in general (not just Puritanism, though this is the example you will want to draw upon in your analysis). Could it be that, in true Transcendentalist style, Hawthorne is offering a clear indictment of society's pressures to conform ("society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood [or womanhood, in this case] of its individual members"--and doing so using the most extreme form of oppressive society, a theocracy (a good analysis could set you up for a nice conclusion which, based on your analysis, considers the question of contemporary theocracies and the negative impact they have on the countries they rule).