Religion can make one a devil. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter (1850), shows how. Roger Chillingworth, a sombre scholar, marries a pretty woman, Hester, much younger in age. During his long absence she develops an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale, a pastor. When a child is born to Hester in the protracted absence of her husband, she is labelled an adulteress and punished. All this happens in the 17 th century Boston, then a Puritan colony. The Puritans were a kind of religious fundamentalists. They followed the letter of the law. Love, mercy and other such tender feelings had no place in the Puritan worldview. People should abide by the law at any cost. Hester is punished to wear “the scarlet letter” on her bosom throughout her life. The letter A, for Adulteress, is emblazoned on her chest, and she has to spend some time on the pillory everyday displaying herself for the edification of the public. ...
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