Scarlet Letter Judgment
Scarlet Letter- JudgmentGod's Decision
For as long as man has walked on earth, he has taken it upon himself to judge and punish. It has been recognized as something man does and it has been accepted among society. It seems as though every race, religion, action, and belief a person associates themselves with will be judged and will be criticized. There are some circumstances that judging is okay, such as in the court of law. When it comes to the law of the Bible, it is not for man to judge. That is for God alone to judge and punish.
There is evidence as far back to when Jesus lived as a mortal that He reminded His followers it is not their job to punish a sinner. Such is the case of a woman who had committed adultery, when society came to stone her to death, Jesus told them before a stone was thrown, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Slowly, the people of the Mount of Olives left, because they knew that they too had sinned in their lives. When everyone was gone but Jesus, He turned to the woman and asked if no one condemned her, she answered no, and He replied, "Then neither do I condemn you� Go now and leave your life of sin." (John 8:3-11).
The story of this woman in the bible is very similar to the story of Hester Prynne from the renowned novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this novel, Hester commits adultery and bears the child of a man that is not her husband. The book is set in an early New England colony with Puritan values and Puritan views on life. After Hester delivered her baby, she was set up on a scaffold to be ridiculed and humiliated in front of the accusing town. "All men are potentially sinners, though they profess themselves saints." (Levin, Harry 77). The townspeople in the Scarlet Letter reacted to such a woman the same way the people of the Mount of Olives did in the previously mentioned Bible story. Hester's punishment is a scarlet letter, carried on her bosom that she wears whenever she is in public. It is meant to be a constant reminder of her sin. As it is repeated many times in the...
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