Hester's Sympathetic Knowledge

In class we discussed how Hawthorne's depiction of Puritan society is critical. He exposes the hypocrisy of both men and women, and presents Hester as morally superior in many respects.

Perhaps the most prominent criticism of Puritan society that Hawthorne presents is hypocrisy. In a discussion on Hester's experience in bearing the Scarlet Letter near the end of Chapter V, Hawthorne writes:

"She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts. She was terror-stricken by the revelations that were thus made. What were they? Could they be other than the insidious whispers of the bad angel, who would fain have persuaded the struggling woman, as yet only half his victim, that the outward guise of purity was but a lie, and that, if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides Hester Prynne's?"

He goes on to describe how Hester would detect sympathetic feelings and glances from ministers, young maidens, and elder saintly woman - as if they shared in her experience. And He concludes with:

"Be it accepted as a proof that all was not corrupt in this poor victim of her own frailty, and man's hard law, that Hester Prynne yet struggled to believe that no fellow mortal was guilty like herself."

In this way, Hawthorne uses Hester to expose the guilt of the entire Puritan society. It is almost as if Hester's one outward sin is a foil that reveals the widespread inward sin of the townspeople.