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The actual sins are thus not Hester's adultery, but the minister's cowardice and her former husband's plans of revenge. Society as a whole could not help, but act according to the laws one thought fit to protect it from destruction. The community was blind, but not nearly as guilty of sin as the two men in Hester's life. The narrator reminds the reader of the two most important things a new colony was first raising on its new founded ground: a prison and a cemetery. Death and punishment were the two tools that gave people a certainty and the power...
That is why, although they are guilty of hypocrisy and prejudice, they are having the excuse of being blinded by their struggle to keep their community alive at all costs.
Hester is the element that seemed to threaten the very existence of that community and the only way her fellow citizen knew to react was to outcast her and mark her with a letter that will expose her to public shame every time she would leave the house. In time, she will transform what was supposed to be first a symbol of humiliation into the very sign of advancement toward modernity, open-mindedness and development.
But because of her own inner strengths as a woman of character, Hester goes against all of the principles of Puritan society and ends up spoiled and ruined by bigotry and prejudice. As to the themes found in the Scarlet Letter, it is clear that Hawthorne meant to tell a moral story with Hester Prynne as the main focus. Perhaps Hawthorne was attempting to tell the reader that Hester Prynne,
The Heath is described as "Ancient, unchanging, untamable, sombre and tremendous..." (ibid) www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6200808 Grimsditch also sees a relationship of the Heath to the characters, particularly the character of Eustacia. "It is in accord with moods of loneliness, melancholy and even tragedy, and these moods predominate in the nature of its adopted child, Eustacia... " (ibid) In essence the Heath represents the dominant mood and symbol of the book. It is against
SCIENCE FICTION & FEMINISM Sci-Fi & Feminism Origins & Evolution of Science Fiction As with most things including literature, science fiction has progressed and changed a lot over the years. Many works of science fiction were simply rough copies and following the altready-established patterns of prior authors. However, there has always been authors and creators that push the envelope and forge new questions and storylines that have not been realized or conceptualized before.