Motif Project of Non-Fictional Charcters in the Scarlett Let essays

Motif Project of Non-Fictional Charcters in the Scarlett Let essays This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally overshadowed it, or whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson as she entered the prison-door, we shall not take upon us to determine. In 1636, Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) was charged with heresy and banished from the Massachusetts Colony. A woman of learning and great religious conviction, Hutchinson challenged the Puritan clergy and asserted her view of the Covenant of Grace that moral conduct and piety should not be the primary qualifications for visible sanctification. Her preachings were unjustly labeled antinomianism by the Puritans a heresy since the Christian leaders of that day held to a strong Covenant of Works teaching, which dictated the need for outward signs of Gods grace. What began as quibbling over fine points of Christian doctrine ended as a confrontation over the role of authority in the colony. Threatened by meetings she held in her Boston home, the clergy charged Hutchinson with blasphemy. An outspoken female in a male hierarchy, Hutchinson had little hope that many would speak in her defense, and she was being tried by the General Court. After being sentenced, she went with her family to wh at is now Rhode Island. Several years later, she moved to New York, where she and some of her family were massacred by Indians. Ann Hutchinson was a non-fictional character who was used in The Scarlet Letter as a historical vehicle to underscore Hesters unfair, close-minded treatment by Puritan law. Her shameful punishment for refusing to conform was used as a parallel to Prynnes. By referring to Hutchinson as sainted, it was clear tha...