Answer:
We are all guilty of hypocrisy in some way, and this relates to the scarlet letter because...
Step-by-step explanation:
Hypocrisy is defined as the practice of claiming to have moral standards of beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform. Most people likely are guilty of hypocrisy because most of us all have morals that we believe might give us the right to judge and humiliate others that don't conform to them. The people seem to have try to act like they have more moral standards compared to Hester when they publicly humiliate her. Even though we don't always conform to our morals and standards ourselves. Hester, in her mind, has not committed a sin. The fact that she accepts the courts decision so meekly and wears the scarlet letter denoting her as an adulteress is the first way in which she is hypocritical. Hester thinks that she has not committed adultery because in her mind she wasn’t really married to Chillingworth. Hester believes that marriage is only valid when there is love, and there is no love between Hester and Chillingworth. Hester’s acceptance of a false sin is not the only hypocritical act she carries out. Another way in which Hester is hypocritical is her agreement with Chillingworth to keep his name a secret. The Scarlet Letter uses hypocrisy to illustrate the corruption within the Puritan religion. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne repeatedly portrays the Puritanical views of sin and evil. The Puritans are constantly displayed as believing that evil comes from an unyielding bond being formed between love and hate. For such reasons they looked towards Hester's commitment of adultery as an action of pure, condemned evil.