Name: Tiovanny Basani C.

Siregar

NIM: 2211418010

Prose Analysis (Mid-test)

(A City Upon the Hill)

The Scarlet Letter is a romance novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This novel is
considered an American literary work and was published in 1850. In this novel, we can see the
good and bad sides of the Puritans. The theme raised by Nathaniel Hawthorne in this novel is a
criticism of the Puritans' belief in sin, guilt, the norms and morals that exist in Puritan. Puritans
strongly believe that the Bible is a source of spiritual and ethicals standards so anyone who
violates the contents of the Bible will be punished. The main characters of this novel are Hester
Prynne, a young woman who is an English immigrant sent by her husband to the colony, and
joined the Puritans in Boston. Next is Arthur Dimmesdale, who is a young priest and father of
Hester's daughter. Then there is Pearl, the daughter born out of wedlock and the last main
character is Roger Chillingworth who is the husband of Hester Prynne.

The beginning of the story of this novel tells about Esther Prynne who was convicted of
adultery with Arthur Dimmesdale and gave birth to a child. He was required to wear a cloth with
a large red A on his chest on a scaffold that was specifically devoted to humiliating and mocking
the heavy sinner. The letter A symbol worn by Hester can be interpreted as Adultery. On the
scaffold, Hester was ridiculed and forced to say who the man who impregnated him. When
Hester was punished, Hester saw her husband, who had not heard from him for a long time,
staring at her. The calm that Hester felt when he was punished almost collapsed because of that.
Seeing his wife was convicted of adultery, Hester's husband also intends to take revenge on
Hester and his mistress. So to carry out his intention, he changed his identity to Roger
Chillingworth. He pretended to be a friend of Arthur Dimmesdale to torture his mind even
though he was already tortured by his guilt and powerlessness to express his sin. In the end,
Arthur Dimmesdale acknowledged his sin and died in the arms of Hester. While Roger
Chillingworth was morally degraded by his revenge efforts and Hester began a new life with
Pearl in Europe and then returned to New England and died. At the end of this novel, Nathaniel
Hawthorne conveys a moral message that the importance of upholding the value of honesty,
because the root of all the tragedies of this novel is the dishonesty that creates suffering and
misery for its characters.

The setting taken by this novel is the city of Puritan, Boston. In 1630 a group of the
colony who came from England settled in the Boston area and they were part of the second wave
of settlers who came from England intending to purify the Church of England. They said that
religion must contain an intense spiritual relationship between the individual and God. So to
purify these churches they must leave their old world. The term they use in leaving the old world
to the new world is a city upon the hill. City upon a Hill is a term used by one of the leaders of
the colonization of the old world to the new world, John Winthrop. John Winthrop had a Puritan
vision of making City on a Hill dominated the New England colonial development. At the time
this sermon was delivered by John Winthrop, puritans believed in a destiny stating that their
destiny would be changed by God. They believe that they are the people chosen to be saved. The
term City upon a hill is also used to describe the hope that Puritans will shine as an example to
the world. But in this novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows some contrast with the vision of John
Winthrop like a prison that is outdated even though it was only a few years after the completion
"Certain it is that some fifteen or twenty years after the settlement of the town, the wooden jail
was already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker
aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front. The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken
door looked more antique than anything else in the New World" (Chapter 2, page 2)) and
description in the governor hall about the portrait of Bellingham's ancestors in the distinctive
attributes of the old world "On the wall hung a row of portraits, representing the forefather of
the Bellingham lineage, some with armor on their breast and others with stately ruffs and robes
of peace. All were characterized by the sternness and severity which old portraits so invariably
put on, as if they were the ghosts, rather than the pictures, of departed worthies, and were gazing
with harsh and intolerant criticism at the pursuit and enjoyments of living men." (Chapter 2,
page 38. So it can be concluded that Puritans have not been separated from the influence of the
old world.

Initially, the term a city upon the hill was a guideline for Puritans in America but over
time the guideline continued to grow in modern American society as a universal philosophy of
life.