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Post by 14elesvik on Dec 13, 2012 17:47:28 GMT -5
The author praises the Old World: saying it was a good place for Hester and Dimmesdale to escape and shows how Pearl started a new life there. This is unusual because the New World was supposed to be a second chance. Is this just the narrator saying the Puritans ruined the New World or is there something more?
Comments? Ideas?
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Post by laurensc116 on Dec 13, 2012 20:37:05 GMT -5
I think that this is Hawthorne's way of indeed showing that the Puritans have already destructed the New World. The way in which ones with sins that are judged by the community feel the need to leave the New World to maintain peace in their lives demonstrates that something is not right in the New World. The New World was supposed to be the place that people ran to in order to achieve a better life, but since sin is so highly frowned upon in this New World and the structure is unsteady, those with flaws find themselves running back to the safety of their old home after community judgments have ruined their peace of mind.
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Post by sandych116 on Dec 16, 2012 17:19:54 GMT -5
The Puritans left the Old World because they couldn't stand a repressive society and didn't want to be the subjects of tyranny. It's funny cause in the New World, they created a society that was even more repressive than before, and created a new tyranny of their own. It was repressive enough for Hawthorne to say that the Old World is actually better than the New and Hester must escape the Old World to avoid tyranny.
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