The Scarlet Letter Blog 5

The preacher, Roger Chillingworth, in The Scarlet Letter stated “Wouldst thou have me to believe, O wise and pious friend, that a false show can be better – can be more for God’s glory, or man’s welfare – than God’s won truth? Trust me, such men deceive themselves!” This sentence talks about the inner battle between doing what is right in God’s eyes and doing what is right in the eyes of the World. In this statement, Roger Chillingworth was talking about the choices that people make, especially the choice that Hester was facing. Everyone has a choice to do what is right or not to. Often times instead of doing things that are right people choose to do things that only help themselves. In the story, Hester had a choice to make about whether or not she was going to keep her daughter. This choice is a good example of how Hester wanted to do what seemed best to her, not what was best for her daughter.
This is also a very good example of the kind of confusing language that Hawthorne used when describing his story. This language also sets the picture for the setting. If people today said words like “woulst” or “thou” everyone would look at them funny! Although we don’t use words like that today, when we other people use such elegant words we are reminded of the culture of our history, such as that of the 1850s. The Scarlet Letter does a very good job of the getting its readers into the mindset of the book.