The protest to the manners in Puritan society as revealed by Hester Prynne`s characteristics in Nathaniel Hawthorne`s The Scarlet Letter.

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRACT
CHRISTINE. The Protest to the Manners in Puritans Society as Revealed by
Hester Prynne’s Characteristics in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma
University, 2013.
The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an interesting classic
work of literature. Hawthorne conveys the idea of protesting the manners in
Puritans society through the main character, Hester Prynne. In accordance to the
title, this thesis sees the manners that exist in the Puritans society, which is the
main setting of the novel, and pays much attention to how the dynamics of the
people at the time, and also sees Hester Prynne’s struggle as a sinner in the
society. She shows the protest to the manners.
In order to get close to the significant points, the researcher formulates
three objectives to understand the problems presented: (1) how Hester Prynne as
the main character is characterized, (2) what manners in the Puritans society are
conveyed through the social setting of the story, (3) how Hester Prynne’s
characteristics reveal the protest to the manners in Puritan society.
In writing this study the researcher used the method of library research
since this study is related to the classic novel where the specific data about the

novel, the author and social condition at the time (around 1600s) will be found in
several books in the library. This thesis takes sociocultural-historical approach to
support the analysis. This approach is good to find the related reference to the
factors like the social condition in the period of the Puritanism, and also takes the
history as the reference that relate to the society life and also the culture of the era.
The review of Puritans life is tending to help the researcher see deeper into the
real Puritans life, and compare it to the novel.
The finding of this study is the revelation of the complex character of
Hester Prynne, generally she is a beautiful, and at the same time, with her
characteristics she is protesting the manners in the society through her own way.
She is also really humane, through her feeling, and sometimes she saves the rage
inside her heart. The Puritans are the people who generally strict in law and
religion and they are not receiving the people who commit to sin, in this case
Hester Prynne is recognized as the sinner, because she has committed adultery.
Hester Prynne is showing her resistance against the manners through her strength,
bravery, stubbornness, kind-hearted and also her nature as a mother and not
following the rule where the authority’s rule to give up her child, the biblical rule
to raise the children, and the patriarchal system where men is known as the
stronger one than women.

x

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRAK
CHRISTINE. The Protest to the Manners in Puritans Society as Revealed by
Hester Prynne’s Characteristics in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma,
2013.
The Scarlet Letter yang ditulis oleh Nathaniel Hawthorne merupakan
karya sastra klasik yang menarik. Hawthorne menyampaikan gagasan mengenai
protes terhadap nilai-nilai dalam masyarakat Puritan melalui sang tokoh utama,
Hester Prynne. Seperti yang telah disampaikan melalui judul, skripsi ini menilik
nilai-nilai yang ada dalam masyarakat Puritan, yang merupakan setting di dalam
novel, dan memperhatikan dinamika masyarakat pada masa tersebut, serta melihat
bentuk perjuangan Hester Prynne sebagai seorang pendosa dalam masyarakat, dan
bagaimana ia menunjukkan protes terhadap nilai-nilai tersebut.
Agar lebih mendekati pokok permasalahan, peneliti memformulasikan tiga
hal untuk lebih mengerti permasalahan-permasalahan berikut: (1) bagaimana
karakteristik tokoh utama Hester Prynne, (2) apa saja nilai-nilai dalam masyakarat

Puritan yang disampaikan melalui setting sosial dalam cerita, (3) bagaimana
karakteristik Hester Prynne memperlihatkan protes terhadap nilai-nilai dalam
masyarakat Puritan.
Dalam penulisan skripsi ini, peneliti menggunakan metode studi pustaka
karena apa yang diteliti di sini berhubungan dengan novel klasik dimana data-data
yang spesifik mengenai novel, pengarang, dan kondisi sosial pada masa Puritan
(sekitar tahun 1600an) akan ditemukan dalam beberapa buku yang ada di
perpustakaan. Skripsi ini menggunakan pendekatan sosiokultural-historis untuk
mendukung analisis. Pendekatan ini baik untuk menemukan referensi terkait pada
beberapa faktor seperti kondisi sosial pada masa Puritanisme, serta menggunakan
sejarah
referensi yang berhubungan dengan kehidupan sosial dan juga
kebudayaan pada era tersebut. Rangkuman mengenai kehidupan masyarakat
Puritan akan membantu peneliti untuk melihat lebih dalam kehidupan nyata
masyarakat Puritan dan mambandingkannya dengan novel.
Hasil dari pembelajaran ini adalah pengungkapan karakteristik Hester
Prynne yang kompleks, secara umum dirinya adalah seorang wanita cantik, dan
pada saat bersamaan sifat-sifatnya menunjukkan bahwa ia memprotes nilai-nilai
yang ada adalam masyarakat Puritan melalui caranya sendiri. Ia sendiri sangat
manusiawi, melalui perasaan-perasaannya serta kemarahan yang ia simpan dalam

hati terhadap sikap yang ditunjukkan oleh masyarakat terhadap dirinya.
Masyarakat Puritan secara umum sangat ketat dalam mentaati hukum dan agama,
mereka tidak menerima orang-orang yang berbuat dosa, dalam hal ini Hester
Prynne ditolak dalam masyarakat karena ia adalah seorang yang dianggap
berselingkuh. Hester Prynne memperlihatkan protesnya nilai-nilai dalam
masyarakat Puritan melalui kekuatan, keberanian, kekeraskepalaan, kebaikan hati,
serta sifat keibuannya dan tidak mengikuti peraturan yang ditetapkan dimana ia
xi

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

THE PROTEST TO THE MANNERS IN PURITAN SOCIETY
AS REVEALED BY HESTER PRYNNE’S CHARACTERISTICS
IN NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE’S THE SCARLET LETTER
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters

By

CHRISTINE
Student Number: 084214034

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

THE PROTEST TO THE MANNERS IN PURITAN SOCIETY
AS REVEALED BY HESTER PRYNNE’S CHARACTERISTICS
IN NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE’S THE SCARLET LETTER
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters

By
CHRISTINE
Student Number: 084214034

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013

i

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ii

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

iii

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN KAMPUS
Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiwa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama

: Christine

Nomor mahasiswa

: 084214034

Demi kepentingan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
THE PROTEST TO THE MANNERS IN PURITAN SOCIETY AS
REVEALED

BY

HESTER

PRYNNE’S

CHARACTERISTICS

IN

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE’S THE SCARLET LETTER
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan
kepadaUniversitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam
bentuk media lain, menelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan
secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk
kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta izin dari saya maupun memberikan
royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebahai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta,
Pada tanggal: 28 Februari 2013
Yang menyatakan

Christine

iv

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This Thesis entitled “The Protest to the Manners in Puritans Society as
Revealed by Hester Prynne’s Characteristics in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The
Scarlet Letter” is purely made by the thesis writer. In other words, all ideas, all
phrases, and all sentences, unless otherwise stated, are ideas, phrases, and
sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full consequences
including degree cancelation if he took somebody else’s ideas, phrases, or
sentences without proper references.

Yogyakarta, February 28, 2013

Christine

v

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Life is like riding a bicycle,
to keep your balance you must keep moving forward
- Albert Einstein

Be curious.
Read widely.
Try new things.
I think a lot of people call intelligence boils down to curiosity
– Aaron Swartz

There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done.
One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so
today is the right day to love, believe and do mostly live
– Dalai Lama

vi

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to:
My parents, Yosua Musiman and Yovita
My brother and sisters, A. Novera, Firdaus G. Pedro and Clarita
R. Serunai
My loved-one, Adrianus Toy
And you, whoever tries to find any kind of stories and
information about
The Scarlet Letter or the Puritans society

vii

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank Jesus the Lord, for the miracles He gave
in my life even though in many times I don’t remember Him. He brings the
enlightenment to me so that I am able to finish this thesis. I would also like to
thank Sanata Dharma University and English Letters Department for provide
everything I need to study. My deepest gratitude is for Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka,
M. Hum as my thesis advisor and Maria Ananta Tri Suryandari S.S., M.Ed. as the
co-advisor and academic advisor, for their guidance and advice during the process
of this thesis writing.
Thank for my beloved parents, who always pray for me, and support me
with love and smile. I also thank my brother and sisters for everything they share
to me so I feel supported.
Thank for Sentex Family and every dogs that ever lived or living there, for
the relaxation anytime I was too tense. Senthong friends, I thank them for the
experiences, friendship and spaces to express myself. My English Letters 2008
friends, many of them are the best supporters for me, I thank them for the
friendship they offer. Adrianus Andi Toy Yuckiets or whatever he called, I thank
him for always stays beside me and be my friend in laugh and tears. At least but
not least, thank you for everybody who pray, support, smile and laugh for me, I
love you all.

Christine

viii

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................ i
APPROVAL PAGE ...................................................................................... ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ................................................................................. iii
MOTTO PAGE ............................................................................................. vi
DEDICATION PAGE................................................................................... vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................... viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................. ix
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................. x
ABSTRAK..................................................................................................... xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .................................................................
A. Background of the Study ...............................................................
B. Problem Formulation .....................................................................
C. Objectives of the Study..................................................................
D. Definition of Terms .......................................................................

1
1
3
4
4

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW.................................................
A. Review of Related Studies .............................................................
B. Review of Related Theories ...........................................................
C. Review of Puritans Life .................................................................
D. Theoretical Framework..................................................................

6
6
10
12
18

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY .............................................................
A. Object of the Study ........................................................................
B. Approach of the study....................................................................
C. Method of the Study ......................................................................

21
21
23
24

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS .........................................................................
A. Hester Prynne’s Character and Characterization ............................
B. Puritans Society’s Manners seen through the Social Setting ...........
C. The Protest to the Puritans Manners as Revealed by Hester
Prynne’s characteristics .................................................................

27
27
43
52

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .................................................................... 66
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................... 68
APPENDIX ................................................................................................... 70

ix

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRACT
CHRISTINE. The Protest to the Manners in Puritans Society as Revealed by
Hester Prynne’s Characteristics in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma
University, 2013.
The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an interesting classic
work of literature. Hawthorne conveys the idea of protesting the manners in
Puritans society through the main character, Hester Prynne. In accordance to the
title, this thesis sees the manners that exist in the Puritans society, which is the
main setting of the novel, and pays much attention to how the dynamics of the
people at the time, and also sees Hester Prynne’s struggle as a sinner in the
society. She shows the protest to the manners.
In order to get close to the significant points, the researcher formulates
three objectives to understand the problems presented: (1) how Hester Prynne as
the main character is characterized, (2) what manners in the Puritans society are
conveyed through the social setting of the story, (3) how Hester Prynne’s
characteristics reveal the protest to the manners in Puritan society.
In writing this study the researcher used the method of library research
since this study is related to the classic novel where the specific data about the
novel, the author and social condition at the time (around 1600s) will be found in
several books in the library. This thesis takes sociocultural-historical approach to
support the analysis. This approach is good to find the related reference to the
factors like the social condition in the period of the Puritanism, and also takes the
history as the reference that relate to the society life and also the culture of the era.
The review of Puritans life is tending to help the researcher see deeper into the
real Puritans life, and compare it to the novel.
The finding of this study is the revelation of the complex character of
Hester Prynne, generally she is a beautiful, and at the same time, with her
characteristics she is protesting the manners in the society through her own way.
She is also really humane, through her feeling, and sometimes she saves the rage
inside her heart. The Puritans are the people who generally strict in law and
religion and they are not receiving the people who commit to sin, in this case
Hester Prynne is recognized as the sinner, because she has committed adultery.
Hester Prynne is showing her resistance against the manners through her strength,
bravery, stubbornness, kind-hearted and also her nature as a mother and not
following the rule where the authority’s rule to give up her child, the biblical rule
to raise the children, and the patriarchal system where men is known as the
stronger one than women.

x

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRAK
CHRISTINE. The Protest to the Manners in Puritans Society as Revealed by
Hester Prynne’s Characteristics in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma,
2013.
The Scarlet Letter yang ditulis oleh Nathaniel Hawthorne merupakan
karya sastra klasik yang menarik. Hawthorne menyampaikan gagasan mengenai
protes terhadap nilai-nilai dalam masyarakat Puritan melalui sang tokoh utama,
Hester Prynne. Seperti yang telah disampaikan melalui judul, skripsi ini menilik
nilai-nilai yang ada dalam masyarakat Puritan, yang merupakan setting di dalam
novel, dan memperhatikan dinamika masyarakat pada masa tersebut, serta melihat
bentuk perjuangan Hester Prynne sebagai seorang pendosa dalam masyarakat, dan
bagaimana ia menunjukkan protes terhadap nilai-nilai tersebut.
Agar lebih mendekati pokok permasalahan, peneliti memformulasikan tiga
hal untuk lebih mengerti permasalahan-permasalahan berikut: (1) bagaimana
karakteristik tokoh utama Hester Prynne, (2) apa saja nilai-nilai dalam masyakarat
Puritan yang disampaikan melalui setting sosial dalam cerita, (3) bagaimana
karakteristik Hester Prynne memperlihatkan protes terhadap nilai-nilai dalam
masyarakat Puritan.
Dalam penulisan skripsi ini, peneliti menggunakan metode studi pustaka
karena apa yang diteliti di sini berhubungan dengan novel klasik dimana data-data
yang spesifik mengenai novel, pengarang, dan kondisi sosial pada masa Puritan
(sekitar tahun 1600an) akan ditemukan dalam beberapa buku yang ada di
perpustakaan. Skripsi ini menggunakan pendekatan sosiokultural-historis untuk
mendukung analisis. Pendekatan ini baik untuk menemukan referensi terkait pada
beberapa faktor seperti kondisi sosial pada masa Puritanisme, serta menggunakan
sejarah
referensi yang berhubungan dengan kehidupan sosial dan juga
kebudayaan pada era tersebut. Rangkuman mengenai kehidupan masyarakat
Puritan akan membantu peneliti untuk melihat lebih dalam kehidupan nyata
masyarakat Puritan dan mambandingkannya dengan novel.
Hasil dari pembelajaran ini adalah pengungkapan karakteristik Hester
Prynne yang kompleks, secara umum dirinya adalah seorang wanita cantik, dan
pada saat bersamaan sifat-sifatnya menunjukkan bahwa ia memprotes nilai-nilai
yang ada adalam masyarakat Puritan melalui caranya sendiri. Ia sendiri sangat
manusiawi, melalui perasaan-perasaannya serta kemarahan yang ia simpan dalam
hati terhadap sikap yang ditunjukkan oleh masyarakat terhadap dirinya.
Masyarakat Puritan secara umum sangat ketat dalam mentaati hukum dan agama,
mereka tidak menerima orang-orang yang berbuat dosa, dalam hal ini Hester
Prynne ditolak dalam masyarakat karena ia adalah seorang yang dianggap
berselingkuh. Hester Prynne memperlihatkan protesnya nilai-nilai dalam
masyarakat Puritan melalui kekuatan, keberanian, kekeraskepalaan, kebaikan hati,
serta sifat keibuannya dan tidak mengikuti peraturan yang ditetapkan dimana ia
xi

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

diminta menyerahkan anaknya. Ia juga melawan aturan kitab suci mengenai cara
membesarkan anak, dan sistem patriarki dimana pria dianggap lebih kuat daripada
wanita.

xii

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study
Richard N. Current and friends say in American History: A Survey, that
Puritans were the only people who want to transplant a purified branch of the
church of England. Current also said that theology the Puritans were somewhat
rigid and grim (1961: 41). The society in the New England was affected by the
Puritans and they also hold the values of the Puritanism. Puritan was spread in
America in seventeenth century, when some people were decided to separated
themselves from the Church of England and be back to the old manner of
worshipping God. They moved from England to America to build a new
settlement for them and their family, and one place where they settled is New
England.
Puritan is not only about the church, but it is also about the society who
lived in that part of era where the New World had just began. They lived under the
high authority that had grew the new thought about belief and how they worship
God. The authority affected the society grew with their own understanding about
sin, daily life, and also how they reacted to some that didn’t fit to the values that
they hold in their everyday life.
The book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter is a book
that contains the concept of Puritanism in New World era. This book was written
in 1850, and best known as Hawthorne’s masterpiece. The main theme that is

1

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
2

brought in this book is sin and its effect to both, individual and the society. Frank
N. Magill in his book Masterpiece of World Literature noted that “it is frequently
noted that Hawthorne’s preoccupation with sin springs from the Puritan-rooted
culture in which he lived and from his awareness of two of his own ancestors who
presided over bloody persecutions during the Salem witchcraft trials” (1989: 795).
The Scarlet Letter itself contains a story about a young lady who has jailed
because of an act of adultery, and more, she rejects to state who the father of the
infant that she bear. After released from jail she has to wear a letter “A” on her
breast, and this letter colored scarlet. The letter “A” is a symbol for her adultery
and indicated that Hester Prynne, the young lady, is a sinner.
Nathaniel Hawthorne himself was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804.
Hawthorne himself was the descendants of a line of the Puritans worthies. His
first ancestor in America, William Hathorne (Nathaniel add “W” in his family
name as an author) was a colonial magistrate known for his persecution of
Quakers. William’s son John Hathorne was notorious as one of the Puritans
interrogators of those accused of witchcraft in Salem in 1692. Nathaniel
Hawthorne was living a solitary life in his uncle’s house. In his solitude moment,
he got so many times to think about life, and also his ancestors, and Puritanism.
He got many readings and attempted to be a fiction writer. As a young man he
wrote, “ I don’t want to be a doctor and lived by men’s diseases, nor a minister to
lived by their sins, nor a lawyer and lived by their quarrels. So I don’t see that
there is anything left for me but an author”. His first published anonymous novel
Fanshawe didn’t get a good welcome in the society, and Hawthorne burned all of

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
3

the copies. He keep writing, published several novels and short stories, until in
1850 he wrote The Scarlet Letter which was his greatest achievement.
As the researcher stated before, in the Puritans era, there were manners
that insist people or society to do the thing that was ruled by it. In The Scarlet
Letter Hawthorne put those manners randomly and combined it with the existence
of the sin and guilt. Those manners sometimes do not allow people to do
something freely, and tie the Society to the standards of the perfection; a life
without sin. The researcher wants to reveal those manners and the people who
hold it, and find out whether the people are as good as they pretend or not. The
next is to figure Hester Prynne’s characteristic, and see whether she is as sinful as
people recognize or she better than that. Moreover, the researcher wants to shows
the protest that Hester Prynne shows trough her action and idea to the manners in
Puritans society that rejects her because she is a sinful person.
B. Problem Formulation
To help focus on the study and do the best analysis, the researcher is
formulating three problems. These three problems are formed in question and will
be processed and answered in the analysis. The problems are:
1. How is Hester Prynne characterized?
2. What are the manners in Puritans society conveyed through the social setting
of the story?
3. How do Hester Prynne’s characteristics show the protest to the manners in
Puritans society?

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
4

C. Objectives of the Study
The objective for this research is to answer those questions which are
posted in the problem formulation. First of all is to find how the major character
Hester Prynne is described in the story, to see how she is characterized and what
characteristics she has and how she acts and thinks. Second is to find the Puritan
manners that are conveyed in the story. The last is to show in what way the
characteristics of Hester Prynne show the protest to the manners in Puritans
society.

D. Definition of Terms
The title of the thesis is The Protest to the Manners in Puritans Society as
Revealed by Hester Prynne’s Characteristics in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The
Scarlet Letter. The title might contains several words that hard to be understood.
For those reasons the researcher put some definitions of the difficult terms from
the title, so that the readers can avoid the misunderstanding of reading the thesis.
1. Protest: the act of protesting; a solemn or formal objection or declaration.
Also said as assert earnestly or positively; state formally especially against
opposition or doubt. (Webster, 1996: 987)
2. Manner: The New International Webster’s Comprehensive Dictionary of
the English Language, Encyclopedic Edition said that manner is the way
of doing anything; method or procedure, the general modes of life or
conduct; especially, social behavior. It also related to the usual or ordinary
practice; habit or custom. (Webster’s, 1996: 775)

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
5

3. Puritans: the people who are tend to separate themselves from the Church
of England. These people try to purify the manner in the church,
sometimes by a strict ways. The Puritanism began in 1600s in England.
(Tindal & Shi, 1984: 19)

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies
The researcher found that it is important to see the other studies about the
related topics that are analyzed in this thesis. Those topics are about the Puritans
itself, the characters in the novel, the author, and the other works of the author.
The researcher finds several works of the alumni of the English Letters
Department of Sanata Dharma University that related to the researcher’s study,
and takes them as comparisons for this study.
The first is a work by Sari Susanti Riafitri entitled The Emergence of Early
form of Feminism seen in Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet
Letter. Riafitri said that Hester Prynne’s struggle as sinner in the Puritans society
emerges the early form of feminism at that time. To do the research Riafitri used a
socio-cultural historical approach to see the connection between the society and
the culture of the Puritans. Her thesis reveals Hester Prynne’s characteristics
which she said as “complicated”. In the conclusion of her thesis Riafitri said that
in the novel there are several things that Hester struggle for in the society. She
struggles for her position as an independent woman in the society, although this is
an unusual thing for the Puritans. She struggles for the respect from the society,
which are lost from her by doing the charity. She struggles for the child by giving
her need as the best as she can do using her talent in needlework for money,
teaching her child and also fighting for the right of her child guardian.
6

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
7

Estherlita Widi Nugrowati in her thesis entitled Hawthorne’s Criticism
toward Puritan Patriarchal Culture Reflected in the Main Characters’ Attitude in
Dealing with Sin in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter wrote Hawthorne conveyed
his criticism toward the patriarchal culture through two main characters, Hester
Prynne and also Arthur Dimmesdale. In her abstract she said that the result of her
study is the description of Puritan Society. Puritans are people who emphasize
much in having holy life based on the bible. Everyone who is found guilty against
the law will be punished strictly and intolerably. They are very hard on people
who commit sin. The society also only allows men to be important position in the
society such as magistrates and the priest. A man is typically regarded as a strong,
brave and responsible one, and women are seen as weak creature that can do
nothing. Hawthorne criticizes that to regard man higher than woman because he is
believed to have more courage, strength, power and responsibility is not right.
The third is a thesis done by Eillen Stefanie from English Letters
Department titled The Influence of Sin towards the Characters’ Life that is Seen
from Puritan’s Point of View in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven
Gables. She stated in her abstract that her research focused on two problems;
reveal the effect of the sin and patriarchal system toward the life of two characters
seen through the Puritans point of view. She used a library research and found that
socio-cultural historical is the best approach to be used. The result of the research
showed that sin that inherited from the ancestors could affect the life of the
characters. The two characters live a miserable life, and they lived in poverty. The
society could not receive them because of the sin of the ancestors.

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
8

In the conclusion Stefanie stated that The House of Seven Gables with its
rustiness signifies the mystery in the life of Pyncheon family. The Seven Gables
of the house symbolically signify the seven deadly sins committed by the
Pyncheons characters.
The last related study is a thesis titled The Significanceof the House and
the Seven Gables towards the Pyncheons Characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
The House of Seven Gables written by an English Letters’ student, Yohana
Yulianti Widi Asmoro. This thesis focused on the symbolization of Seven Gables.
And the main point of this research is seven deadly sins and also the concept of
the sin. Asmoro herself conducted the library research and an objective criticism
proposed by Abrams to do her study.
In the conclusion she stated that:
“…..it is seen that the concept of sin that is seen from Puritan’s point of
view can influence the character’s life. Puritan society believes that an
ancestor’s wrongdoing can fall into their descendents. The doctrine of
inborn sin also takes step by step from the ancestor into the descendents.
As Norton says the concept of inborn sin also becomes the destiny of life.
In other words, Puritan’s people who receive an inborn sin from their
ancestor’s wrongdoing, they cannot go to heaven and they will continue to
be damned no matter how many goodness they perform…” (Asmoro,
2001:57)
What are the same between those four related studies are, all of them pay
attention to the works which has written by the same author; Nathaniel
Hawthorne, and all of them have the same field of study, that is the Puritans
society. The difference is Stefanie and Asmoro focused on this topic as the main
object to be discussed, the thesis takes the influence of sin as the secular object,
but still this theme is taken as a significance point which has a direct relationship

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
9

to the thesis topic. Sari Susanti Riafitri points the early feminism as the topic of
her work. Here she takes the character of Hester Prynne as the object to prove the
existence of feminism itself. So does the researcher do, the researcher takes the
major character, in this case Hester Prynne, as an object to prove something.
Hester Prynne will be used to prove herself as a rebel in the Puritans society to the
manners that exist in it. At the last, the thesis from Estherlita Widhi Nugrowati
raises the topic of patriarchal culture which is being criticized by Nathaniel
Hawthorne, the author of the book itself. In her thesis Nugrowati pointed two
major characters as the object of analysis, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale.
This thesis will work in a different way, where the researcher takes only Hester
Prynne as the object of the analysis and takes a different topic too.
Commonly, this thesis is almost the same in case of taking the sociocultural historical criticism as the approach to be used, because the writer really
needs to find out the facts that are developed in the society of Puritans, whether it
is seen from the novel of directly from the history of the Puritans in the past. The
point is, the focus in this thesis is the existence of Hester Prynne herself, as an
individual, a human (not especially as a woman as Riafitri does) who shows the
protest to the manners which exist in the Puritan society. She also doesn’t obey
the rules which have been created by the authority of Puritans through her own
way.

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
10

B. Review of Related Theories
To prove the analysis based on the findings from the books, the researcher
needs some theories to prove the truth. The researcher uses several theories to
support the evidences; theory of character and characterization, theory of setting,
and one more is a review of the Puritans life.
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
Aristotle conveyed that character is a complicated term that includes the
idea of human personality, the presence of moral uprightness, and the simpler
notion of the presence notion of the presence of creatures in art that seem to be
human being of one sort or another. It is a brief descriptive sketch of a personage
who typifies some definite quality. The person is described not as an
individualized personality, but as an example of some vice or virtue or type
(Harmon, Holman, 1996: 95).M.H Abrams, in his book A Glossary of Literary
Terms defines the character as the persons who understandable in other word it is
the personality and the characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or
narrative works. He states that the characters are described by the author and
received by the readers by their own understanding. The descriptions of both
definitions are stated here:
The character is the name of a literary genre is a short and usually witty,
sketch in prose of distinctive type of person. Characters are the persons
represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the
reader a possessing particular moral, intellectual and emotional qualities
by inferences from the persons says and their distinctive ways of saying it
and from what they do (2005: 42)

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
11

In his book Understanding Unseen, M. J. Murphy explains that there are
some ways an author attempts to make his character understandable and come
alive for his readers, and the researcher takes some points that really closely
related to the literary work which is being analyzed. The first one is through
personal description; the author can describes a person’s appearance and clothes.
The second is character as seen by another. It means that instead of describing the
character directly, the author can describe the character through the eyes and the
opinion of others. The other way is use the speech. Through what the character
says, we as the reader may have a clue about the person. The other is trough the
character’s past life, by letting the reader learn something about the characters
past life the writer can give us a clue to events that helped to shape the person’s
character. Other ways to describe a character is through the conversation of other,
reaction, direct comment, and thought and mannerism (1972: 161-173).

2. Theory of Setting
Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klots in their book, Literature: Reading and
Writing Human Experience, state that setting is the element of the novel, short
stories and drama or play in which it gives the environment where the even
happen;
“… any consideration of setting should include the time when a story takes
place and the social situation sets in the story, as well as the physical
location of the events…” (Abcarian & Klots, 1998: 5)
So, could be interpreted here that the setting according to Abcarian and
Klots that setting, besides it is the place of the story taken, also the social situation

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
12

in the story, the social situation is where the society live in certain condition, what
authority they have, and how the society interact each other including the manners
that they hold in their daily life.
Other theory is from M. H. Abrams who introduce setting as a certain
physical location which an event occurs and developed in the narrative. According
to Abrams setting sets into three parts;
“The overall setting of a narrative is the general locale, historical time, and
the social circumstances in which the action occurs; the setting of a single
episode or scene within the work is the particular physical location in
which it takes place” (Abrams, 2009: 284-285)
From the statement above, could be interpreted as setting of a narrative
(fiction, novel, short stories, etc.) has three parts, the general locale or the place
where the story takes place. It could be like town, village or in smaller scale could
be a room, etc. the second is the historical time. This is the time when the story
occur, this is including the year, hour, day or night. And the last is the social
circumstances in which the action occurs. This social circumstances pointing to
the society or the people who live in the certain area where the story takes place. It
points out too to the way of life, cultures, and also manner in the society’s life.

C. Review of Puritan Society
In 1600 in England, five hundred ministers within the Church of England
wanted to eliminate bishops and install a Presbyterian form of church of
government. Many of these ministers called themselves Puritans. As their name
implied, they wished to purify the church of “false” teachings and practices. These
reformers appear as early as 1559 and nearly gained control of church

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
13

convocation. Henrieta Brownlee Brody Ware in her book America History vol. I
stated that although Puritans differed among themselves on many issues of
doctrine and ritual, they were united in three basic principles:
1. They wanted the authority over spiritual and financial matters to rest with
the lay men and women who composed the local congregation.
2. Puritans asserted the priesthood of each individual, maintaining that all
Christians, and not merely the ministers, could interpret the bible.
3. They condemned the most traditional religious rites as magical and
idolatrous.
In their everyday life, there were some manners that they hold tightly in some
aspects;
1. Religion
The Puritans did not separate from the Church of England; both in
England and in America, their goal was to reform it from within. Consequently,
the Puritans created a religious system without ostentatious “catholic” features.
Disposing of bishop and elaborate rituals, they followed what they believed to be
the practice of first Christian, devising a church structure controlled by the laity,
or ordinary members of the congregation.
The Puritans for many years had a bad press. By the standards of later ages they
were judged prudes and bigots, but they had come to America to escape error, not
to tolerate it in their New Zion:
The picture of the dour Puritan, hostile to all pleasures, is false. Puritans,
especially those of the upper class, were colorful clothing, enjoyed secular music,

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
14

and imbibed prodigious quantities of rum. “Drink is in itself a good creature of
God,” said the Reverend Increase Mather, “…..but the abuse of drink is from
Satan”
They believed that God has chosen some people for salvation, even before
they were born. And also they belief in the concept of predestination;
“The awesome doctrine of predestination was a distinguishing feature of
Calvinism. God in His infinite wisdom had predestined a mass of sinners
including babes in the womb, to be tortured in hell for an eternity. The
Almighty had also chosen a selected few—the “elect”—to enjoy eternal
bliss. Nothing that the damned could do would save them, whether faith,
repentance, of good deeds” (Bailey, 1983: 21)
But they also dealt with uncertainties of divine election, and those are worked in
three ways. Some Congregations pointed to the transforming effect of grace—the
overwhelming feeling of God’s presence: as God infuse the sinner’s soul with
grace, or he or she was “born again” and knew that salvation was at hand. Other
Puritans stressed “preparation” the confidence that came from years of spiritual
guidance and church discipline. Many of them followed the Dutch Protestant
Theologian Jacob Arminius in conceiving of God as a more reasonable and
merciful deity than the one portrayed by Calvin.
The bible is the center of their life. Anything they do in their daily life is based
on what is written in the bible. People are expected to read the bible for the
spiritual reasons, which makes several of them have chance for learn to read.
2. Law
Their law is really biblically based, for example, they follow the biblical
rules by dividing their inheritance among all heirs. With a double portion to the
eldest son, thereby rejecting the custom of many English families to give all the

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
15

land to the eldest son. “Where there is no law” the court advised local magistrates
“as near the law of God as they can”
An abuse of drink was prohibited because it was noticed as a Satan desire
(look at the point of religion), and punished to wear a letter D in public:
If found incapacitated by reason of strong drink, one was subjected to
arrest. A Salem man, for example, was staggering into a house where he
“eased his stomak in the Chimney.” Repeated offenders were forced to
wear a letter D in public.” (Tindal & Shy, 1989: 54)
Person, especially a woman who is found doing an adultery will be
punished and should use a letter mark “AD” in her breast which stand for
adultery, as Steve Wiegand stated in his book U. S. History for Dummies;
Adultery was punishable by death until 1632, when the penalty was
reduced to a public whipping and the forced wearing letters “AD” sewed
into the clothing, which means adultery. (2009: 50)
They also believed in the issue of the witch. Witchcraft was popular
among the remnants of the Puritans until 1700s. Indeed, as Gerge B. Tindall and
David E. Shi in their book America stated, the prior if dramatic episode in Salem,
almost 300 Englanders, mostly lower class, middle-aged, marginal women—
spinsters or widows, had been accused as witches and the law let more than thirty
of them were hanged (1989: 58).
3. Sexual Relationship
Moderation in all aspects of human life except piety was the Puritan
Guideline. The sexual relationship was also followed it. Contrary to their images
as Prudes, the Puritans were quite open their mind in noticing the nature of human
desires:

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
16

“One minister emphasize that “the use of marriage bed” is “founded in a
man’s nature”. Consequently, any unwillingness to engage in sexual
intercourse on the part of husband and wife “Denies all reliefe in Wedlock
unto Human necessity: and send it for supply into Beastiality…” Churches
occasionally expelled members for failing to satisfy their partner’s sexual
needs. But the sexual relation outside the marriage is strictly forbidden.”
(Tindal & Shi, 1989: 54)
Sexual activity outside the bounds of marriage was strictly forbidden, but
like most prohibition, it seems to provoke transgression. New England court
records are filled with cases of adultery and fornication. In part the abundance of
sexual offences reflected the disproportionate number of the men in the colonies.
Many were unable to find a wife and were therefore tempted to satisfy their sexual
desires outside of marriage.
4. Education
Condition in New England proved the most favorable for the
establishment for the schools. The Puritan emphasis on Scripture reading, which
all Protestants shared in some degree, implied an obligation to ensure literacy. The
great proportion of highly educated people in Puritan New England sustained a
common respect for education. And the compact town at that region made schools
more feasible than among the scattered people of the southern colonies. In 1647
the colony required every town of fifty or more families to set up grammar school
(a atin school that set up the students for the college). Although the act was widely
evaded, it did signify a serious purpose to promote education.

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
17

5. Women’s Role and Position
Puritans society held patriarchal culture, where man is able to do
everything than a woman. As stated in America’s History by James A. Henretta
and friends:
“Initially, among the first settlers father exercised strong patriarchal
control over their sons through their control of the land. They kept the sons
in town, not letting them set up their own household or get little to their
farmlands until they reached middle age”
Henretta and Friends also stated that Puritans Women had just a few
options in their life aspects. They could not chose the position in the society as
they wanted it, because the rules were saying no place for women:
Like other Christians, Puritans believed in the equality of souls—both men
and women could be saved—but when it come to practical matters
regarding governance of church and state, women were deemed inferior to
men. On this point Puritans agreed with the Pilgrim minister John
Robinson, who asserted that women “are debarred by their sexfrom
ordinary prophesying, and from any other dealing in the church wherein
they take authority over the man”. Puritan women could never be
ministers, or lay preachers, or even voting members of the church (1993:
54)
In America, like in Europe, law and custom gave men a higher position
than women. Men were able to hold both the political power in the state or region
and the authority in the family. In all family in New England, the daughters
always learn from their mother by seeing it directly how their mother took portion
in their everyday life. They also lean the fact how their brothers were getting
involved much more than them in everything.
“As the Reverend Benjamin Boston advised women in his pamphlet The
well-ordered Family, it made no difference if they were richer, more
intelligent, or of higher social status than their husbands: “Since he is thy
Husband, God has made him the head and set him above thee”. Therefore,

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
18

Wadsworth concluded, it is “thy duty to love and reverence him”. As they
grew to adulthood, small girls watched their mothers differ to their fathers.
They learned that their marriage portions would be different and smaller
than their brothers. They would receive not lands but money, livestock or
household goods. Once married, a woman had fewer property rights than
her husband or her children. A new bride gave legal ownership of all her
personal property to her husband. Any land a woman might possess fell
under lifetime and upon his death would normally bypass her and go
straight to the children.” (Henretta and Friends, 1993: 100-102)
In New England, a woman’s place was a dutiful daughter to her father a
helpmeet to her husband. Some women worked on it in exemplary fashion by
working full time as farm wives. They spun thread from flax or wool and wove it
into shirts and gowns, knitted sweaters and stocking, made candles and soap, and
mastered dozens of other productive household tasks. The other tasks is raising
and bearing children, most of them married in the early twenties and bore five to
seven children before they got menopause in their early forties. So, averagely a
woman spent about twenty of her most active year to pregnant or breastfeeding.
Women’s participation in the daily affairs was limited in Puritans
communities, by cultural rule. Puritans men were reluctant to have their wives
work in the fields. As Timothy Dwight reported approvingly, “Women in New
England are employed only in and about the house and in the proper business of
the sex”. The stress of the domestic concerns gave the Puritans women the
chance to learn to read and write, as their church emphasis on reading bible.

D. Theoretical Framework
The theory of character and characterization and the review of the Puritans
life attempt to help to analyze the problems that are stated in the problem

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
19

formulation. Both theory and the review are needed to answer the question about
Hester Prynne and also the question about the manners in Puritans life, besides the
information from the book off course.
The researcher arranges the question in problem formulation into three.
The first question is about how is Hester Prynne being described, this question
will be helped by the first theory about the character and charac