After reading the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne I came to believe that Adultery is a terrible thing and can have very bad repercussions, especially in the early to mid 1700s. Back then committing adultery was a very serious offense to not the just the community but to your family also. Adultery used to destroy family relationships and to this day it still does. Adultery is also more of a religious problem but also goes into social and legal consequences. When it talks about social consequences it is things like being exposed to the whole town and everyone knows what you did, things were very strict when it came to adultery.
Not only were you exposed but because adultery was taking so seriously, whoever committed the crime could be incarcerated, adultery was treated as if it were a real legal law. the big parts of adultery are things like, religious problems because pretty much everyone was the same religion. social consequences were also another big thing, you would basically be shunned by the whole community and everyone will know you for committing adultery. Adultery was so serious in the mid 1700s that it interfered and would be treated as if it were a real legal law, you can go to jail.
In regards to the Scarlet Letter you can even have a huge “A” put on your chest so everyone knows you committed adultery. ‘Back in the mid 1700s pretty much everyone that lived in the same town were pretty much the same religion, not only were they strict against adultery but also religion. The most common religion in the mid 1700s was christianity, it was considered objectionable on social, religious, moral or legal grounds.
The Hebrew Bible even prohibits adultery in the Seventh Commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery. It talks about capital punishment for adultery between a man and married woman. Back then they used to kill both people who were involved in the adultery, that’s how strict christianity but luckily in the Scarlet Letter they didn’t do that to Hester Prynne. The reason why they didn’t was most likely because they didn’t know who the other person involved was and because she was pregnant. “I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid…. But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel…
They should bring out the damsel and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die. This quote taken from the Hebrew bible just proves of what could have happened to Hester Prynne and how strict the religion was towards this. Hester Prynne got very lucky. Social consequences were a very important thing and basically evaluated you in the eye of the townspeople, whatever social consequence it was it would basically affect the opinion that people will have on you and who you will be known as, reputation was a very important thing in the 1700s and even today.
Adultery even though was considered as more of a religious problem it was a real legal law. In common law, adultery was a felony. Although the real definition of adultery is different in almost every legal system, the common theme is, “sexual relations outside of marriage, in one form or another. ” Usually many cultures are very strict about adultery so it is seen as a “double standard” which gives committing the crime a worse consequence. In the 1700s adultery was considered the highest invasion of property.
Usually children that were born out of adultery had a very hard time. Usually kids that were born because of adultery were made fun of or called a sin as they were never supposed to happen, a mistake. Adultery not only affected the parents but also the children that were born because of it. Even though adultery was serious back then some placed were more lenient with it and it didn’t matter that much. I believe that this is true because Boston was one of the most religious places in the United States at the time.
Adultery is also considered as a criminal conversation. This came to be because of compensation for the other’s spouses injury because of the civil tort. People always ask why it was so wrong and why there was so many consequences to adultery and how it isn’t even that serious but what people don’t know is that it was abolished for some time so it was basically illegal. Because it was abolished the consequences we’re talking about here aren’t little ones. Consequences were things like death by stoning, incarceration for long periods of time, and public humiliation.
You’re entire business was put out there and you couldn’t do anything about it. Legal issues regarding who the father of the baby was after the adultery was committed were very important and a thing that was fought over, so much that they had to make a law about it. The paternity of children born out of adultery has been seen as a major issue. Most countries nevertheless have a legal presumption that a woman’s husband is the father of her children who were born during that marriage.
Many jurisdictions have laws which restrict the possibility of legal rebuttal (for instance by creating a legal time limit during which paternity may be challenged – such as a certain number of years from the birth of the child) Establishing correct paternity may have major legal implications. Children born out of adultery suffered. In France, for example, a law that stated that the inheritance rights of a child born under such circumstances were, on the part of the married parent, half of what they would have been under ordinary circumstances. France was forced to change it by a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights.
There has been a trend of legally favoring the right to a relation between the child and its biological father, rather than preserving the appearance. For example a German man who had fathered twins with a married woman, granting him right of contact with the twins, despite the fact that the mother and her husband had forbidden him to see the children. As you can see, adultery was taken very seriously in the mid 1700s and the consequences were even fatal depending on where you were and what your conditions were. There were many problems within the problem of adultery itself, it was so much because the problem was so big and important.
Some of these problems were religious problems because pretty much everyone was the same religion, social consequences were also another big thing, you would basically be shunned by the whole community and everyone will know you for committing adultery. Adultery was so serious in the mid 1700s that it interfered and would be treated as if it were a real legal law. Trying to find out who the father of the baby was also very hard at the time because there was no technology or tests how there are today. Religious problems were one of the most serious ones because religion was one of the most important things at that time.
Social consequences were also important because it’s how you were known and your reputation at the time. The legal part of committing adultery was the most important because it made the law important in the first place and if it never was to be, people could get away with adultery which would’ve been very bad. The legal issues with finding out who the father of the baby was very important because the child should have the chance to be raised and with it’s real father. Because of these four things people got punished for the sin they committed and not only caught but exposed.