The construction of the other by the other: the hierarchy categorization of the individual in the scarlet letter’s society

Abstract

In The Scarlet Letter, an American novel written in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne show us the Puritan society of Boston-Massachusetts, which had its power structures dominated by the male social group that, ruled by religious principles, set up a strict social model totally based on hierarchy. In order to reach the community salvation trough the foundation of a Visible Kingdom of God at New England Colony on 17^th century, the colonial Puritanism represented at the novel is seen as the ruler of a oppressive society in which the establishment and recognition of the differences are determinant to the construction and maintenance of that model. The main discussion of this article is the way used by colonial authority to punish with different levels of exclusion every member whose behavior was different than the main social ideal: community salvation. Other point here is to observe the construction of social and cultural gender, how institutions involved on social control are relevant to identify those differences and maintenance of the social hierarchy, main support of that social model.