Can any of you help me with my essay on The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

Question

I have to write an essay this summer for ap english. I'm supposed to "show how Hawthorne makes specific use of his characters for establishing, revealing, controlling and, if present, resolving conflicts of human nature and society, for example, the conflict between worshipping nature or a god or making decisions based on science versus intuition."

What exactly am i supposed to write about?
what does he mean by "conflicts of human nature and society?"

Any help is much appreciated, thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Have you read the book because that might answer many of your questions?

The book is about the conflict of religious ideation of women being chaste before marriage and a "man of the cloth" also being chaste outside of marriage. The conflict is that she is punished not him, by the double standard of the "times." Worse, he is part of the system that condemns her to the "A" for her sexuality.

The conflicts of nature are the natural sexual urges of human beings verses the rules of society. Society would want both of them to be married to each other before have an intimate, sexual relationship.

You have grown up in a society, predicated from the 1960's era of "free love", that having sexual relations and even children outside of the bounds of marriage is acceptible. However, in the time of this book not only have sex but bearing children was considered a social ill that the women was punished for, as well as the child "label illegitinate."

Read the book, especially the end, for the resolution to this conflict of morality verses human sexual needs.

Answer 2

what it means is to write about how hawthorne shows "conflicts of human nature and society". i personally would write about how human nature and society tend to point fingers. they need a scapegoat to blame things on. if you've read the book, i'm sure you'll know which character is the scapegoat ;) good luck