Integrity+notes

Integrity – Hypocrisy –
 * Having strong moral principles, honest
 * Being whole, undivided
 * Stating one set of beliefs, but living differently (usually less honestly)

Hester
 * Lives an honest life
 * Has no alternative
 * Also a life of integrity
 * Does what she feels is right
 * Considers what should change in the world – keeps it to herself, mostly
 * Believes all of society should be torn down and rebuilt
 * So women can live happily, fairly
 * Thinks this at home – not in town
 * At edge of forest
 * For Hawthorne, nature allows us to connect to larger truths
 * This is Hawthorne’s 1850 p.o.v.
 * Puritan society is Hawthorne’s stand-in for all society
 * All societies make rules
 * Puritans made an extreme version

Chillingworth –
 * Pretends to be a good member of society
 * Underneath it all, his focus is on torturing Dimmesdale
 * Hypocritical

Dimmesdale –
 * Lives hypocritically through most of the story
 * Standing on the scaffold mid-story
 * Middle of the night
 * Won’t really confess