Sacred to Secular

[ajl]

We've discussed many instances of the sacred-secular revision in the pieces we've read, such as The Crucible, when the witchcraft accusations became motivated by revenge rather than ridding Salem of diabolism.

Would a potential case of sacred-secular revision in the Scarlet Letter be how Hester changes the "ignonimous letter" to one of glamorous commercialism; the fine handiwork of the letter advertises her abilities as a seamstress, and the Puritans take her up on it, revising the 'A' from a symbol of sin (sacred) to a symbol of skill (secular)?

[twin1]

I think that a better example of a move from sacred to secular would be the letter, not that fact that it is ignominious, but the fact that it is meant to punish Hester. The townspeople use God's alleged d**nation of adultery, which is sacred, to justify making Hester an outcast and becoming God’s magistrates, dolling out His punishment. This act of punishing Hester to carry out God’s will soon becomes secular, as Hester becomes, “the general symbol as which the priest and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman’s frailty and sinful passion” (76). In this, the reader can see that that the purpose of Hester’s punishment no longer serves as an act of God’s will but rather satisfies the needs of the consensus.