Visions Of Utopia: "The Scarlet Letter" vs. PleasantvilleIn both "The Scarlet Letter" and "Pleasantville," there is an image of utopia, a perfect world that has been created and everyone that lives inside of it is happy with their lives and couldn't wish for anything better. Also in both utopias there is something or someone that challenges the "perfect" world because they do not believe it is perfect and thinks that it needs to be changed. In both stories those that cannot accept the change immediately try to attack it and stop it in any way possible. An outsider or a new member of the community brings passion and new ideas to the society and disrupts their view and existence of a perfect life. Passion brings on sin, which then brings on change and there are a lot of people that can't handle that change so they try to fight to preserve their way of life, the safe life, the "perfect" life.In "The Scarlet Letter," Hester is the one who challenges the Utopia of the puritans. The puritans live in a world that is absent of color and everyone is hard working and is very loyal to god. Hester chose to challenge the utopia of her time by first committing adultery which challenged the idea of that adultery was a sin and that was breaking god's laws. Hester also challenged this so-called "perfect" world by making the "A" on her chest very extravagant and colorful. It was as if she almost wanted people to notice the "A" and pay attention to it. The puritans that saw the "A" were fortified to see that she was showing off something that was supposed to be a punishment for the great sin that she had committed. The whole town is so upset over what has happened that they slowly start to change and eventually something that was the talk of the town when it happened slowly faded away to nothing to the village people. Even though the utopia in the puritan town was disturbed they were able to move around it and forget and move on with their lives like a...
