Innocent victims appear very often in literature. Anti-transcendentalist authors often make their protagonists victims of strictly enforced harsh rules or malice to prove their pessimistic point. An example of such is Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", or Herman Melville's "Billy Budd, Sailor". In both stories, the protagonists are depicted as victims of strict circumstances, strictly enforced rules and hatred. However, the characters are guilty victims that are punished too severely. Billy Budd, in Herman Melville's …showed first 75 words of 547 total…

…showed last 75 words of 547 total…cruelly punished Hester for a simple crime of adultery. In conclusion, both Billy Budd and Hester Prynne were guilty victims. Both of them were victims of strict rules that are harshly enforced, and both of them could have prevented their own downfalls. The only difference is that Billy paid with his life threw dying, Hester paid without dying. Anti-transcendentalist authors often make their protagonists victims of strict rules or hatred to prove their pessimistic point.