Puritan Society In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

In the seventeenth century, Puritans were feared and venerated as a domineering culture, imposing strict punishment on anyone who failed to abide by their moral code. Puritan society left no room for human error, nor did it care to heed to the protests of any malcontent who might taint its religious and social uniformity. It is not that the Puritans were “bigots,” but simply that they wanted to fulfill their religious plan without the interference of anyone who did not hold their beliefs or was not aware of their objective (Park 63). Thus, while purification of the Church of England was the initial Puritan objective, this aspiration soon became obscured by greed and the incontrollable voracity for power (Park 74). As a result, Puritan society befell to coercion and discrimination. For many, the system was the rhythm to their life, without which they would be lost. However, many were targeted by the Puritans. Among these subjugated individuals were a number of women. Female inferiority was a persistent issue in Puritan society, leading women to become undermined and abused. Out of their misfortune, many women had no choice but to fight for reform, some more consciously than others (Doubleday 827). In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism and characterization to highlight

In “Anne Hutchinson and the Puritan Attitude toward Women,” Barker-Benfield explores the Puritan belief that “the ‘human intellect’ best fitted to struggle in the coils of covenant theology was the one closest to God, that is, it was male” (69). Men were the leaders of the church and all religious institutions. Unlike women, they were believed to be born into the “‘priesthood of all believers,’” which made them closer to God by nature (66). Thus, Puritans lived in a “patriarchal society” that subdued women and denied their right to salvation