Puritans In The Scarlett Letter

As the sun’s blazing rays scorched the town square, the huge crowd that had gathered around the scaffold stared menacingly. The figure of a child being hung could barely be seen from the ground as the sun’s rays were too strong to get a clear look. The crowd was frantically gossiping about the calamity that had just occurred. Apparently, this boy had cursed his parents and was put to death publicly because his misbehavior went against one of God's sacred commandments. This is an example of one of the strict laws colonial Puritan society enforced. The Puritans were an authoritative, repressive, and God-centered society that dished out harsh punishments for crude actions such as disgracing God. The etiquette is very strict and all Puritans are expected to adhere to it but in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are many instances where the Puritans do not adhere

However, in The Scarlet Letter, after Hester had committed her sin of adultery and received her punishment (the “A”), the women were anything but polite. If Hester was seen in public, her existence was shunned, she was criticized, yelled at, and things were even thrown at her. In the Bible, which the Puritans strictly followed, Jesus said to his followers, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Instead of being merciful and kind towards Hester, the women were scornful and could care less about her. To repent for her sin, Hester started to commit herself to serving the less fortunate of the society, such as the poor. Although Hester started to act in a completely selfless way, she still received the same amount of hatred she did years ago when she stood upon the scaffold and received her scarlet letter. As seen above, the evidence proves that the Puritan women were going against the polite etiquette they were supposed to follow and the lesson Jesus taught in the