The Scarlet Letter is a popular novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne which is mainly read during one's high school years. The Scarlet letter is set during the sixteenth century in Boston Massachusetts where a young woman named Hester Prynne is publicly shamed by the Puritans. When Hawthorne was writing this novel he described the puritans as a sad, bland society which had a reliance on the consequence of sin. His description of the Puritan society was not fully opinion-based since the Puritans that came over from England did dress simply. This leads the reader to wonder how much of his personal opinion made its way into the story and how much is historical fact. When Hawthorne wrote the Scarlet Letter was his judgment biased due to his abhor feeling towards the Puritans or was it truthful?
The Puritan society is portrayed as a happy, perfect, society without the need for sin, however, there are things camouflaged by the way Hawthorne writes. Hawthorne implies from the first chapter that the puritans followed rules and when a scandal is caused by Hester Prynne their truth about how they act is publicly shown. Hester Prynne ended up getting pregnant by a man who is unknown despite that she is not
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The Puritans were not quick to start spreading the drama throughout the town even though they were “good and perfect”. Hawthorne calls out the puritan in the scarlet letter by “..being of the most intolerant brood that ever lived,”(pg.) along with that the puritans quickly avoided Hester and Pearl Prynne. Hawthorne writes that the parents would tell their children to not play with the demon child which is what Pearl was called. They would stare straight at Hester and her daughter along with gossiping behind them. What the puritans were saying was not always just one way, some of what the Puritans were saying was extremely hypocritical since they acted similarly to the