Hawthorne makes it very clear in The Scarlet Letter that he believes the Puritans, while not inherently corrupt, are a morally ambiguous people who don’t know how to run a fair government or justice system. They have intertwined religion and law to the degree that their government is a glorified theocracy that enables the Puritans and oppresses all others under the premise of religious superiority. This creates an unhealthily violent society where “the mildest and severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful” which is an act that both cheapens acts that are truly awful and simultaneously makes minor offenses into life-shattering events that in some cases remove the usefulness of individuals from society. This is
