In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne criticizes the Puritan religion by telling us a story of Hester Prynne, an adulteress. The story brings to us many vivid example of the Puritans and what they did that seemed so hypocritical to Hawthorne. And he uses many rhetorical strategies throughout the novel to show his disapproval of the Puritan ways and what they stood for.
Hawthorne’s disdain for the Puritans is shown through his irony and diction when he first introduces us to the colony of Boston, Massachusetts. The colony was a so-called “Utopia of human virtue and happiness” which ironically had an “ugly edifice…a grass plot, much overgrown with burdock, pigweed, apple peru, and such unsightly vegetation…[and] the black flower of civilized …show more content…
Hester, a seamstress, was sought for by many because of her needlework, but she “was [never] called in aid to embroider the white veil which was to cover the pure blushes of a bride” (Hawthorne 86) because they thought that since Hester was impure, she would somehow stain the purity of the bride who wore the dress. This shows how Hawthorne dislikes the fact that the Puritans were narrow-minded and ignorant because they made decisions based on superstition, a figment of their imagination, rather than a logical one, based upon facts. To build up on Hawthorne’s dislike for the Puritans we can use the example of Hester Prynne at church. Whenever Hester Prynne “entered a church, trusting to share the Sabbath smile of the Universal Father, it was often her mishap to find herself the text of the discourse” (88). Hawthorne found this very hypocritical of the Puritans because their lives were based on the Bible and they used the Bible as a guide to eternal life and the Bible says not to gossip and put themselves above other but that is what the Puritans did to Hester Prynne. They looked down at the “poor, sinful [Hester]” with a “mingled grin and frown” (88) because she committed the sin of adultery. By mocking Hester and by looking down on her the colonists also became sinners which gave them no right to call her a sinner, making them
Hawthorne’s disdain for the Puritans is shown through his irony and diction when he first introduces us to the colony of Boston, Massachusetts. The colony was a so-called “Utopia of human virtue and happiness” which ironically had an “ugly edifice…a grass plot, much overgrown with burdock, pigweed, apple peru, and such unsightly vegetation…[and] the black flower of civilized …show more content…
Hester, a seamstress, was sought for by many because of her needlework, but she “was [never] called in aid to embroider the white veil which was to cover the pure blushes of a bride” (Hawthorne 86) because they thought that since Hester was impure, she would somehow stain the purity of the bride who wore the dress. This shows how Hawthorne dislikes the fact that the Puritans were narrow-minded and ignorant because they made decisions based on superstition, a figment of their imagination, rather than a logical one, based upon facts. To build up on Hawthorne’s dislike for the Puritans we can use the example of Hester Prynne at church. Whenever Hester Prynne “entered a church, trusting to share the Sabbath smile of the Universal Father, it was often her mishap to find herself the text of the discourse” (88). Hawthorne found this very hypocritical of the Puritans because their lives were based on the Bible and they used the Bible as a guide to eternal life and the Bible says not to gossip and put themselves above other but that is what the Puritans did to Hester Prynne. They looked down at the “poor, sinful [Hester]” with a “mingled grin and frown” (88) because she committed the sin of adultery. By mocking Hester and by looking down on her the colonists also became sinners which gave them no right to call her a sinner, making them