How Does The Puritans Affect Society

Love is misunderstood and is oddly compared with sin, creating confusion within the Puritan Society, manipulating how they react and punish their community. The Puritans do not take into consideration how an outcast may influence society for the better or revolutionize societal norms. In The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the society is shaped by their conception of love and human nature. The Puritans have no idea what true human nature and love feels like, and therefore their society has not been shaped at all. Society lacks the knowledge of where the feeling of love will take them and some believe they will not understand love unless they have committed a “sin.” Society is not certain whether their actions will be deserving …show more content…
The literary theme, irony discloses that women are fearful of love in the novel. As Hester helps these women, she does not realize that she does not have to be an angel in order to be a “prophetess” and prove that love can make people happy. It is ironic that Hester has more sorrow and sin, and she is more educated and experienced with this topic, making her more of a prophet than any angel could portray. If angels were the only beings that experience love, that love would be fake. Angels only experience superficial happiness and never make a deep connection with what they love or even become upset by love, also creating happiness in some cases. The Puritan society is comparable to the angels in this situation. As gathered from the secondary source, students reading the Scarlet Letter “didn’t see any connections between the literature required in the curriculum and their lives” (Whitaker). On a bigger scale, the angels’ fake happiness and inability to connect with the true meaning of love is similar to how society does not allow themselves to connect to love. Not only is it ironic that people fear love, but it is also ironic that Hester Prynne 's grave is located on the burial-ground next to the King 's Chapel. For a woman who was made out to be the ultimate sinner, one would think that she would not be held at the honor of being buried next to or on church grounds. Does this represent a new beginning for how love will be perceived or has it been this way all along and society has not accepted it? It seems that Hester tries to be more optimistic and attempts to change society’s viewpoint on love, but society does not change. By burying Hester on church grounds, a message is sent to society that love is natural and should be honored. Irony and the way it is subtly written in