Imagine two societies: today’s society and Puritan society. In today’s society, people are exposed and accepting of diverse races, religions, political stances, etcetera, but in Puritan society, people weren’t approving or open to the concepts we uphold today. One facet (the way people view others decisions) of these societies can demonstrate how diverse each society is. How could these two societies have any relationship towards one another? Simply, the singular facet that differs these two societies, also links them in similar ways. Both today’s society and Puritan’s society, can be compared through the way they view crimes, the way they determine when to shame people, and the way the shaming is handled. Today’s society and Puritan’s society
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The difference between the view of a crime in the two societies is the level of how severe a certain crime is. Crimes like theft or murder are viewed similarly, but crimes like adultery are not. In today’s world, adultery is fairly common and not as much frowned upon as it is in the Puritan’s world. Our society has come to an understanding of an individual’s choices (to an extent), including those like adultery, but Puritan society didn’t exactly have the same knowledge that we do today. Puritan society thought differently of adultery, simply because, they were devoted religious Protestants. So, committing adultery is a serious act against the Puritans religion. For example, in The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is punished for committing adultery. Chillingsworth is asking around about Hester and why she is being shamed and someone tells him, “you would surely have heard of Mistress Hester Prynne, and her evil doings. She hath raised a great scandal” (Hawthorne 42). The Scarlet Letter gives the perfect example of how they feel about a simple crime like adultery. This proves how our society differs from Puritan’s in how severe the believe certain crimes to …show more content…
Instead of imagining all the defining features of these two societies that makes them different, think of all the qualities that they both possess that make them similar. From today’s society and Puritan’s society, there are several characteristics that they have that can compare the two in similar and different ways. Both Puritan’s society and today’s society, view crime in a manner that it shouldn’t be done. Puritan’s believe crime should be dealt with on a religious scale and today’s people believe it should be done on a court scale. Both Puritan’s society and today’s society, share the line of boundaries of when to shame someone. Puritan’s base that boundary on their religion and we base that boundary off of what we believe to be justice. Both Puritan society and today’s society, are similar in the way that they both publicly shame their people. Puritan society does it on a smaller scale and today’s society does it on a larger
The difference between the view of a crime in the two societies is the level of how severe a certain crime is. Crimes like theft or murder are viewed similarly, but crimes like adultery are not. In today’s world, adultery is fairly common and not as much frowned upon as it is in the Puritan’s world. Our society has come to an understanding of an individual’s choices (to an extent), including those like adultery, but Puritan society didn’t exactly have the same knowledge that we do today. Puritan society thought differently of adultery, simply because, they were devoted religious Protestants. So, committing adultery is a serious act against the Puritans religion. For example, in The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is punished for committing adultery. Chillingsworth is asking around about Hester and why she is being shamed and someone tells him, “you would surely have heard of Mistress Hester Prynne, and her evil doings. She hath raised a great scandal” (Hawthorne 42). The Scarlet Letter gives the perfect example of how they feel about a simple crime like adultery. This proves how our society differs from Puritan’s in how severe the believe certain crimes to …show more content…
Instead of imagining all the defining features of these two societies that makes them different, think of all the qualities that they both possess that make them similar. From today’s society and Puritan’s society, there are several characteristics that they have that can compare the two in similar and different ways. Both Puritan’s society and today’s society, view crime in a manner that it shouldn’t be done. Puritan’s believe crime should be dealt with on a religious scale and today’s people believe it should be done on a court scale. Both Puritan’s society and today’s society, share the line of boundaries of when to shame someone. Puritan’s base that boundary on their religion and we base that boundary off of what we believe to be justice. Both Puritan society and today’s society, are similar in the way that they both publicly shame their people. Puritan society does it on a smaller scale and today’s society does it on a larger