The Puritan Society Exposed In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Many people think that society has moved on from puritan like rules, social standards, as well as qualities that happened, shown in The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. But it has not. Today is almost as it was nearly 400 years ago, with the same judgment and hypocrisy passed on people who may have “sinned” or have not held to other people’s standards, which those people may not even keep themselves. The puritan religion was ideally about being as pure as one could be. But in almost all parts of their society, there were examples of this hypocrisy such as in the Scarlet Letter, with Hester. Hester was judged by others who had no right to judge her. People who were members of this religion were encouraged to abstain from doing anything …show more content…
Anything from lying to killing to gossiping was considered a sin to them, each with a different punishment. Such as in the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne committed adultery, therefore she had to wear an A on her chest for the rest of her life. There was a certain amount of injustice here, as there is in every society and religion. Here, she thought her husband died, so she had a child with another man. The people who gave her this punishment were very unjust because this is, or can be, overeating to something very simple. Judgment also goes along with injustice. Anything in the Scarlet Letter can be judgment from them condemning her, to their prejudice and criticism of her acts. There were large amounts of hypocrisy as well. Everything the puritans despised, lying, gossiping, and judging, they did themselves. A large amount of things wrong with puritanical society revolves around …show more content…
People have been given injustice since what seems the beginning of time, from ancient times, to puritan times with something like adultery and doing something “bad”, to modern times with something like the criminal justice system. Judgment has also been around forever, like in puritan times with Hester in The Scarlet letter and her choice to become an adulterer, and modern times with things like how people’s opinions of others are primarily based on superficial things like looks. Hypocrisy like the two examples before are deeply rooted in the past and present combined, with close ties to both injustice and judgments, with examples shown almost anywhere you care to look. Times may have changed on the outside from puritan times, but deep down, we’re still there. Huge amount of hypocrisy, injustice, and judgment are and will forever be part of