Puritanism

and defies the mindset of the puritan people. This symbol, or idea, is presented in its finest when Dimmesdale gives his verbal and physical confession Hawthorne uses the people themselves as symbols of an unbending, disclosed, grim underside of puritanism that lurked beneath the public piety. Some of Hawthorne 's symbols were not as straight foreword as that, however, and their meaning changed throughout the novel, or didn 't change at all – such as Reverend Mr. Wilson who was an accurate…

The legal tradition depicted in the film is Puritan Law. The roots of Puritanism go back to its split from the from the Church of England in the late 1500’s and over time Puritans left England and many of them settled in the then colony of English colony known as New England where they were free to practice their religion and…

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Gothic Romance, The Scarlet Letter, encircles Boston society during the era of Puritanism. Hawthorne introduces Hester Prynne on the town scaffold, wearing her stamp of shame—the scarlet letter—and holds her infant tight in fear of being punished for committing adultery. The infant, Pearl Prynne, flourishes into a stubborn, wild-child whose clever and inquisitive nature exceeds any child her age. While Pearl is confined within a bubble of solitude, she is left to wonder…

Malvolio Malvolio has an important role to play in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Through Malvolio, Shakespeare makes many important points about the puritans of his era. He uses Malvolio to outline many problems that he saw with these people, creating a character whose flaws are quite apparent, and somewhat exaggerated. He is not only the antagonist, but also an important social statement. Malvolio is a man of low moral character and condemns others in order to bring himself up. Malvolio is a…

Parris experienced violent and strange fits in 1692 in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. According to more recent scientific studies, the cause of these unholy symptoms were most likely caused by the fungus ergot. Due to the widespread worship of Puritanism at the time, this behavior was thought to be caused by devilish witchcraft. Tituba, Reverend Samuel Parris’s slave, was accused of bewitching the girls. The two girls also claimed that Sarah Good and Sarah Osborn were involved. Thus, these…

The Not so Puritans Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne presents his negative attitudes towards Puritans and their views. In the first chapter, Hawthorne describes the Puritans in a dark and gloomy light and projected civilization, in general, in a dark manner by referring to the prison as a “black flower” (Hawthorne, 477). Hawthorne projected his negative attitudes by assembling situations, in which the reactions and actions taken by the Puritans portray them as judgmental,…

Arthur Dimmesdale: How Living a Lie Leaves One In The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale begins as the perfect image of a Puritan, a saint in the eyes off all the townspeople. However, Arthur Dimmesdale is nothing but a human, a mere representative of all who are capable of sin, a human who makes mistakes, just like all of the characters in this novel. However, out of all the characters that the reader becomes familiar with in the novel, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale alone completely changes.…

The Putnams were a large, very powerful family who lived in Salem around the time of the trials. The Putnam’s believed individualism was clashing with the communal nature of Puritanism. The Putnams felt that the large farming families were completely isolated from the rest of the town and amassed a large quantity of wealth. The Putnams were acknowledged leaders of a separatist group. This separatist group owned most of the farming…

The Salem Witch Trials began in 1692 and were known as one of the worst outbreaks to happen in New England, due to the fact that Salem magistrates jailed and executed more people compared to any other witchcraft trial in New England. Religion and gender both played a huge role during the Salem Witch Trials in the seventeenth century, as religion was one of the major driving forces behind the trials as Samuel Parris’ sermons about the devil made people paranoid and helped spreading the…

He also uses themes like innocence and love, good versus evil in man, and Puritanism. In Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, he portrayed many themes, including: revenge, guilt and blame, and women and femininity. The main plot of the Scarlet Letter was when a woman named Hester had to wear the letter A onto her clothing for everyone…