Hypocrisy Of The Puritan Society

[H]e which would have suer peace and joye in Christianitye, must not ayme at a condition retyred from the world and free from temptations, but to knowe that the life which is most exercised with tryalls and temptations is the sweetest, and will prove the safeste. For such tryalls as fall within compasse of our callinges, it is better to arme and withstande them than to avoide and shunne them. -John Winthrop

The Puritans arrived in the New World in the hopes of “purifying” the Church of England. They practiced certain principles that they believed in and that centered around the idea of God. The main purpose of their journey to New England was to set an example to others how the Church should be, and so their motive for settlement was solely related to religion. The Puritans positively influenced the political, economic, and social development of the New England colonies from 1630 through the 1660s because they were a “city upon a hill” that served as an example to other parts of the world as a result of their strong belief in God.

The puritans were a religious group made up of people who wanted to "purify," the Church of England. The puritans were activist that wanted to get rid of the catholic system within the church. However, people in England sought out to remove these groups of people from the area because they saw them as a threat to their religion. This is how the puritans ended up in Massachusetts Bay Colony. The puritans moved to this colony in hopes of recreating and ideal community, a "utopian" society that others could look up to. The puritans ideal community consisted of peace and partnership; they wanted to remove all evil and improve the quality of life. The puritans then became strict to ensure that every person was equivalent in the eyes of God. I think the religion puritans created casted a fear in other people especially in England because they are so used to being ruled under one king. The

3. Roger Williams a Salem minister that was an extreme separatist. He challenged the authority of civil government to regulate religious behavior, which was the Puritans idea of governments sole purpose.

When King Henry VIII broke ties with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530’s, he proclaimed himself head of the Church of England. This occurred only a few years after Martin Luther nailed his 91 theses on the Church of Wittenberg and another religious reformer, John Calvin, brought new ideas to the forefront. Calvin proclaimed that one was pre-destined to be eternally blessed or damned from birth. One had no control over this, and works could not put you in to heaven. The unknowing is what drove the Puritans to such great lengths. In the excerpt from Document A from John Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Society, predestination and the basic ideals of the Puritans are laid out. The Protestant Reformation was thus in full swing as the Church

When the first wave of European immigrants faced the hardships of the voyage across the tumultuous Atlantic Ocean, these English Puritans had hopes of a future free from the harsh persecutions and injustices they were subjected to in 17th century England. Puritans values were documented in the writings of such immigrants such as “A Model of Christian Charity”, written by John Winthrop while aboard the Arabella in 1630, and “The Mayflower Compact”, a constitution-like document drafted and signed by the men on board The Mayflower in 1620. In the former, Winthrop emphasized the significance of maintaining unity under God and sharing in the struggles of one another so that the burdens and hardships of one are those of the community as well as the Puritans arrived in the New World. Similarly, “The Mayflower Compact” encouraged unity and equality through the formation of a civil political body to enact governing laws and constitutions that would uphold their societal and religious values to promote equality and justice for all. Despite such principles that the Pilgrims believed they were instating during the formation of the New World, I believe these values were quickly distorted, leading to a biased and prejudiced society that prevails today. Through the analysis of the history of early America, it is evident to me that though the Puritans left England as the persecuted and claimed to aspire to a just society, they arrived in the New World as persecutors of those whose beliefs

Hypocrisy is a belief that is also strongly expressed in the novel. A character who accurately demonstrates this belief is Governor Richard Bellingham. In the beginning of the novel, he is introduced as a luxurious man with elegant embroidered clothes: “He wore a dark feather in his hat, a border of embroidery on his cloak, and a black velvet tunic beneath” (Hawthorne 60). This is ironic because the Puritans in Hester’s society were against embroidery and elaborate clothing. In fact, they were known to dress in mostly dull and drab colors and fabrics. This is seen in the beginning of the novel, when there is “A throng of bearded men in sad-colored garments, and gray, steeple-crowned hats” (Hawthorne 45) waiting to catch a glimpse of Hester as she leaves the jailhouse. This is also seen when they disprove of Hester’s embellishments on the dresses she makes for herself and for others: “So

The Puritans led their lives according to a strict moral code, centered around religion, which they had followed and conformed to. In addition conformity, Puritans believed, was crucial to uniting the community, and therefore resulted in anti-individualistic beliefs. However, when they deviated from the religious code they were threatened with banishment from the community and often experienced public shaming. Also the Puritans, whom had come to the colonies seeking religious freedom for themselves, cultivated a society that was intolerant of the practice of religious freedom for others. The Puritan influence enabled conformist tendencies based around a religious moral code which did not tolerate for deviation of Puritan beliefs that ultimately sacrificed individualism.

Massachusetts Bay Colony’s Puritan community defined sin as anything that “deviated from the highest aspirations of the Puritan founders” (“Reading the American Past” 68). The Puritans attempted to create a godly community by trying to diminish what they considered sins. They most certainly failed at creating this type of society.

Through the dark description of the forest and prison, Hawthorne shows the hypocrisy in the society due to the fact that the Puritans are sinful. The very first descriptions of the town are a prison and a graveyard, the two most essential things the society needs. The society has “a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pigweed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison”(Hawthorne 2). Prisons represent crime and the punishment in society, which grows from sin. Hawthorne compares the prison to a “black flower” which implies the growth of something evil in society. The Puritans know they are all but pure when the first structure they agree to put in the society is a prison. They should not be as judgmental to those who sin because the

The New England colonies were founded by English Puritans. While most Puritans sought to purify the Church of England from within, and not to break away from it, a small group of Separatiststhe Pilgrimsfounded the first small, pious Plymouth Colony in New England. More important was the larger group of nonseparating Puritans, led by John Winthrop, who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony as part of the great migration of Puritans fleeing persecution in England in the 1630s.

In the early 1600’s, there was a group of Christians seeking religious freedom called the Puritans.They were thought to be spreading God’s love but what were really their intentions? Many accounts show the Puritans as good-natured people but some believe that the Puritans were manipulative and deceiving. Anne Bradstreet’s poem “ Upon the Burning of Our House” and Pastor Jonathan Edwards’s sermon, “ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” are both Puritan influenced bodies of works,however contradictory tactics are used to lead non-believers to God.

It is obvious to anyone who has a true understanding of the Puritans, to come to

The Puritans were a very religious people that wished to escape religious persecution in order to spread their beliefs to others. In their point of view, there was nothing wrong with what they did at all. Their reason for leaving was religious freedom, but their way of thinking was mean. For people that felt attacked and persecuted for following a certain religion, they were certainly not polite to anybody who had opposing views. In other words, they did not treat others as they wanted to be treated.

The forest in the novel the scarlet letter is described by the puritans as a place that is “untamed” meaning that there is no laws being upheld, but how well do the puritans uphold and follow their own laws (Hawthorne 182). In the scarlet letter Hawthorne is portraying the hypocritical nature of the puritans, that they value status and reputation over justice, through the use of the minor character mistress Hibbins In the scarlet letter the puritan system is favorable to the affluent people. mistress Hibbins is one of those affluent people. She is the “governor Bellingham’s sister” and even though she is a “reputed witch lady” being the sister of the governor holds more value in the eyes of the puritans (104, 201).