Who Is Nathaniel Hawthorne Criticize Puritan

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his bold novel, The Scarlet Letter tackles a variety of themes that include: sin, guilt, redemption, postfeminism, and organized religion's abuse of power. Hawthorne spoke in a somber and grim tone, designed to arouse a sense of suspense for his readers. The audience in which he was addressing would have been conservative Christians and women suffragettes, all of whom reflected the ideologies during this time period. By instilling clever diction, Hawthorne exposes hypocrisy in Puritanism and objects against the religion's superfluous punishments; which force individuals to endure unnecessary and extreme suffering.

Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the ideology of Puritan society in the novel the Scarlet Letter; however reader also get to witness his characters being an illustration of hypocrisy and victims to their own guilt. In the Scarlet Letter, as in many of Hawthorne’s shorter works, he makes profuse use of the Puritan past: its odd exclusionary belief, its harsh code of ruling, its concern with sex and witchcraft. The Scarlet Letter is a story that is embellished but yet simple. Many readers may view this novel as a soap opera due to the way Hawthorne conveys this Puritan society’s sense of strictness and inability to express true emotion along with the secrecy and how deceiving the characters are being. As the story unfolds the main character Hester Prynne is bounded in marriage at an early age. She engages in an adulterous affair with an unknown member of their small village. Hester soon becomes pregnant and with her husband’s absence the chances of this child belonging to her husband are slim. The towns’ people know that she has committed a sin and imprisons her for her crime.

Hawthorne was able to show the true intentions and feelings of characters and the relationships between characters. He did this because he wanted the readers to understand that the Puritan society was not as religious or great as it is sometimes portrayed as. Even though their intentions were right with wanting to start a new religious society in the New World, they had their faults. Hawthorne is able to address these through the use of ironies. For example, having the reverend that everyone looks up to and emulates, be suffering from committing a very sinful act. Also, having the townspeople contradict the meaning of the scarlet A, and see it as a positive thing after Hester has just endured the torture of isolation and banishment. Overall, Hawthorne is trying to express his personal views on the Puritan society through the use of

Hawthorne portrays the town children as a reflection of their rigid Puritan society, divulging that children are predestined to obtain the prejudiced beliefs of their societies. Throughout the novel, Puritan society displays a critical attitude towards sin. The Puritan community also believes that when one person has sinned, the entire community is shamed. Thus, Hester is bitterly scorned by the townspeople for her adultery. For instance, as Hester publicly stands on the scaffold, adhering to the strict punishment her society forces upon her, the townspeople’s actions reveal their strict intolerance towards sin. One woman suggests branding Hester upon her forehead for additional punishment, while another states that Hester “has brought shame

Although there were different extents to the punishment, there were penalties nonetheless. As for the Puritans reprimanding there people, it was to an unspeakable note. Not only was the individual often times physically hurt, but emotionally and mentally embarrassed, often times in public on a scaffold. In the case of Hester, Hawthorne makes the reader feel for her immensely. At the same time though, Hawthorne presents that her mistake will cost her the rest of her life in Boston. Hester will have to live with the remembrance of cheating on Chillingworth with Dimmesdale. The letter “A” is a constant recap of the slipup. Hawthorne says “the separation of the intellect from the heart is a truly unpardonable sin.” Christian’s today are disgusted by the act of adultery, but they still accept the person in society. There is no old fashion shunning going on after a person is found with adultery, but the Christian’s still make it clear that committing adultery is blasphemy in two parts. The Christians that the first sacrilege committed when with adultery is breaking the covenant of the couple made with God. The other is taking your own thoughtless needs above

This strictly focuses on the author, instead of a crowd or a room. An experience that is especially notable is the discovery of the scarlet letter. We witness an unbiased man who is unaware of the situation taking note of the letter and it has a strange effect on the reader in that the reader hasn't thought of it without bias. The author explains in regards to the letter " it had been wrought with wonderful skill of needlework and the stitch gives evidence of a forgotten art" (Hawthorne, 296). Starting this book with little background other than the letter means adultery and sex and seeing it described out of context as beautiful and skillful creates a new tone to the rest of the story; it causes the reader to be more open to true symbolism of what the letter actually means. The author's main attitude towards the Puritans are they are hearty God fearing people. He describes them as ruddy, broad, and well developed unlike Hester whom he describes as elegant, ladylike, and feminine (Hawthorne, 4 and 7). This immediately creates a divide between Hester and the Puritan women and also casts Hester as an outsider. This is because she doesn't fit within the majority of women

In the passage from The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne uses detail, diction, and tone to express his view and attitude toward the Puritan community.

   Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne repeatedly portrays the Puritanical views of sin and evil.  The Puritans are constantly displayed as believing that evil comes from an unyielding bond being formed between love and hate.  For such reasons they looked towards Hester's commitment of adultery as an action of pure, condemned evil.  However, through the use of light and dark imagery, Hawthorne displays who truly holds evil in their hearts.  The one who is the embodiment of evil creates hypocrisy of Puritanical views towards sin and evil.  Hawthorne displays that those who expose sin to the public and the daylight are the most pure and those who conceal their sin under a

The Puritanical society is one founded on religion, dedication, and judgement. The harsh straight backboned people took poorly to any shift away from their rules, as demonstrated in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter with the damnation of unwed mother Hester Prynne. Often accompanied with judgement is hypocrisy, and ironically the book they devoted their entire life with states “him that is without sin among you first cast the stone” (John 8:7). Hawthorne exploits this broken society by noting how it changes the two main recipients of grief: Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale.

Hawthorne’s work takes America’s Puritan past as its subject, but The Scarlet Letter uses the material to the greatest effect. The Puritans were

Having grown up with Puritan ancestry, Nathanial Hawthorne well understood their philosophies and shortcomings. In his book The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne makes a statement regarding the standards of Puritan society and the frailties of human nature. Puritan life was marked by living an undefiled life as defined by the Bible. As punishment for committing adultery, Hester Prynne is sentenced to wear the scarlet letter A upon her bosom for the extent of her life.

Hawthorne uses certain words to create a negative connotation upon the Puritans. Hawthorne introduces this concept by having a woman speak out against Hester and say, “I’ll tell ye a piece of my mind. It would be greatly for the public behoof, if we women, being of mature age and church-members in good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne. What ye think gossips? If the hussy stood up for judgement before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I trow not!” (Hawthorne 48). Hawthorne’s word choice creates a prudish and snotty image of the women. He uses frightening terms such as hussy and malefactresses to show the degrading of Hester. All of the women agree with the one Puritan lady Hawthorne describes as, “a hard featured dame of fifty,” (Hawthorne 48). Just by that introduction alone, a reader can sense the tension towards the Puritans. Some critics may state that Hawthorne dramatizes the Puritan community, but he is lenient by having one woman almost defend Hester. Nonetheless, his negative diction picks right back up after her statement. Hawthorne has an ability to use a great amount of words to specifically indicate his points. Another time Hawthorne uses diction when again talking about the Puritan children. Hawthorne is seen again speaking against the children by stating, “As the two wayfarers came within the precincts of the town, the children of the Puritans looked up from their play,-or what passed for play with those somber little urchins,- and spake gravely one to another:-…” (Hawthorne 91). Hawthorne shows no mercy in his word choice for the youth of the society. Innocence with these folk did not exist in his mindset when it comes down to it. Out of the few times he uses children as an unfavorable group, this quote

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a man who was both plagued and absorbed by the legacy of the Puritans in New England. He was related to John Hathorne, a Puritan judge during the infamous Salem Witch trials of 1692. In The Scarlet Letter, his fictional account of mid-17th century Boston presents an opportunity to examine different themes commonly associated with Puritans. Particularly the nature of sin, personal identity and the repression of natural urges are themes that appear repeatedly through the novel. While his account of this time period may not be completely historically accurate, it is indicative of the persistent thematic influence of Puritan culture on American and New England society.

Nathaniel Hawthorne Critiques Puritan Society in His Works, Young Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter

In the Puritan society the outlandish mindset of the leaders caused more harm than good with the witch trials in Salem to the events mentioned in The Scarlet Letter. Sin and evil the new world cloud the vision of the citizens, yet they are two separate actions and have different definitions. Hawthorne explains the difference between the two in the novel and also shows off his famous skill of questioning a society’s rules, regulations, and social structure. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses his writing style of ambiguity, and ornate word choice to relay his opinion of the puritan society. Characters, quotes, and symbols give us a snapshot of the time and thoughts on events and ideas during the era. Hawthorne’s characters are a