Hawthorne's View of the Puritan Society
Hawthorne’s View of the Puritan Society
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, he reveals through his cynical narrator, a description of vile disdain for the Puritan community. Using diction and carefully employed position of language, his opinion of their character is greatly projected on the screen of the reader's mind. The narrator is able to acutely reveal the hypocrisy and savage disposition that encapsulated the religious Puritans.
The readers are shown the irony behind the hypocritical Puritans through vigilant word choice. For example the narrator states that "It might be that an Antinomian, a Quaker, or other heterodox religionist was to be scourged out of town..." (Hawthorne 44). Through carefully making sure to use a few dissimilar religious factions, the reader is led to believe that the Puritans think themselves superior and enhanced in moral standing. Hawthorne is cautious, using no pluralism of each religious participant, making the Puritans seem like bullies harassing and intimidating a helpless individual! The Puritans left England seeking religious freedom, yet they do not allow others to express theirs. Hawthorne tries to subtly hint at their hypocrisy through means of exaggeration. An example of their hypocrisy is “…an idle and vagrant Indian, whom the white man's fire-water had made riotous about the streets.” (Hawthorne 44) The erroneously pious Puritans felt the need to penalize an Indian who fell into a pattern of alcoholism, because of the white man. The Indians were exposed to this drug, purely to be taken advantage of by white traders, and now they must pay for something that is not their fault? The narrator reveals the Indian as an individual which further exemplifies the Puritan nature to gang up on a helpless person and beat them down. This exemplifies the foundation of why they fled England was being kept alive. They inflicted cruel bias to those who did not conform to their religious zeal. The narrator uses the words paler
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, he reveals through his cynical narrator, a description of vile disdain for the Puritan community. Using diction and carefully employed position of language, his opinion of their character is greatly projected on the screen of the reader's mind. The narrator is able to acutely reveal the hypocrisy and savage disposition that encapsulated the religious Puritans.
The readers are shown the irony behind the hypocritical Puritans through vigilant word choice. For example the narrator states that "It might be that an Antinomian, a Quaker, or other heterodox religionist was to be scourged out of town..." (Hawthorne 44). Through carefully making sure to use a few dissimilar religious factions, the reader is led to believe that the Puritans think themselves superior and enhanced in moral standing. Hawthorne is cautious, using no pluralism of each religious participant, making the Puritans seem like bullies harassing and intimidating a helpless individual! The Puritans left England seeking religious freedom, yet they do not allow others to express theirs. Hawthorne tries to subtly hint at their hypocrisy through means of exaggeration. An example of their hypocrisy is “…an idle and vagrant Indian, whom the white man's fire-water had made riotous about the streets.” (Hawthorne 44) The erroneously pious Puritans felt the need to penalize an Indian who fell into a pattern of alcoholism, because of the white man. The Indians were exposed to this drug, purely to be taken advantage of by white traders, and now they must pay for something that is not their fault? The narrator reveals the Indian as an individual which further exemplifies the Puritan nature to gang up on a helpless person and beat them down. This exemplifies the foundation of why they fled England was being kept alive. They inflicted cruel bias to those who did not conform to their religious zeal. The narrator uses the words paler