Nathaniel Hawthorne's View Of Puritan Society

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a novelist and a short story writer. Known for his stories about sin, guilt, and witchcraft in Puritan society. The Salem, Massachusetts, born Hawthorne is revered for his short story collection, Twice-Told Tales; his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter; and the classic The House of the Seven Gables. Although his tendency was to express himself in his short stories, he is best known for his novels, and particularly his most famous, The Scarlet Letter, a romance in a historical setting, Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, in the 17th-century. It is the story of the unfortunate Hester Prynne, who gives birth to a child as a result of an affair with a preacher and struggles to create a new life of repentance. The novel analyzes the
It takes place in the Puritans society, which traces back to America’s first settlers. The Puritans embraced theories of human hierarchy. They thought they were superior to everyone else and they thought they had better qualities to everyone else, they were especially superior to black-skinned slaves. Puritans believed God ordered human enslavement of inferior individuals, in particular, Black people. The 18th-century’s understanding of the Puritan Society was that Puritans were a devoted group who lived with strict moral standards which allowed them to live in peace. However, the truth is Puritans were obstinate people, their values created intolerance for other views. John Winthrop failed in his attempt to create an utopian religious society when he founded the Puritan society. Even though he failed, people still thought of the society as pure and equitable. What he created instead was a society whose religion denied human being their free will, filled with, racism, sexism, and hatred of. These themes are clearly represented in The Scarlet Letter. The hatred is seen in the novel when Hester Prynne first enters from the prison, ''This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and the statue-book.''(The Scarlet
Hawthorne’s work has always been characterized as dark romance, steered by perceptive tales which suggest that guilt, sin, and evil are the most inherent natural qualities of humankind. His novels and stories are versions of historical fiction used as a vehicle to express themes of ancestral sin, guilt, and retribution. His writings are just one side of the argument, on the other side is Hawthorne the person and his thoughts and feelings towards Black people and slavery. Hawthorne of course is extraordinarily talented, but there are notes and letters he wrote, which show his true self. In one of these letters and notes he expresses of something far less honorable, undisguised and unambiguous racism. ''I have not, as you suggest, the slightest sympathy for the slaves; or, at least, not half as much as for the laboring whites, who, I believe, are ten times worse off than the Southern Negroes.'' (Historical Journal of