Hypocrisy In Puritan Society
The Puritans were one of the first European settlers in the New World. After being persecuted for their religious beliefs in England, they sailed across the Atlantic in hopes of establishing a safe haven where they could practice their religion freely. Despite the fact that they were once victims of such intolerance, Puritan society was known for its cruel and unforgiving nature towards those who did not adhere to their beliefs. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne amplifies this irony by highlighting the inherent hypocrisy in Puritan society. It is apparent that Hawthorne believed the Puritans were hypocritical zealots, which is shown in his portrayal of them through characterization.
One clear example of this hypocrisy would
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Hawthorne characterizes them as obsequious and naive since they are defending a sinner because of his high status in the community. When Hester was discovered to have committed adultery, the Puritans did not hesitate to immediately outcast her from society and publicly shame her: “Clergymen paused in the street to address words of exhortation that brought a crowd [...] around the poor, sinful woman” (82) and even the children “pursued her at a distance with shrill cries, and the utterance of of a word [that] was none the less terrible to her” (82). This is a stark contrast with their behavior after Dimmesdale’s confession, where they purport that “Neither [... ] had his dying words acknowledged, nor even remotely implied the guilt for which Hester Prynne had so long worn the scarlet letter” (253) and that “he had made the manner of his a parable” (254). Although this is likely a defense mechanism for the shock of discovering that one of their most beloved public figures was a sham, it is still hypocritical in nature because of the difference in his and Hester’s treatment for their wrongdoings. The Puritans blindly continue to see Dimmesdale as a innocent man while Hester continues to live with the emotional scars that they had inflicted on her for being an
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