Nathaniel Hawthorne's Account Of Hypocrisy

Nathaniel Hawthorne delivers a biased account of the hypocritical actions displayed by Puritanical societies. As a man of faith, Hawthorne knows scripture and religious rules participants are to follow. He argues that the citizens of Boston are hypocritical in their treatment of fellow citizens. They are often portrayed excessively punishing those who are publically disgraced and hiding their own flaws. It doesn’t matter who you truly are, as long as you emit an aura of esteem, and you are not found breaking any religious or social laws. Hawthorne introduces readers to the quaint town of Boston, and how “The founders of a new colony inevariably recognized among their earlies necessities to allot a portion of the Virgin soil as the sight of a prison.” Which begs the question why was a prison on the top list of priorities instead of, let’s say, a church or a houses? The hypocrisy seeps from the very foundation the town was built on. A prison is a symbol of punishments, shame, and disgrace leveled upon those who dare to break the social norms. So did these fathers want to build a town rooted in fear? One could infer that “it betoken

They called out that “this woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die!” Yet nowhere in the book is there and discussion of the citizens sins. That is why they pursue the matter of who the father is, they need to know who else to blame. They thrive of the blood of scapegoats, someone to persecute, someone that they can compare their sins to so they can sleep at night. Hawthorne pounds the hypocritical view the Boston puritans held, instead of acknowledging their own sin, they found someone who did something worse so they felt better. He chooses to stress this faulty analogy, because it is a trait shared by