The Scarlet Letter: The Puritan Colonies In America
The Puritan colonies in America were characterized by rigid standards in both the church and state. They had to be harsh and possess perseverance in order to survive in the New World. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter has preserved in literature a certain perspective as to the harsh Puritan judgement and lives we believed them to have lived. While Hawthorne includes historical details and settings in his book, he does take liberties in his fictional story of the justice system and punishments used by the Puritans.
The Puritan colonies in New England were characterized by a church centered society. In England, the Puritan Christians desired to purify the Church of England. They did not agree with how the church system seemed corrupted by Catholic values and theology. Following the lead of John Calvin, the Puritans believed in the
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The Puritans continued to have the mindset of a purified community and this showed in their harsh, judicial methods. They resorted to many punishments that would be considered cruel and unusual today, and people were punished for seemingly small things. Letters of shame, branding and maiming, and using cleft sticks were all common modes of punishment in order to keep the people in order (Anon, para 3). The Scarlet Letter has made famous the knowledge of using a letter of A to show that someone who has committed adultery. Other letters were used, such as the letter ‘B’ for blasphemy. One lady in 1656 was sentenced to be whipped and forever have the letter ‘B’ stitched onto her clothing (Anon, para 7). A man named William Bacon, in 1633, was sentenced to spend an hour on the pillory wearing the letter ‘D’ for drunkenness (Anon, para 7). Clefts sticks, another form of punishment used on liars and slanderers. A stick split at the end was put on their tongues while one had to stand in
Cruelty Puritan Social Behavior In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
568 Words | 3 PagesScarlet provides a remarkable insight into the specification and the 17th century, if the United States Puritan social behavior. The basic conflict, the main features of the problem, however, familiar to current readers. Heroine, she has borne a bastard, and had been detained for more than three months, a symbol of adultery and sentenced her to wear her clothes at all times a scarlet "A". It relates to the impact of the crime on the average person 's moral, emotional and psychological. This is not a simple love story, or the story of atonement.
Summary Of Jeff Jacoby Bring Back Flogging
350 Words | 2 PagesIn “Bring Back Flogging” the author, Jeff Jacoby suggests that maybe we should adopt some of the punishments of the puritans. He says that Puritan forefathers punished crimes with whipping and branding, but in current times we tend to put someone in jail, no matter the degree of the crime. Jacoby also tells how often, first and second time offenders don’t get jail time, and if one does wind up in jail, it proves rather dangerous. (Jeff Jacoby 196-198)
Jeff Jacoby Bring Back Flogging Summary
480 Words | 2 PagesJacoby starts off informing the reader about different scenarios on how the Boston Puritan forefathers went about flogging. For example, he states that in 1632, Richard Hopkins was sentenced to be “whipt, branded with a hott iron on one of his cheeks” (196). However, in modern society this method is not humane, therefore, “ lock them up in cages” (197). Locking inmates in cages is a “sign of manhood, a status symbol” (197). According to Jacoby flogging is cheaper due to the excessive amount of money each inmate cost.
Jeff Jacoby Bring Back Flogging Summary
1046 Words | 5 Pages1 Monica Sanad Professor Benjamin Bever English 112 18 March 2016 Primitive Punishments: Analysis of Bring Back Flogging by Jeff Jacoby In retrospect, Jeff Jacoby demanded the return of flogging in 1997, when he wrote an article that discusses his justifications for supporting flogging: an act of punishing guilty people using whipping, paddling or any other torturous method. The Puritans were notorious for punishing people by flogging during the 17th century. Jacoby used a lucid and strong title that clearly states the purpose and the thesis of his article, he also used a sub heading for his essay: “Boston’s Puritan Forefathers did not indulge miscreants lightly”
How Did The Salem Witch Trials Affect Society
898 Words | 4 PagesThe Puritans was a huge deal in the 1600s. It consisted of colonists who were seeking religious tolerance. Puritans were so strict that it was so far fetched from tolerant. One would be punished to not attend church, it was against the law. Men and women were separated through the day long services.
Puritanism In Colonial America
1094 Words | 5 PagesMore than 80% of Americans have Puritan ancestors who emigrated to Colonial America on the Mayflower, and other ships, in the 1630’s (“Puritanism”). Puritanism had an early start due to strong main beliefs that, when challenged, caused major conflict like the Salem Witch Trials. Puritanism had an extremely rocky beginning, starting with a separation from the Roman Catholic Church. Starting in 1606, a group of villagers in Scrooby, England left the church of England and formed a congregation called the Separatist Church, and the members were called The puritans (“Pilgrims”).
Puritan Laws That Affected The Colonists
2064 Words | 9 PagesThe Puritan colonists were bound by laws of morality with judgments with sentences that were the base of fear. The laws were centered on the basics of not going to church daily to practicing witchcraft, adultery, even not having regular sex to procreate. There were many laws of the time with cause and effect that harmed many people. Through the seventeenth century, laws were connected to morality, reflected in the ways Puritans used religious beliefs in the process of rendering judgment and assigning punishments to keep colonists from leaving their colony and gaining freedoms of their own. Puritan Religion ~
Mr. Dimmesdale In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
660 Words | 3 PagesThe scaffold was used for public humiliation, torture, and other punishments for sin. By repeatedly referencing the scaffold, the reader understands the degree of which Puritan society condemns
Scarlet Letter Rhetorical Analysis Essay
838 Words | 4 PagesPuritan’s harsh beliefs represented the beginning of the Nineteenth Century in the newly colonized America. Their community ruled with an iron fist: unforgiving, pitiless, stern. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses his disagreement with puritan priorities by revealing the hypocrisy widely practiced throughout their community. Hawthorne’s utilization of dim diction aids in the establishment of his scornful tone, while inclusion of symbols and intricate juxtaposition all serve to accentuate the Puritan’s duplicity. All these factors combine to develop a critical tone which rebukes puritan society.
Puritans In Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
711 Words | 3 PagesAmerican novelist and short story author, Nathanial Hawthorne, in his symbolic novel, The Scarlet Letter, describes the Puritans and their community. Hawthorn’s purpose is to convey the idea that, despite the contrary, the Puritans were not able to recognize the unjustness of their society and immoral treatment towards others. He adopts a bitter tone in order to disprove the common belief that Puritans were exemplary, pure, and innocent. Hawthorn begins Chapter Two of the Scarlet Letter, The Market Place, by depicting the scene.
Analysis Of Jeff Jacoby's Bring Back Flogging
502 Words | 3 PagesIn Jeff Jacoby’s “Bring Back Flogging,” he compares the punishments for crimes in the 17th Century to the punishments for crimes in the present. Jacoby suggests in his essay that “the Puritans were more enlightened than we think, at least on the subject of punishment. Their sanctions were humiliating and painful, but quick and cheap.” Jacoby makes a good argument to bring back an old punishment policy. He points out that “a humiliating and painful paddling can be applied to the rear end of a crook for a lot less than $30,000 (per year).”
The Symbolism Of Adultery In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
756 Words | 4 PagesIn the 1600’s when America was just in the original 13 colonies, the puritans were the dominant religion during that time period . It was a strict and “sinless” society or it claimed to be as such. But no one was really sinless, everyone has sinned many times. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, he created the characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. These two committed the act of adultery which was an extreme sin for the puritans, and the two faced consequences.
Hypocrisy Of The Puritan Society In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
936 Words | 4 PagesThe Puritan society thinks that it was their job to punish people who committed crime severely because they believe they were doing god’s work. They persecuted Hester for committing adultery while they are blinded by
Essay On The Treatment Of Men And Women In The Scarlet Letter
999 Words | 4 PagesThe Scarlet Letter, a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, functions as an evaluation of Puritan ideas, customs, and culture during the 17th century. Through this evaluation, we can get a good idea of what core values and beliefs the Puritans possessed, as well as the actions they take in cases of adversity brought about by “sinners”. Some Puritan virtues created stark divisions between groups of people, some of which led to discrimination under certain circumstances. One of the most prominent of these is the treatment and standards of men and women, a concept that surfaced during some of the major points in The Scarlet Letter. The divisions that were created by Puritan standards of men and women played a great role in shaping the plot of The Scarlet Letter, determining the fate of many of the characters.
Puritan Culture In The Scarlet Letter
920 Words | 4 PagesThe Scarlet Letter and Uses of the Puritan Past illustrate various aspects of the cultural values in Puritanism and their societal impacts. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne depicts Puritanism as a bleak, strict cultural instance in which people who do not conform to their rules are shunned and distanced from society. In Uses of the Puritan Past, Puritan culture is described as a social construct based on four primary virtues. These virtues were the main influence of Puritan activity in Uses of the Puritan Past, as they were responsible for the creation of social rules and essential morality resulting in increased power and influence of the Puritan over every day Puritan life in New England. Even though both The Scarlet Letter and Uses of the
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