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Why Is Puritan America In The Seventeenth Century

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Puritan America during the seventeenth century was a theocracy. All moral and legal principles of Puritan America closely followed Protestant Christian beliefs. In Governor John Winthrop’s “A Modell of Christian Charity” Winthrop preaches, “We must love brotherly without dissimulation; we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burthens” (Winthrop 225). This belief that people must love one another despite their mistakes or burdens is essential to Puritan beliefs, and Puritans also believe that people must always be honest and trustworthy. The Puritans, like many other communities, viewed women as subordinates to men; a women’s purpose was to maintain the household, and men were called to provide for their children and wives. Women not only had a “less important” purpose in life but were also seen as less capable or intelligent than their male peers. …show more content…

Although her sinful handiwork was unworthy of wear for wedding, it was acceptable enough to be worn by authority figures and townspeople’s everyday wear. The authority figures were not trustworthy, and they still practiced some of ruling techniques that they fled England to get away from. The Puritan society lacked individuality because they had a firm belief that there was only one way to live. The environment of the Puritan society is described as everything being a boring, uniform color of grey. The appearance of the Hester’s scarlet letter that she always wears is described as, Fine red cloth surrounded with elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A. it was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy,… (Hawthorne

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