Persecution Of Puritans In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

In the introductory sketch to Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel the "The Scarlet Letter", the reader is informed that one of the author's ancestors persecuted the Quakers harshly. The latter's son was a high judge in the Salem witch trials, put into literary form in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" (Judge Hawthorne appears there). We learn that Hawthorne feels ashamed for their deeds, and that he sees his ancestors and the Puritan society as a whole with critical eyes. Consequently, both open and subtle criticism of the Puritans' practices is applied throughout the novel. Hawthorne's comments have to be regarded in the context of the settlers' history and religion. They believe that man is a creature steeped in sin, ever since Adam and Eve's fall from
They claim to be pure Christians, but what they actually practise is a perversion of what Christianity really is. Together with their difficult situation and their religion, the suffering they had to endure in England partially explains their behaviour. They were brutally persecuted themselves because they were thought to endanger the present order, now they persecute others for exactly the same reason. The Quakers, who believe that God can speak through every man and woman and that everyone can be enlightened by God, are harassed because their beliefs question the hierarchy of the Puritan church. Those who are at the top of this hierarchy, most of them learned scholars and men of great intellect, are highly respected by the citizens and are seen as "mortals in fellowship with angels." The respect they earn even goes so far that they can directly grasp political power. Hawthorne shows that concerning some of these clergymen, this respectability and piety is only a veneer. They do not practise what they preach, Wilson for example surrounds himself in luxuries which are entirely forbidden to the normal