Why does nathaniel hawthorne hate puritans

He usually satirized them as evildoers and sin creators, not holy and Christ zealous as they described themselves. Hawthorne also used the effects of mysterious human mind and spontaneous action to describe the Puritan as satanic worship and God disobedience.

In result, his writing reflected much of his Puritan ancestry affections. Nathaniel Hawthorne. She is a very strong woman in a mental sense. For many years, she had to carry the burden of her sin, which was adultery, by herself. Although being alone, with the exception of her beloved daughter Pearl, amidst public shame and humiliation for a multitude of years, she somehow repeatedly looked for a light at the end.

Botts 1 McKenzie Botts Mrs. Hawthorne created a novel that reflected the time period of the Puritans in New England. Originally, God created the world with complete perfection until man fell, and sin entered the world. In the eyes of God. He turns out to be the opposite of what puritan men should be like; headstrong.

Puritans believed that men should lead yet Hawthorne had Esther leading Dimmesdale by providing a shoulder for him and by having her formulating all their plans. The author uses the reverend to represent a flaw within Puritan authority figure. He submits to sins with Esther when he should be helping her stay on the right path.

Many believe Hawthorne mocks the church by presenting the male religious figure, as weak and desolate. For puritans, children were born into the sins of their parents and Pearl, born out of an act of sin was the perfect example. Women were educated from very young and prepared to take over the domestic duties. They were expected to be, like their mothers, good wives and mothers and to uphold the puritan belief systems. Esther however, did not instill these rules into Pearl.

They also formed a society in which the rules were very clear. There were few gray areas in the standards of behavior expected by the Puritans and taught early to their children. These stern and introspective Puritans provided a rigid structure that was repressive to the individual but that enabled the colony to survive those early years when order and faith were needed. On the other hand, the society built by the Puritans was stern and repressive, with little room for individualism.

In this society, the "path of righteousness" was very narrow and taught through stern sermons on guilt and sin. The irony, of course, is in the difference between public knowledge and private actions. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, both "sinners" for their part in this drama, are valued and revered members of this repressive community, while Hester is an outcast because of her publicly acknowledged sin.

These "iron men and their rules" provide a backdrop for Hawthorne's story that keeps the conflict alive because public appearances and penance were dramatically important parts of the Puritan community. In contrast, the forest — seen by the Puritans as the haunt of the Black Man or devil — was a place of little law and order.

Those who chose to follow evil signed their name in the Black Man's book and chose a life of sin. Mistress Hibbins symbolizes this world in The Scarlet Letter. And, in fact, she says, "Many a church-member saw I, walking behind the music, that has danced in the same measure with me.

The meeting between Dimmesdale and Hester takes place in the forest, away from the stern, repressive laws of society. There they can discuss a central conflict of the novel: the needs of human nature as opposed to the laws of society.

This conflict is seen even in the early chapters. The wrath of the colony toward malefactors is brutally obvious in the first scaffold scene in Chapter 2. The "good women" of the colony discuss the community good that could be realized if they were in charge of public punishment.

Is there not law for it? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and the statute book. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray!

The Puritans had great difficulty in loving the sinner and hating the sin in Massachusetts Bay Colony. When Chillingworth asks a person in the crowd about Hester's crime, he is told that the sentence was softened from death by "their [the magistrates and ministers'] great mercy and tenderness of heart" because she is a beautiful widow and probably was "tempted to her fall.

How do the magistrates and ministers — mighty pillars of the community — feel about Hester's sin and their statutes? Throughout this story Young Goodman Brown takes his journey through the woods and sees nearly eve He is implying that she is the victim and that the Puritans are actually at fault for this sin.

Hawthorne's main goal is to convey the Puritans as sinful and unholy. He does not approve of the sin they hide and he thinks there should be punishment for their actions. To Hawthorne there are many problems in Puritan society. He exposes their transgressions of secret sin and hypocrisy.

Hawthorne was haunted by his Puritan past, as he saw all the sins and immoral acts that the society committed. He expresses that everyone sins, no matter how holy or pious they may appear. Hawthorne points out their unrighteousness despite the Puritans claim to be pious. He sees no benefits in being involved in the society. Get Access. Powerful Essays. Read More. Satisfactory Essays.

Better Essays. Dimmesdale's Sin. Good Essays.