Scarlet Letter 4 Essay, Research Paper

How would you like to live in a time where you were to be as perfect as possible, with as little sin as possible? That is the way it was in the Puritan times. Puritans were supposedly the more pure and righteous religious group. In the Scarlet Letter and The Crucible there are many examples to show how they misrepresent the Puritan times.

In the Scarlet Letter, the use of irony shows how the author thought of Puritans. Though he did not live in the Puritan time, he still had an idea that they were not as good as they said to be. He shows us this idea with a couple examples. First, while Hester is standing on the scaffolding. The townswomen are talking of Hester s crime. The author describes one woman as the ugliest as well as the most pitiless of these self-constituted judges. Now, from what we know, Puritans were supposed to be judge free and here is a prime example of judging others. She says, What do we talk of marks and brands, whether on the bodice of her gown, or the flesh of her forehead? This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute book . That there clearly shows what a Puritan should not be.

Now in The Crucible we also have examples of a wrongful Puritan or group of Puritans. The main idea of misrepresenting the Puritan time period is with the writing of the so-called witches. The author uses repetition to show how he sees the Puritans and how they really were. He also sees the Puritans as a judge not lest ye be judged type of people, and yet he writes of them judging anyone and everyone. The prime example of this idea is being the false accusations of witches. During the trials we see a couple examples of misjudging someone. Danforth first states, I judge nothing. I tell you straight, Mister-I have seen marvels in this court. I have seen them stuck by pins and slashed by daggers. I have until this moment not the slightest reason to suspect that the children may be deceiving me. Do you understand my meaning? Again, later he says to Proctor I judge you not sir . He says that he doesn t judge anyone, but yet he is the judge of the court and is judging everyone and really doesn t have enough evidence to be doing so. And just earlier than that the preacher, of all people, was judging on the fact that Proctor didn t know his commandments. Hale says, I do not judge you, There we are with the whole I don t judge you thing. He continues with My duty is to add what I may to the godly wisdom of the court. I pray you both good health and good fortune. We clearly see from these examples that Miller sees the Puritans as a sinful group.

So from what we get from the authors, we can see that they find the Puritan religion as misrepresenting of what they claim to be. They claim to be a judgeless group with no sin, but actually we get that they were very sinful by the use of examples in Scarlet Letter and The Crucible. They judged people not knowing it and yet still claimed to be the purest of all people. Puritans were actually no better than people today, or that is what the authors of the novels want us to think. They find the whole religion as misrepresenting and not truthful. So next time you read a novel about Puritans, take in mind that they are not all that they claim to be.