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Essay Archive - The Puritan Society in N. Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter"
The Puritan Society in N. Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter"
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 Hathorne 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 throug....
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