Scarlet Letter
Scarlet LetterEssay
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...
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