Nathaniel Hawthorne's Disdain for the Puritans in The Scarlet Letter | Nathaniel Hawthorne's Disdain for the Puritans in The Scarlet Letter

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's shrewd passage from the Scarlet Letter, he reveals through his cynical narrator, a description of vile disdain for the Puritan community. Using diction and carefully employed position of language, his opinion of their character is greatly projected on the screen of the reader's mind. The narrator is able to acutely reveal the hypocrisy and savage disposition that encapsulated the `religious' Puritans.

We are shown the irony behind the hypocritical Puritans through vigilant word choice. For example "It might be that an Antinomian, a Quaker, or other heterodox religionist was to be scourged out of town..." Through carefully making sure to use just a few dissimilar religious factions, the reader is led to believe that the Puritans think themselves superior and enhanced in moral standing. Hawthorne is cautious, using no pluralism of each religious participant, making the Puritans seems like a bully harassing and intimidating a helpless individual. The Puritans left England seeking religious freedom, yet they do not allow others to express theirs. Another example of their hypocrisy is ."..or an idle and vagrant Indian, whom the white man's fire-water had made riotous about the streets..." The erroneously pious Puritans felt the need to penalize an Indian who fell into a pattern of alcoholism, because of the white man. The Indians were exposed to this drug, purely to be taken advantage of by white traders, and now they must pay for something that is not their fault? The narrator reveals the Indian as an individual which further exemplifies the Puritan nature to gain up on a helpless person, and beating them down. Another example of their duplicitous nature is ."..Their native land...had hardly yet grown paler or thinner in the atmosphere of New England." This shows that the foundation of why they fled England was being kept alive. They inflicted cruel bias to those who did not conform to their religious zeal. The narrator uses the words paler and thinner as descriptions of death, which were clearly not present in this New World. Through insightful word appointment the narrator successfully reveals the hypocrisy that encompassed the Puritan community.

Through diction the narrator shows the savage, inhumane nature possessed by the Puritans. For example "it could have betokened nothing in short of anticipated execution..." This clearly states through the highly connotative word `anticipated' the prejudice and malicious temperament of the religious `hierarchy'. They who confessed to the world to be righteous and moral would wait in excitement to watch another human's life be ripped away, is almost cannibalistic. Another example is ."..to take a particular interest in whatever penal infliction might be expected to ensue." The word `penal' shows that the Puritans imposed pain for insufficient, unsatisfactory reasons. This quote almost shows the enjoyment of others agony. Almost like the joy of the Greeks watching gladiators fight to the death, for their sick, demented entertainment. Another example of their atrocious behavior includes ."..into the throng nearest to the scaffold at an execution..." The public moved as close to the victim as possible to witness their impending doom, this shows the Puritan's falsely attributed holy, kind, moral, and virtuous society. They inflicted pain and torture and murder and it is all to be viewed as civil and just!? They take pleasure waiting, seeking the best advantage points to view pain, this only adds to their alien behavior. The narrator illustrates through diction his revulsion for the falsely clean dirt of `moral' society.

In this passage of The Scarlet Letter, the author discloses, through the all knowing narrator, his disgust of the Puritans. The hypocrisy and savagery of these `pious' people is typified by the utilization of word choice and diction. The Puritan's held a false sense of religiosity, when their very nature sided with evil.