The Scarlet Letter
It has been said that Hawthorne condemns the Puritan society of Boston and at the same time presents it as a stable necessary environment for the New England settlers at that time.
In the scarlet letter the core of the story line revolves around a movement known as the Puritan. The Puritan movement began when King Henry declared England's independence from the Church of Rome and he appointed himself head of the new Church of England. King Henry did this because he wanted to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. By appointing himself head of the Church of England he was able to grant himself his own divorce that the pope would not give him. At first there was little difference between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic but later with the spread of Protestant reformers such as John Calvin the church began to change.
The Scarlet Letter (1860) by T. H. Matteson. Oil o...
English: Hester Prynne & Pearl before the stocks
The Bulls Head and Hawthornes - Stratford Road, Wo...Some people thought the church of England retained too many of the superstitious practises of the Roman Catholic Church. They wanted simpler truths and less structured forms of worship like the earlier Christians, because they wanted to purify the Church of England, they got the name of Puritans. John Geree describes the puritans as "one, that honoured God above all, and under God gave every one his due"!
These Puritans followed a very strict code of practise; they were greatly influenced by the bible, their ministers and the government. They sometimes seemed to follow their codes of practise a little too seriously and seem almost hypocritical and farfetched at times, i.e. during the period of the Salem witch trials.
The history of Puritan Society itself portrays the Puritan society and its leaders as having the right intentions for a stable and necessary environment,