Puritan Hypocrisy In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Puritan Hypocrisy in The Scarlet Letter As the 18th century philosopher William Hazlitt once said, “the only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy”. Perhaps Nathaniel Hawthorne shared this same principle when he wrote his classic novel The Scarlet Letter, as it contains many acts of dishonesty, hypocrisy, and deceit. His book tells the tale of Hester Prynne, a young woman charged with adultery, and her struggle in dealing with the judgment of the Puritan society she lives in. The Puritans take their religion very seriously, and condemn anyone for even the slightest sin. This leads to a culture of intolerance and judgment, which contrasts with Hawthorne’s strongly Transcendental views. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses irony

Because of Dimmesdale’s burden of guilt, he had “sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind”, and “they deemed the young clergyman a miracle of holiness” even though he was hiding a dark secret (113). Many times, the reverend told his people that he was “utterly a pollution and a lie”, yet they remain too enamored by his facade of holiness to realize what he was truly saying (114). This irony shows that the Puritans couldn’t even fathom the idea that perhaps Dimmesdale was not holy because he was a revered member of the community in high social standing. However, when they discover Hester’s sin, they immediately sentence her to the “torture of ...daily shame” and make sure she was “shut out from the sphere of human charities” because of her poor social status (67). Even after Dimmesdale’s explicit confession of his sin the Puritans claim that he simply meant to teach the congregation that “in the view of Infinite Purity, we are sinners all alike” (202). Ironically, Dimmesdale’s confession helps the Puritans realize that all sinners should be treated equally, but then they continue to punish lower class citizens more harshly, confirming their