Nathanial Hawthorne’s book, the Scarlet Letter, was written in the year 1890; however takes place in a small puritan society outside of Boston during the 1600s. Puritans are known to be religious radicals in Christianity. Puritans can to the United States in the early 1600s to escape religious prosecution in Europe. Puritan society would be difficult to live in because of their rigged adherence to Christianity, a mere sin is a crime and puritans are known for giving extreme punishment for moral turpitude. The Sullfolk county court records from 1671-1673 show some of the punishments put on people for breaking a moral law. In a single case a man named Robert Marshall was accused of being an atheist and was sentenced to prison or to pay two hundred…show more content… In another instance a women named Elizabeth Arnold was fined 10 shillings for simply cursing. Puritan society was known to be extremely strict unlike today in America there was no separation of church and state in the puritan society. It is because of this historical context that Hester Pyrime was sentenced to where a scarlet letter on her chest, and bear the burn of the shame because of her moral and religious crime of adultery. Hawthorne viewed the puritan society of the 1600s as religious extremists; however in his book Hyester Pyrime over comes this extremism by being molded from a scared young woman into a confident, strong, and independent woman through the torment of wearing the scarlet letter. During the time in which Hawthorne lived and wrote this book there was a large feminist movement in America which is the reason why Hawthorne created such a strong female character to be the focus of his
