Sin In Puritan America

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Many societies use the ideas of sin to create a scapegoat for themselves. Puritan America is no different from the other societies, heavily relying on religion to be a catalyst for their judgement. The Puritan culture and attitude have molded our modern day American society's beliefs in many ways, but thankfully the assignment of guilt based off of religious laws has not been passed down. In Puritan America sin is heavily condemned by religion, and religion sways the opinions of the crowd, but on an individual level an individual can earn back respect lost through sin. Sin is commonly used as an excuse scapegoat in Puritan America because of religion, often entailing strict punishments on the individual accused of sin. Seen in both The Scarlet …show more content…
Examples can be seen later in the Scarlet Letter of villagers changing their views on Hester. A very valid example of this could be when the townspeople began to treat Hester better. As time progressed, and people began to see Hester's giving of her time and effort to clothe the needy people began to respect her more. The culmination of this would be the attempt to remove her requirement to wear the A. The movement failed, but it still proves that several people began to forgive her, even after her experience of public humiliation and permanent punishment. Interestingly the most valid argument for this point from the sermon is the sermon's lack of discussion of forgiveness. The lack of text about forgiveness implies that religion at the time did not excessively preach forgiveness for sinners. This could explain the cruelty in the groups. Where as immoral ideas seem more acceptable when made in a group, individually it is hard to uphold them. This applies directly to the punishment of Hester, as when it was a popular issue, many citizens scolded Hester for her actions, however on an individual basis, people began to take a more sympathetic

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