Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter, Bartleby, and Daisy Miller Essay exam

In right aways society, it is infrequent that you turn on the television and are not bombarded with images of sex, violence, or other content that the Puritans would run through viewed as being the work of Old Deluder (the name given to Satan in the time period). Yes, it is true the society in which we dwell in today is no more remarkable than that of barbaric times. The entirely difference might be that we no longer kill out of primal instinct we do it out of fear, or malice, or patriotism, or even pleasure. Thus, we are faced with the question of whether or not todays society would experience benefits if a conversion to Puritanism was make or drown in its waters. Because Puritanism conformed to such austere guidelines and beliefs that almost completely obliterated the individuals role in the social unit and because the foundation of the religion is to basically kill freedom and liberty in order to create a social purity that is virtually impossible for humans to achieve, I believe that Puritanism would only add to the degradation of society today. The books The Scarlet Letter, Bartleby, and Daisy Miller exemplify this theory. Puritanisms ultimate goal was to essentially establish a religiously pure and socialistic alliance in which everyone would work for the good of one another. However, Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter contradicts the belief that a society of this sort can ever exist. Rather, he theorizes that the suppression of this immoral behavior only leads to personal agony and social isolation. Hester, for example, who committed the sin of adultery, which society today frowns upon but does not punish for, became alienated enduring iii hours on the platform pillory, and then and thereafter, for... ...the realities of the exemplary religion known as Puritanism. It conflicts with both the natural rights of man in his existence (as the French philosophe Locke reasoned) and virtually denies hands of his freedoms stated in t he Constitution of the United States. Puritanism undermines the role of an individual in society and suppresses intellectuality. Puritanism destroys more than just ideas it destroys people. Works Cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Maypole of Merry Mount. (1836). Honors American Literature. time period 8. 1999. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. (1850) New York Dover Publications Inc., 1994. James, Henry. Daisy Miller. (1878) New York Dover Publications Inc., 1995. Melville, Herman. Bartleby. (1856) New York Dover Publications, Inc., 1990. Updike, John. A&P. Honors American Literature. Period 8. 1999.