In over three hundred years, nothing has changed. From the time of the Puritans in the seventeenth century, to modern Americans today, people’s morals have remained the same, poor. Although people can seem nice to others, it does not mean they are moral. Morality is concerned with strict principles of right and wrong in every aspect of life, whereas being nice can be temporary and faked. In addition, if someone is moral, they do not have to be nice, like how a father can be moral by being stern and teaching the right principles through his lack of niceness. It is easy to see how our morals have not changed by comparing current society with The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the novel, Hester Prynne is sentenced to wear a letter A on her chest to symbolizer her sin of adultery to the entire town. The morality of Puritan time can also be found in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a play that revolves around the paranoia and false accusations during the Salem Witch Trials. Using these literary works as comparisons, it is easy to see that Puritans had poor morals, and they have survived to this day. In both Puritan times and modern times, people focus on self-gain, have no respect for privacy, and hold a fear for people who are see as different.
From Puritan times to the present, people have always been more concerned and focused on their own personal gain than the growth of others. This can be seen during Puritan times in The Crucible when Giles is explaining the plan that Putnam has constructed: “My proof is there! Pointing to the paper. If Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeit up his property-that’s law! And there is none but Putnam with the coin to buy so great a piece. This man is killing his neighbors for their land!” (Miller 89). This demonstrates the lack of moral that the Puritans have. Putnam was so focused on personal gain that he would go as far as to kill a man for it. Putnam has no sense of right or wrong and therefore a bad moral; he puts his life over the life of others. This idea of personal gain was one of the underlying causes of the entire Witch Trials and indicative of the lack of morals the Puritans created. Although we hope for this negative moral to vanish, it has not. The most recent and major example of this can been seen in the Kavanaugh cases. During the cases, Kavanagh was questioned for allegations of sexual assault. During the questioning, Senator Lindsey Graham yelled at the democrats, “If you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn’t have done what you did to this guy. Boy, you guys want power. God, I hope you never get it. I hope the American people can see through this sham. That you knew about it and you held it”(Ferris). Senator Graham is declaring that the questioning was a disgrace and that the entire process was a scheme for the democrats to gain power and have a democrat elected to the court, not a republican like Kavanaugh. Graham is arguing that the democrats have purposely ruined Kavanagh’s life and name in order to have self-gain. This was exactly the mentality that Putnam had during the Salem Witch Trials. With such a similar comparison, it is easy to see that people have kept to the ideals of the Puritans and have not gained any moral decency.
The similarity of the lack of morals between the two time periods can be further demonstrated through people’s disregard for privacy. This can be seen in The Scarlet Letter when Hester is given her letter A. The people of the town have pried into her life and have made personal mistake into a town wide punishment. Although Hester has made a mistake, she does not need to be branded to the town as a bad person. When discussing how Hester should be punished, the women of the town state: “This women has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die” (Hawthorne 46). The women in the town want to kill Hester as they feel that her personal actions has wronged the entire town. This is not the case. Hester did not bring them shame, they brought their own shame. If they did not pry into the personal life of Hester, then there would be no shame for Hester to present to the town’s women. Although not everything can be kept private, the people of the town have made Hester’s affair public for the soul reason to destroy Hester’s name. The same type of occurance can also be seen in today’s society. Back in 2011 and 2012, MLB pitcher Josh Hader made several tweets, “including multiple attacks on gay people and use of the n-word” (MLB’s Josh Hader Apologizes For N-Word, Anti-Gay Tweets). Although this behavior is unacceptable, and shows bad moral within itself, Hader apologized for it and explained, “I was 17 years old and, as a child, I was immature and I obviously said some things that were inexcusable” (MLB’s Josh Hader Apologizes For N-Word, Anti-Gay Tweets). Like Hester, Hader made a mistake, but he was aware of his actions, apologized, and was ready for the consequences. Hader had learned from his mistakes, but that is not why the tweets were uncovered.“It all came to light Tuesday night while 24-year-old Hader was pitching in the All-Star game — and, right after the game ended, reporters swarmed him to get some answers” (MLB’s Josh Hader Apologizes For N-Word, Anti-Gay Tweets). The reports purposely waited to reveal Hader’s mistake at the perfect time for everyone to see them. Like Hester, people revealed Hader’s tweets for the soul purpose of destroying his reputation and his name. Although Hader should be recognized as making those tweets, it was in the vicious nature that the news was revealed that shows the true lack of moral and disrespect for privacy in the modern world that directly related to how Hester was treated for her mistake as well.
Although people claim that everyone is an equal and respected member of the community, that is not true. People always link to people they are similar to and abandon and fear those that are different. This can be seen in The Crucible when Proctor is trying to make an argument to the court. Hale states, “In the book of record that Mr. Parris keeps, I note that you [Proctor] are rarely in the church on Sabbath Day” (Miller 61). Hale uses this simple fact to undermine Proctor’s entire logical argument simply because Proctor does not come to church like everyone else. Proctor is feared and disregarded as he is not the same as everyone else. In response, Proctor states, “… and when I could not [come to church] I prayed in this house” (Miller 62). By stating this, Proctor claims that he is still close to God and that he should not be viewed as lesser. However, even the simple fact that Proctor could not make the journey to church caused him to be viewed as an outlaw in the eyes of the town. Unfortunately, the same effects of discrimination have survived to this day. One of these major discriminations and fears revolves around gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender groups: “53 percent [of LGBTQ community] still feel that discrimination exists” (Hartogs). Americans have no reason to fear or discriminate against anyone, but do it regardless due to a made up sense of fear and sense of power over people who are different from the majority. To decrease Americans’ morality even more, “nearly four in 10 LGBTQ American adults, or 39 percent, have been rejected by family or friends because of their sexual orientation” (Hartogs). It is easy to reject someone that you do not know personally, but it should be impossible for someone to reject someone that they know. This rejection demonstrates the lack of moral the Americans’ have for the respect of people who are different. Just like the Puritans had done to Proctor, LGBTQ members are also being feared and marked as outlaws due to the lack of moral that has persisted from Puritan times.
The lack of moral found within the population today can directly be linked to Puritan times. This is demonstrated in the comparison between Putnam’s accusations and the accusations against Kavanaugh that show how both groups of people focus on self-gain and have bad moral because of it. It can also be seen when comparing the appointment of Hester’s Scarlet Letter and the tweets of Josh Hader. Both prove that Puritans and modern Americans have no moral as they have no respect for privacy. The last indicator of bad moral is the discrimination of people that are seen as different, like Proctor and the LGBTQ community. Through these aspects, modern society has shown no improvement in moral from Puritan times and have remained the same. It is something to wonder, if three hundred years from now, society will look back at our current time and compare themselves to us, like we did to the Puritans.
Works Cited
Ferris, Sarah, et al. “Graham Erupts in Anger at Kavanaugh Hearing.” POLITICO, POLITICO
LLC, 27 Sept. 2018, www.politico.com/story/2018/09/27/lindsey-graham-kavanaugh-hearing-849479.
Hartogs, Jessica. “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Survey Finds Nearly 4 in 10 Rejected by
Family or Friend.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 13 June 2013, www.cbsnews.com/news/gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender-survey-finds-nearly-4-in-10-rejected-by-family-or-friend/.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Random House, Inc. , 1993.
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: a Play in Four Acts. The Viking Press, 1952.
Staff, TMZ. “MLB’s Josh Hader Apologizes For N-Word, Anti-Gay Tweets, ‘I Was Immature’.”
TMZ, TMZ.com, 18 July 2018, www.tmz.com/2018/07/18/mlbs-josh-hader-apologizes-for-offensive-tweets/.