Looking back at history, people can hardly find an explanation for different events that had occurred and often wonder what kind of a person you have to be in order to perform those acts. One of the most noticeable events that symbolize an action that cannot be fully explained is the Salem Witch Trials.
Many people have tried to explain what drove people to perform such dehumanizing acts; however, their arguments can be easily opposed, and because of that people do not believe in them. On the contrary, Nathaniel Hawthrone’s novel The Scarlet Letter and Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible provide enough background information about the Puritan society. This enables them to present arguments, which are backed up by the development of different characters, in order to show their interpretation of how Puritan morality is extremely different than the one in today’s society. Even though Puritans are the ancestors of Americans and there is a strong connection between them, humanity has developed in all spheres in society since Puritan times, and as a result, people have become more moral.
Compared to today’s society, people in the 17th century lived extremely differently, and as a result, they were used to different customs and thought differently. As technology advanced, it changed people’s way of living, and respectively, their beliefs. During Puritan times, the morality of people was strictly guided by their religion, since they came to North America looking for the “perfect society.” However, in today’s society, morality is not dependent on religion, as it is the study that seeks to answer what is good and wrong behavior. This means that people do not have to be religious in order to understand moral norms and act according to them. This is a huge benefit because religion not only unites people, but it also creates a huge division between differently believing people, and as a result, morality suffers: “As religiosity increases, each country suffers from more and more conflicts with human rights, more problems with tolerance of minorities and religious freedom, and problems with gender equality” (Crabtree, Vexen). The diagram clearly represents a pattern that is continuous and provides information which shows that when a society is basing their moral norms on religion, often times it is unable to prosper, as religion is not a moral guidance for people, but more a source that unites them. In today’s society, as science is pushing people further and further away from religion, people can clearly see the benefits of acting morally according to their own beliefs, instead of following moral norms that are imposed by religion. This results in a better understanding of the general idea of moral behavior and enables people to form their own beliefs about what is accepted as good. As the moral guides imposed on today’s society have been extremely well-thought and crafted carefully throughout the past centuries, most of the times, people’s own perception of right behavior matches the one in the moral guidelines, and as a result, people have become more moral.
Another distinction is the way people perceived and responded to sin. As stated previously, today’s society is not as religious as it used to be. During Puritan times, every sin was seen as something that should be punishable by death. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hester is punished by public humiliation for her sin of committing adultery because she already had given birth to Pearl and Puritans did not want to leave the infant without a mother. Even though her punishment ensured that she will suffer a lot, people in the society still wanted her dead and therefore attacked her: “They were stern enough to look upon her death, had that been the sentence, without a murmur at its severity” (Hawthorne 50). Although Puritan societies were considered highly moral, people acted with hatred towards sinners, and even wished death upon them, which is exceptionally immoral. In nowadays society, unless a person has committed a terrific act that is against all moral norms, people are rarely punished by death. This is because people understand how precious life is and that pushes them to strive to make people understand their mistake and change it, instead of punishing them with death for their deeds. The change between Puritan societies morality and today’s morality can clearly be distinguished based on how people perceived sinners and how they believed that they should be punished.
Other distinctions between morality in American-Puritan society and modern society is the way people acted while they were trying to gain influence and power. One thing that has not changed since the 17th century is that money gives people all sorts of opportunities, such as being extremely dominant in society. However, in the past, people used to disregard their moral norms in order to accomplish their goal of earning money. A perfect example of those actions can be seen in The Crucible: “If Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeit up his property – that’s law! And there is none but Putman with the coin to buy so great a piece. This man is killing his neighbors for their land” (Miller 96). Putnam is a perfect example of a person who is able to do absolutely everything without feeling any sense of immorality to become wealthy. He is falsely accusing people so that they could be hanged, and he would gain their land. In Puritan society, people did not completely understand how important morality is, and because of that, a lot of people disregarded it. In modern society, even though there are a lot of false accusations, people refuse to believe them without proof. They feel that it is extremely immoral to label people just because of what others said. One of the many examples is the case of Gregory Counts and VanDyke Perry who were falsely accused of rape. Although they were found guilty, they never lost hope in making people see the truth. As technology advanced, it enabled DNA testing, which found the two men innocent and prevented them from spending their life in prison. This case supports the idea that some people may be fooled in the beginning by false accusations; however, as long as people never give up on showing the truth, it will eventually be discovered. Additionally, in today’s communities, people prefer to work hard for their accomplishments instead of abusing other people in order to achieve them. The progress from the 17th century to the 21st-century moral guidelines is clearly illustrated when the different actions people are willing to do in order to improve their social situations are compared.
Last but not least, people in the past were not as connected as people nowadays. They did not have the means necessary in order to communicate with each other if they lived in different places. This meant that people cared the most for themselves and they did not support other communities as much. Individuality was promoted, and Puritans allowed it to spread in their societies. Also, the social position determined how people would treat others. This explains why any of the other members of the society did not support in any way Hester or the poor people who were hung during the Salem Witch Trials. Nowadays, as technology has reached its peak, it has also encouraged people to become more moral because it has made them aware of different problems that exist in different societies. For example, there are many different charitable organizations that seek to reduce the amount of starvation throughout the continent of Africa. Many people, led by their beliefs that everyone should live equally and that no one should be dying of preventable actions, are helping other people with whatever they can: “For instance, philosopher Peter Singer famously argued that everyone ought to give away significant portions of his/her income/wealth in order to eliminate hunger in places such as Bangladesh, where famine has threatened a huge portion of the population” (Singer). People have understood that the role of society is not only to connect people but to ensure that everyone receives help when they need it. They rely on their moral principles to guide them, and more often than not, that stimulates them to help others, and because of that, morality has become such a vital part of modern society.
To conclude, as society has changed a lot from the 17th century; people’s mentality has shifted a lot, too. People nowadays perceive actions in a distinct way, mainly because different factors influence them. As people began to think differently, their opinion about morality changed, as they viewed it as a guide that will enrich and improve their lives, instead of just a set of norms that they have to act according to. This shift in the way people perceive the science of morality has changed its role in society and has encouraged a lot of people to act morally. Therefore, Americans have become more moral since Puritan times.
Although the idea of morality is extremely complex, I believe I have managed to present it in a more simplistic way that would ensure a better understanding of my audience. Additionally, I have presented a lot of evidence, including outside sources that make my argument so much more effective. It provides real-world evidence, which makes the readers more likely to agree with me, as they understand that I have done research about this particular topic. Also, I believe that my thesis is well-written so that it narrows down the options for the topic that I could write about and strongly presents my beliefs. On the other hand, I believe that I could have explored the way Americans have become more moral since Puritan times more in order to fully strengthen my argument. Instead, I have used a lot of ideas but I have not explained them enough.