Morals vs Morality

How do you define mortality? If you google “what is morality,” you’ll find the definition: principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong, or good and bad behavior. Morality is having ideas and beliefs that steer you towards right and wrong. Morality is having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, and being able to differ between which is which. To be moral is to live with a sense of morality. So is today’s society more moral than that of the Puritans? You could say today’s morals are better than the Puritans, but are we more moral? Does today’s society have an angel and devil talking on its shoulders, and can it tell the difference between which is which? Certainly not to the level of the Puritans; therefore, the Puritans were more moral than we are today. The Puritans had legal punishment for being immoral, they praised people for putting others before themselves, they had communities based on living morally, many of the morals we live by today are just alterations of their ideas, and today’s society is strongly influenced by one of the Puritans worst morals: the necessity of power. 

While we may have some community based morals today, the Puritans went an extra step in lawfully enforcing their morals. This idea is supported in The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne when Hester Prynne is accused for the sin of adultery. She is condemned to a punishment of wearing a scarlet letter for the rest of her life. This punishment inflicted her with great feelings of shame and regret, as seen in this passage: “she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real” (Hawthorne 53). This represents the Puritans lawful enforcement of their morals. The moral in question is staying sin free, or in Hester’s case, being faithful, and the punishment is the town’s placement of the scarlet letter, and therefore public shame and disgrace. Their willingness to implement what they believe to be right shows how strong their morality is. The idea of lawful enforcement of morals is also represented in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. When John Proctor is in an argument with the town council, he is accused of being ungodly and unchristian-like. During this time, being very religious and committed to God was one of the Puritans’ morals; therefore, the fact that John Proctor didn’t attend church on Sundays was a big deal. The fact that “‘he [plows] on Sunday…’” (Miller 90) is brought up during an argument, followed by the bewildered response “‘plow on Sunday!’” (Miller 90), which shows the bafflement of the townspeople when someone didn’t follow their widespread morals. The result of this ‘plow on Sunday’ realization, among other things, was the condemnation of John Proctor for witchcraft. Now this result may have been dramatic by today’s morals and point of view; however, it shows how seriously the Puritans took their morals; one of these morals is helping others before yourself. 

Puritans had a strong belief in putting others before themselves; this is a characteristic that many people today don’t completely possess, especially with the multitude that the Puritans displayed. In The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is seen doing endless good deeds for the people of the town in order to achieve penance.  The narrator describes that there were “None so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty” (Hawthorne 145). This passage is used to describe Hester in this time of penance and the good things she does for others. Later in the book, the narrator gives the point of view of the townspeople concerning her deeds: “Her breast, with its badge of shame, was but the softer pillow for the head that needed one” (Hawthorne 146).  The town’s ideas of Hester changed from shameful to supporting and thoughtful. This simple act of Hester helping other people influences the stain her previous sin, and immorality, has left on her. The importance of putting other people before oneself in Puritan society is also seen in “Peace, Love, and Puritanism” by David D. Hall. He says, “Colonists hungered to recreate the ethics of love and mutual obligation spelled out in the New Testament. Church members pledged to respect the common good and to care for one another” (Hall). This passage further supports how Puritans were very insistent on caring for others. The fact that the Puritans were very religiously driven, and that these ideas were put in the New Testament would’ve also been an extremely effective push for the Puritans to follow them, in addition to the strong community-based belief in morality.

The Puritans had communities that were based on living morally; their ideas of what was morally good is very different from what we would consider today; however, their efforts to abide by those morals were much stronger than today. An idea expressed in “Peace, Love, and Puritanism” supports this: “The Puritans were… bent on making everyone conform to a rigid set of rules…” (Hall). Puritans had everyone follow a uniform set of moral and ethical beliefs. Some may say that this is not moral, but restrictive; however the Puritans had systems that allowed widespread beliefs to lead their moral ideas: “No law was valid unless the people or their representatives had consented to it” (Hall). Laws and morals were largely based on the opinions of whole communities, and therefore communities lived by those morals. This democracy that they were striving to achieve affected the way our government and society is built today. 

Many of the strong, widespread morals that people follow today are adaptations, or derived, from Puritan beliefs and morals; therefore, how could we be more moral if today’s morals are just stolen ones? A study was done to determine whether today’s society really does display a connection to Puritan beliefs; the result was a definite yes: “something like Puritan values seemed to be guiding [today’s] moral judgments” (Hutson). This absorption of Puritan ideas is also seen in the way our government has developed: “It was the Puritans who had introduced similar practices [ to today’s society]  in colony governments” (Hall). This supports the fact that Puritans contributed a great deal to the growth of colonial societies, and therefore today’s societies. Today’s society subconsciously rejects the idea that we could still relate to the Puritans, due to the negative connotations we place on them; however, why should we reject and disown the good ideas a society had just because of the bad things they may have condoned? The belief that we are always better, stronger, and more developed than the societies that came before us blind us from true growth. This ideal is very much like the idea that we are also more powerful. Power, which seems to be a never ending trait that both today’s society and Puritan society took part in. 

“How could we be more moral if today’s morals are just stolen ones?”

The praising of power was one the Puritan’s greatest driving moral, a moral that today’s society is still strongly influenced by; therefore, how can today be more moral when we don’t address one of the most controversial ideas of the Puritan time? While this idea isn’t very visible in society, it influences it a great deal more than anything else; the placement and uses of power affect people’s actions, ideas, and ways of life. This idea is represented in “Peace, Love, and Puritanism” when the author says, “our civil society depends, as theirs did, on linking an ethics of the common good with the uses of power. In our society, liberty has become deeply problematic: more a matter of entitlement than of obligation to the whole” (Hall). This describes how the communal ethics are directly affected by the power displayed during that time; the morals that community will admit to are decided and enforced by those with the most power; we still see this in today’s society. The claim of ‘democracy,’ today and during Puritan times, is extremely arbitrary due to the fact that the real rights and voices go to those with power; which is funny to imagine due to the historical extremes we’ve gone through to defend that democracy. This passage is also saying that liberty has no longer become an argument of ‘who should have it, and why’, as it was during Puritan times, but is now ‘who should have more, and how can they use it against others.’How can society today be more moral when we completely overlook the moral controversy of power and who possesses it; and better yet, completely change the argument to something that better fits ourselves? 

The Puritans were more moral than we are in today’s society. Yes, their beliefs may have not been ethical in today’s point of view; however, their whole lives were based on being morally good and ethical. Puritan society lawfully enforced their morals, praised putting others before themselves, had communities based on living morally, and has had great influence on the ways today’s society acts. The Puritan’s society and today’s society each have an angel and devil on their shoulders; however, the Puritan’s angel is multiplied by the number of Puritan citizens. Today’s society has their angel and devil sitting comfortably, patiently on their shoulders; waiting for the time when we fully acknowledge and ask that angel and devil to guide us – waiting for us to fully come back and address our morals. The Puritans lived their lives trying to abide by their morals and ethics, today’s society lives their lives by trying not to sleep through the alarm.

Works Cited

Hall, David D. “Peace, Love, and Puritanism.” The New York Times. The New York Times. 23 

Nov. 2010.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York, The Modern Library Classics, 2000. 

Hutson, Matthew. “Still Puritan After All These Years.” The New York Time. The New York 

Times. 3 Aug. 2012. Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Toronto, Penguin Books, 1976.