Puritan Based Society in 2016

In today’s society we are often faced with situations that challenge the morals we claim to live by. In both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, all of the characters are faced with these challenges. Some are a matter of life and death and others are less extreme. The important quality that both stories share is the point at which morality is questioned. In The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist Hester Prynne, commits a sin of adultery conceiving a child with a man other than her husband. She is forced, as punishment, to bear the letter “A” in gold and scarlet thread on her chest. This punishment stands alongside the persistent reminder of her wrongdoing; her daughter Pearl. Hawthorne describes Pearl as “the living embodiment of sin”, and it is that which eats at Hester’s freedom every day (Hawthorne 53). Similarly in The Crucible, John Proctor is faced with the challenge of dying an honest man or living a sinner. He was accused of witchcraft during the Puritan time period in Salem, Massachusetts, and is forced to either lie and confess to taking part in it, or be executed for doing otherwise.

It is scenarios like these that we look back on and weigh the differences of society then in comparison to our society today. When reflecting on specific incidences from these texts, and comparing them to modern day society, it is alarming to discover that they are very similar. During the Puritan time period, where both of these stories take place, there are issues of race, gender inequality, discrimination towards the less fortunate, unjust treatment of innocent people, and sin. One would think that over 200 years later, we might have figured some things out. The sad truth however, is that we haven’t. Society may have altered in regards to the way situations are handled, but when it comes to the morality of the people, our society remains the same.

The Scarlet Letter, a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, takes place in a Puritan town in Salem Massachusetts. The Puritan belief system is described by Hawthorne as “a people among whom religion and law were almost identical” (Hawthorne 30). What that really meant was that the Puritans considered the mildest and the most severe crimes equal. Therefore, the punishment for either wrongdoing was the same, and in that time period, was most likely execution (Mills 2007). Hawthorne’s example of this in The Scarlet Letter is brought about in the way he portrays his characters. In that time period, men were still held at a higher rank than women were, and the superiority that both Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale possess over Hester is consistent throughout the story. At the sight of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth together, “her whole soul was moved in shuddering terror” (Hawthorne 89). Not only does it not change in the novel, that mindset is sadly still prevalent in many male minds today. For example, our President Donald Trump, was recently exposed to having said in a video recording that because of his stardom he has the right to grope women’s private areas without permission (Taub 2016). In the same article another women reveals that she was sexually assaulted by a male colleague at just 18 years old. It is situations like these that make us wonder whether or not the male superiority standard has evolved. Hillary Clinton would have been the first female president of the United States, however to many Americans the thought of a woman running the country was enough to sway their vote. That in itself is proof enough that society today has not grown much beyond the way it was in the Puritan time period.

In the poem by Maya Angelou titled Phenomenal Woman, there is an essence of change in the morality of a woman comparing herself to a man. There is pride in her prose, when she states, “I walk into a room, just as cool as you please, and to a man, the fellows stand or fall down on their knees” (Angelou 1995). This is evidence that the era of male superiority is decreasing in today’s society. However that conclusion is sadly a false hope. A recent article focused on a photograph captured by a bystander of a woman being arrested for wearing too little clothing in public. The police officers face is what is most alarming as he smirked with pride, scoffing at the woman in her bikini while he arrested her. During that time period in Italy the bikini was looked down upon for woman to wear in public as it was too “immodest”. However nearly a month later, in France, woman were being punished for wearing too much in public in burkinis (Rubin 2016). There is something about women’s attire and the way men see it fit, that for decades now, has caused society to regulate the choices of women (Rubin 2016). This mentality was a major part of the precedence that made of the Puritan society.

In The Crucible, a play that also takes place in the Puritan age in Salem Massachusetts, Arthur Miller focuses on themes of lies, sin, betrayal, choice, and equal punishment for all. When witchcraft was rumored to be present in the town, because of the Puritan belief system, both guilty deserving, and innocent people were convicted and in most cases executed. Because his wife is under questioning for having been a part of the witch trials, John Proctor is condemned and forced to confess to spare her life. However, in the final scene of the play, Proctor is forced to choose between living a liar for confessing to something he did not take part in, or dying a good man. It is in this scene where his famous quote is declared out of love and integrity to both himself and his wife, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (Miller 133).

Today a situation similar to the witch trials would be far more investigated and there would be a greater demand for sufficient evidence to support the accusations and convictions made. However, there are many immoral aspects of this play that still remain in our society today. For example, when Tituba, a black slave from Barbados who works for the Parris’s, is questioned for her participation in the voodoo in the forest, she is beaten and whipped until she confesses. The other girls involved however, all of white skin origin, are never physically harmed in the slightest. That belief, or “rule” we seem to get in our heads, that people of a darker skin tone are of less importance and are meant to be looked down upon, is a major issue of our society today. Back then it was a matter of labor, and the unjust treatment of a white man’s black workers. Today however, we claim to be an all equal people, yet black men and women are being killed by white police officers on a daily basis. The “black lives matter” act is not one that has just surfaced within the past couple of years, it is an issue of morality in our society that has fluctuated over time but never completely ceased to exist (Foust 2013).

Today’s society is very heavily based off of the morals that were passed on through generations. It is scary to think that in many negative ways our society has not become a place of equal being for all. In the words of Simone de Beauvoir, a famous social theorist of the nineteenth century, “our freedom carries with it the responsibility of morality and our errors are often actions of the immoral and/or demoralising kind” (Foust 2013). In other words, our freedom among society is not simply given. The morality of our society has attempted to change alongside the rapidly changing environment we live in, and although the way situations are handled has been altered in some ways, our morals do not seem to have further developed.  The human condition, or morality of the people, is far too ambiguous and it is up to us, the people as a whole, to make a change.