Critique of Puritan Society

From The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hawthorne paints the Puritan colony as severe, hypocritical, and spiritually impoverished — particularly its women — against the natural world's freedom.
Chapter 1, 'The Prison-Door'

The prison and cemetery as the first institutions any new colony must build.

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Chapter 2, 'The Market-Place'

The 'iron-visaged' Puritan goodwives demanding harsher punishment for Hester.

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Chapter 22, 'The Procession'

The grim pageantry of Election Day juxtaposed with Hester as outcast.

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