“The Puritans were members of a religious reform movement known as Puritanism that arose within the Church of England in the late 16th century. They believed that the Church of England was too similar to the Roman Catholic Church and should eliminate ceremonies and practices not rooted in the Bible.” In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne presents Puritan culture as oppressive, severe, and hypocritical. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Obtain an original essay Oppressive, which unfairly inflicts hardship and constraints especially on a minority. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a minority, punished for committing an adulterous act. There are three oppressive forces presented in the book: religion, revenge, and guilt. Both Hester and Dimmesdale felt guilty. Hester was often aware of the scarlet letter which led her to feel guilty especially when she went to Governor Bellingham's mansion. Dimmesdale suffers more than Hester throughout the book due to his inability to confess until later. When Hester is released from prison, she goes to live in an abandoned cabin where she remains isolated from the rest of the world. His daughter Pearl was believed to be “a born outcast of the childish world. A little devil of evil, emblem and product of sin." Hawthorne shows how oppressive the Puritan religion can be by showing how harsh and cruel the society was towards Pearl and Hester. Hester was forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her chest every day as punishment to humiliate her and label her as an example of what would happen if someone else committed a sin. Severe, she demanded total obedience and followed rules or beliefs exactly. In Puritan culture there were strict rules that Puritans believed had to be strictly followed. "Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her devoted pastor, takes it very to heart that such a scandal has befallen his congregation... 'At the very least, they should have put the mark of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead.' " . Hawthorne makes it clear that the Puritans strictly followed their rules and were forced to believe that any other way was a sin, and that there would be consequences if anyone disobeyed. Since Hester dishonored their beliefs, she and her son had to live with the consequences. Hypocritical, behaving in a way that suggests one has higher standards or nobler beliefs than one actually has. In The Scarlet Letter everyone blamed and judged Hester for committing adultery, when someone everyone considered a saint was simply as guilty as Hester. Reverend Dimmesdale, to all eyes Dimmesdale was “a true priest, a true religionist, with reverential feeling widely developed and an order of mind that pressed strongly along the path of belief.” A true priest would tell the truth to his congregation and take responsibility for his actions. Instead, Reverend Dimmesdale finally confesses when he is consumed by guilt and cowardice. Also, Governor Bellingham is another hypocrite mentioned in the book. Governor Bellingham's house was so luxurious that Hester was a little amazed, since he is the person who creates the rules and enforces simplicity and simplicity and does exactly the opposite. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay As seen from the essay, in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne helped shed light on what it meant to live during the 16th and 17th.