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The Puritan Judicial System In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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In Puritan societies, the judicial system was intrinsically linked with religion to the extent that church and state were nearly indistinguishable from each other. The Puritan judicial system influenced by multiple sources, hardly differentiated between crimes and sins, was prone to corruption and hysteria and inflected many dehumanizing punishments. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter provides an accurate image of the puritan judicial system and its various punishments.
In the Scarlet Letter, one sees a depiction of an extraordinarily cruel justice system that is pursued with a religious zeal. Turning over of particularly mischievous children to public authorities as depicted in the Scarlet Letter was commonplace. However, Hester’s …show more content…

The judicial system got rid of anyone who tried to question, resist, or corrupt an action the government pursues. In Puritan colonies, the difference between sin and crime was nonexistent. Social outcasts were seen as a threat to their way of life and their judicial system mercilessly eliminated them. Witchcraft trials were particularly ludicrous with spectral evidence primarily responsible for most of the convictions. Anyone that practiced another religion whether Protestant or Catholic were removed from the colony by the judicial system as well.
For evidence of corruption in the puritan judicial system, one can look towards the case of Anne Hutchinson. Although, prayer groups were common in Puritan communities Anne Hutchinson was persecuted for holding one with slightly different beliefs than the church of Boston. Her main “crime” was teaching that faith alone and not a moral or religious life is the means of salvation. A large portion of the evidence used against her was accusations of several lewd acts simply for having both men and women in her prayer group. In the end, she was excommunicated and forcibly removed from the

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