The Scarlet Letter Hypocrisy

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Hypocrisy can be defined as a “behavior that does not agree with what someone claims to believe or feel” (Merriam-Webster). Nathaniel Hawthorne, who grew up in Salem Massachusetts during the early 1800’s, was aware of the hypocritical actions that his ancestors were involved in within their Puritan society. After completing college in 1825, Hawthorne moved back to Salem and was once again surrounded with the historical remnants of Puritan life (Short Stories... 295). These roots of dissimulation led Hawthorne to write many short stories and novels based on Puritanism. In Hawthorne’s work The Scarlet Letter, “Young Goodman Brown,” and “The Maypole of Merry Mount,” the hypocrisy of the Puritan society’s beliefs drive the plots and deepen character development. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne focuses much of the book on the hypocritical actions of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Dimmesdale is a Minister in Salem who, as a member of the church, looks down on adultery and sinning without confession. However, Dimmesdale is ironically the father of Pearl Prynne, the child born from his adulterous relationship with Hester. Dimmesdale does not admit to this sin and continues to …show more content…
If not for these societal rules, characters like Dimmesdale and Chillingworth would not have felt the need to use hypocrisy as a way to hide their actions. As said by Dimmesdale himself, “They go about among their fellow creatures looking pure as new fallen snow; while their hearts are all speckled and spoiled with the inquiry which they cannot rid themselves” (Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter 91). This demonstrates the mindset of the Puritan religion that “the outward guise of purity was but a lie” (Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter 59). Because of this hypocrisy, the “adequacy of society to judge its members and to impose appropriate penance” (Bloom par 1) seems
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