When the topic of a Puritanical society is brought up, most people think of a rigorous, conservative, highly devout .
society. While this may have usually been the case, this was not always so. The Puritan society was also known not .
to act out of brotherly, Christian love, but to cruelly lash out on those who sinned or were deemed unfit for society. .
Two works of literature that display both aspects of this society very accurately are The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel .
Hawthorne, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. The Scarlet Letter displays a society that treats two people very .
differently who commit the sin of adultery together. The woman, Hester Prynne, admits her sin, is forced to always .
wear a scarlet letter A on her bosom, and is ostracized from society. The man, Reverend Dimmesdale, hides his sin .
from the world, is almost worshipped by the townspeople, but is filled with the shame of his action. Hawthorne .
illustrates how insensitive a Puritan society can be t! .
o those who admit their wrong doings. The Crucible is a play that tells the story of the famous witchcraft trial in .
Salem, Massachusetts. In the story, Abigail Williams, the orphaned niece of the townminister, Reverend Parris, is .
the main person who accuses people of sending their spirits on her and the other girls. What starts as children .
dancing in the woods leads to the accusation and execution of many innocent people for witchcraft. The two works .
of literature have very similar qualities, including setting, conflict, and general aspects of the characters, while there .
are also specific parallels between characters, such as Abigail and Hester, and Parris and Dimmesdale. .
The settings in both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible are similar in many ways. The Scarlet Letter takes place .
around the 1640s, as the The Crucible occurs in 1692. The time period is very important in both pieces, because it is .
a time of religious intolerance and a conservative attitude pervades in New England, where both works of literature .