Question

The bystanders in front of the jail, who had the "early severity of the Puritan character" are described as a "people amongst whom religion and law were almost identical." What point do you think Hawthorne is making with this description?

Answer 1

Answer:

That those who do not distinguish between law and religion are quick to judge and condemn others.

Explanation:

The passage we are analyzing was taken from the novel "The Scarlet Letter", by Nathaniel Hawthorne. As we know, the book tells the fictional story of a woman who is greatly punished for being a single mother. Sleeping with someone and getting pregnant, even if both people involved were not married to other people, was regarded as adultery in puritan Boston. In the passage, the author shows the people who were ready to condemn did so because they believed they were doing what was right. They saw no distinction between religion and law. And they would apply any type of punishment with the same severity, since all crimes, no matter how big or small, were an offense to their religious principles, were a sin. As is stated in the book:

[...] there was very much the same solemnity of demeanour on the part of the spectators; as befitted a people amongst whom religion and law were almost identical, and in whose character both were so thoroughly interfused, that the mildest and the severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful. Meagre, indeed, and cold, was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for, from such bystanders at the scaffold.