After analyzing the assorted Puritan texts, including The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, it can be easily seen that the Puritans attempted to legislate morality in many of their laws. These ideas, established in pre-18th century time after the first Puritan unrest (history.com), flowed down through the progression of countries and societies. Today, by simply ‘reading between the lines,’ it has become evident that those Puritan viewpoints have been transported through time and are still present, even in the structure of certain modern laws. However, the expansiveness of the change that has occurred since the initial laws being instated, it might be time that they get revised. Although there are some well-structured and quite successful laws …show more content…
that carry the trademark of the original Puritan culture, such as laws covering murder or the right of court trial, some specific ideas that the Puritans viewed as ‘poor etiquette’ may need to be rewritten as everyday laws or vice versa since our constantly changing society might not still take a stand morally to enforce or to not enforce said law. A puritan, as defined by dictionary.com, is a person who is strict in moral or religious matters, often excessively so.
By comparing a basic Puritan to a basic Christian (of which 2.2 billion people or 32% of the world’s population is (Harper)), it becomes clear that the Puritan culture shares a large number of similarities. One of their bigger vexations is their arguments over public nudity. Depending on its usage, nudity may be considered a problem. Puritans of clean origins viewed public indecency as a negative influence; however, it was never actually written into law that a person could not walk around outside naked. The Puritan culture did, however, incorporate some forms of nudity into publications or plays (The Outlook). Outside of that type of judgment, nakedness was looked down upon harshly. Ever since the invention of the internet, many forms of nudity have swarmed around everywhere, becoming so massive that it could become accredited as a ‘public’ form of physical vulgarity. Evolving from simple ‘wink, wink’ jokes to full blown obscene movies, public nudity has scarred much of humanity. Many people would argue that nudity in a complete sense should be eradicated or at least ‘filtered.’ The Puritan culture almost had the perfect answer to our problem with such offensive matters: limit it by law. Almost as simple as activating ‘SafeSearch’ on a web browser, enforcing governmental law on a touchy topic would possibly solve the
problem. Logically speaking, Puritans lived in a society that was just discovering infantile technological breakthroughs and did not have a full scientific understanding of the world around them. Because of this, they had no real way to declare something ‘dangerous’ or ‘deadly’ as far as just background knowledge goes. To learn about their environment, they must have learned hands-on that some things were more threatening than others and afterwards they took careful consideration to exercise more caution. Following into modern day, advanced understanding about safety and scientific measures may sway the newer standards that are incorporated into regulation, wondering if the laws may be deemed questionable. The law regarding a driver or passenger of a vehicle to wear a seatbelt is most likely the most debated law. The law does create some disagreements, verbal and physical. Simply not wearing the seatbelt while the vehicle is in motion is enough to qualify for violation. Most notably in The Crucible, when the court was traveling around town questioning and accusing the villagers of witchcraft, they took careful notes and took baby steps when entering the accused household. They did this because they had not yet learned of the accused or his or her intentions and wanted to be careful (fight or flight) so as to be able to make a speedy getaway if needed. Those that were not careful enough paid for their actions whenever the accused became defensive. The same applies to today, where if one was not careful enough, they would pay for their actions. However, many people, especially those who don’t wear seatbelts, would argue that it should be to their own discretion whether or not they should take precautionary measures to ‘ensure their safety.’ Being one of the most controversial topics, only bested by LBGT rights, has to be the use of medical marijuana or drugs in general. With the passing of drugs for recreational use, many citizens thought that we as a country had hit rock bottom. The average person would protest at this notion, that drugs should be legalized for use, because they didn’t want a ton of ‘potheads’ running around their city. These people make the honest citizens look bad and they have the tendency to do things that they would regret later. Those that do use it usually cannot have a logical conversation about using drugs because they are already too high to discuss it intelligently. When the Puritans had the ability and access of herbs and medicines, they never abused them. After review of texts from the Puritan time, not once did it mention that a person ‘had a smoke’ or drank medicine straight from a bottle. On multiple occasions, however, powerful medicines and drugs were used to help heal the sick or injured. In The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale tells Chillingworth that he no longer needs the pharmaceuticals he had taken, suggesting that he may have had a medium dose for an extended time, not an addiction to drugs. Ever since the passing of once-illegal drug use, some researchers have suggested a correlative connection between illegal drug usage and overall crime rates (NCADD). However, some minor changes can be applied to state and national drug regulations that may decrease the number of drug violators. Tighter policies can be applied within the doctor’s office before giving in and letting the patient use pure cannabis to ‘cure’ them of their ailment. If the Puritan culture maintained abstinence, so can we. Puritan cultures, even in it’s more unstable and feeble years, maintained a strict policy for even the most sensitive of topics. As time progressed, societies changed and laws became flawed and weaker. With proper care, these laws can be edited to become just as powerful as they were back then. Unfortunately, some citizens would detest these more powerful regulations as being unfair in testing people’s morality. It is because of this, however, that these laws have such influential power and that it would be for the best for them to be edited for the use in maintaining such an operable culture. We draw these laws from the Puritans but then either let them get battered down or ‘sugar coated’ because of our dislike to their more strict policies. They made them. We should follow them.
In the provocative article, Were the Puritans Puritanical?, Carl Degler seeks to clarify the many misconceptions surrounding the Puritan lifestyle. He reveals his opinions on this seventeenth century living style, arguing that the Puritans were not dull and ultra-conservative, but rather enjoyed things in moderation. They had pleasures, but not in excess. The Puritans could engage in many pleasurable and leisurely activities so long as they did not lead to sin. According to the article, the Puritans believed that too much of anything is a sin. Degler writes about the misconceptions of Puritan dress, saying that it was the “opposite of severe”, and describing it as rather the English Renaissance style. Not all members of Puritan society
Accusations of witchcraft ran rampant in the 17th century colonial settlements in the United States. The individuals accused, mostly women, were put on trial and punished, if found guilty. The most well-known of such cases on public record are the Salem Witch Trials. Between February, 1692 and May, 1693, hearings and prosecutions were set up to deal with those accused of dabbling in the dark arts in the cities of Andover, Salem, and Ipswich, all in Massachusetts Bay. These trials came to commonly be referred to as the Salem Witch Trials because some of the most notorious cases were heard in the Oyer and Terminer courts in Salem. At the time, practicing witchcraft was considered a serious crime, and was often punished with serious consequences.
In her essay “Let’s Put Pornography Back in the Closet,” Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist activist, argues that pornography should not be protected under the First Amendment (59). Her position is based on the belief that pornography is degrading and abusive towards women (Brownmiller 59). She introduces the reader to the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, and explains how it relates to her beliefs on censoring pornographic material (Brownmiller 58). In addition, she provides examples of First Amendment controversies such as Miller v. California and James Joyce’s Ulysses to explain how the law created a system to define pornographic material (Brownmiller 58). She described the system that used a three-part test as confusing (Brownmiller 58). Regardless of whether or not the First Amendment was intended to protect obscenities, she and many others believe that the legislatures should have the final say in the decision of creating and publishing pornography (Brownmiller 60).
First of all, Puritans believed that as an effect of Adam and Eve’s original sin, every person is born a sinner. For starters, in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, although it was written in 1952, he went through extreme
1) Puritanism originated from a movement for reform in the Church of England. It focused on the impact upon American values, the present paper first discusses the origin and the tenets of Puritanism.
Pornography is considered by many to be an unwelcome and distasteful part of our society. However, I argue that it is necessary to voice the unpopular viewpoints, under the Constitution. This paper is a defense of pornography as a constitutional right of free expression, under the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. In illustrating this argument, I will first define pornography as a concept, and then address central arguments in favor of pornography remaining legal and relatively unregulated – such as the development of the pornography debate throughout modern US law, and how activist groups address the censorship of adult entertainment.
The Puritans didn't have all the luxuries we have today. They were told many things by preachers such as Jonathon Edwards, who lit a candle of fear in their minds. If I was alive to hear Edwards preach, I'd certainly have to question myself. He preached that God holds us in his hands and he can make or break us. If God decides it so, he will let us go and we will fall from his hands to nothing but Hell. Certainly no one wants to go to Hell. So, the Puritans tried to better their lives, and go by rules or "resolutions." They believed if they followed these resolutions, even though their fate was predetermined by God, they could live a life of good and maybe prove they are meant to go to Heaven.
Today, scholars continue their dispute over the degree to which the Puritan colonists influenced American law, morality, and culture. In the area of law, this image is supplemented by lurid accounts of witch trials and corporal public punishments.
The church and Christian beliefs had a very large impact on the Puritan religion and lifestyle. According to discovery education, “Church was the cornerstone of the mainly Puritan society of the 17th century.”( Douglas 4). Puritan laws were intensively rigid and people in society were expected to follow a moral strict code. And because of Puritans and their strict moral codes, any act that was considered to go against this code was considered a sin and deserved to be punished. In Puritan theology, God h...
Puritans believed in strict religious dedications, by trying to follow the holy commandment. “The discipline of the family, in those days, was of a far more rigid kind than now.”(Hawthorne 9). They wanted to be considered the holiest of all people because they try to reflect a world of perfection in the sight of God. While they where trying to portray a holy life; however, they where also living a sinful life because they have been judgmental, slandering, uncompassionate, resentment, and forbearing, which are all sinful acts of the bible.
The Salem Witch Trials were a time of confusion, where half a dozen girl accusers threw the town of Salem on its head. The end result was 19 hung and one crushed to death for failure to admit or deny witchcraft and 150 more were imprisoned throughout the course of the trial (Hall p38). The Puritans came to the “New World” for their religious freedom to fallow their ideals for a new way of life, the “perfect way of life.” They were issued charter--to live on the land--. The King Phillip’s war labeled as “[t]he bloodiest war in America’s history …which…took place in New England in 1675” (Tougias par.1) had a dramatic effect on the Puritan society. Their charter was revoked and reinstated at least twice throughout the course of the war. This stress of having their land revoked and reinstated without a doubt placed pressure on the society as a whole to develop and become self-sustaining entity free from England. After the war people would look to the church even more than they had in the past for guidance. This set the seen for the problems to come. The churches relentless attempt to maintain the society that they had established was the cause of the Salem witch trials.
Many years ago, the culture and atmosphere was amazingly different. The expectations of people and communities are extremely high. During the Puritan times, many laws and regulations existed pertaining to government, religion, and witchcraft. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the one word that best describes the Puritan beliefs and the community structure is strict.
As proven throughout this paper, many of the Puritan ways of life are continuing to be seen in North America. Their ideas about religion, government, education, social mores, and economy are still woven into North Americans’ daily lives. It is interesting to observe how, even after so many decades, the United States has been able to maintain the system of thought on which it was founded.
Puritans are generally viewed as religious extremists. Their religious beliefs were extended to all areas of life, and were zealously enforced. This is true for the most part, especially the way they conducted themselves publicly. They believed in public piety to the extent that once, “a young married couple was fined twenty shillings for the crime of kissing in public” (Kennedy, 45). This couple was already married, so one can imagine the people would come to feel that rules like this served no purpose. As Albion’s Seed reads, Puritans “believed that costume should not be a form of sensual display” (140). Their finickiness even included their refrain from wearing the color black because it was too stylish for anyone but the elect. It would be difficult to see how this relates to any scriptural laws of God, therefore, one can imagine how people would grow tired of such pointless restrictions on every trivial choice and action.
to those who follow it. In The Puritan Dilemma, by Edmund S. Morgan, the author writes about