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Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter.' (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

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From: The Explicator
Date: 19940922
Author:Sorrels, David J.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter' is a renunciation of Puritanism. The character of the town beadle is representative of the typical Puritan system of values. The theocracy of the community is vested in a single persona. As the Puritans were pre-occupied with punishment and death, the beadle is significant in that he symbolizes both the civil and divine mission of the Puritan.

In 1629, Charles I of England issued the Massachusetts Bay Company charter to several merchants and a group of Puritans guided by Reverend John White. Leaders of the company viewed it as a business venture, ...

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