Dialectical Journal 12

A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys, understanding little of the matter in hand, except that it gave them a half-holiday, ran before her progress, turning their heads continually to stare into her face and at the winking baby in her arms, and at the ignominious letter on her breast (51-52)

What are the true belifes of this Puritan society? If people gather around to watch Hester stand on the scaffold just because they have nothing better to do then are their beliefes and intentions pure. And if not, is Hester’s punishment taken to far and is just merely a reminder of the fact that the Puritans need to follow the rules because its what they “believe in.” and I quote because if they do not truly believe in these things then why keep the religion and rules in place if they are just going to be broken and people will be wrongly over punished for mediocre crimes.