All families have the stereotype of the awkward family member that no one wants to be associated with. But imagine we have an ancestor responsible for the irrational conviction of nearly twenty innocent people. One of America's greatest authors, Nathaniel Hawthorne, did not have the luxury of imagining such a dilemma. This hypothetical situation was his reality. His great-great-grandfather was a judge for the infamous Salem witch trials. Nathaniel was so reluctant to be associated with Judge John Hathorne that he added the letter "w" to his name. But he didn't stop there. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne expresses his strong disapproval of morally extreme Puritans through the use of characterization, allusion, and tone. The development of each character in The Scarlet Letter was deliberate, especially that of Hester Prynne. Hawthorne made her beautiful to allow the reader to sympathize with her. He says: “The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, of large dimensions. She had dark, abundant hair, so shiny that it reflected the sunlight with a gleam…” If Hawthorne had made her ugly, or even mean, the semi-puritan reader of his day would have developed strong feelings against Hester. Hawthorne also makes her a strong and courageous woman. Once Hester was branded with her mark of shame, she could leave Boston with her illegitimate daughter and live a normal life elsewhere. However, if he chose to leave, it would only serve the purpose of admitting the defeat of Puritan society. Instead, she chose to live an ignominious life in Boston in the hope that Dimmesdale would return to her. Another strong indicator of Hawthorne's true feelings is his use of allusions. When Hester is in... middle of the paper... she doesn't accept anyone or anything that is different from them. Parents would teach their children, who would then teach their children, and so on. It was a vicious cycle of hate. However, the Bible says to love your neighbor as yourself. Hawthorne wants the reader to see that when the Puritans taught hatred and discrimination against people they disagreed with, they were just as, if not more sacrilegious, than Hester and Dimmesdale were when they committed their sin. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses characterization, allusion, and tone to suggest his blatant and obvious disapproval of the Puritans. His ideas were incredibly revolutionary for a man who lived in 1850. He accurately predicted the mentality of a society nearly two hundred years ahead of his own. His great-great-grandfather wouldn't be proud??