Nathaniel Hawthorne, born Hathorne, changed his last name due to his desire to disconnect from the witch trials of Salem and the entire Puritan belief system; since one of his relatives was a judge at that time. Hawthorne, in many of his works, uses his female characters as a stage to show his feelings towards Puritan ideology. It uses the character shell of an older woman who critically lives by Puritan law, to show how critical Puritanism is of anything that doesn't conform to their beliefs; or has a pretty young “rebel” who goes against Puritan law, which results in showing the corrupt side of Puritanism; using these two character shells in The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil". On the contrary, to blatantly show his hatred towards Puritanism, Hawthorne uses Mistress Hibbins in The Scarlet Letter to combat these two roles, and to continue to show his antipathy towards Puritanism. religion.Hawthorne gives the first role to his female characters - the older, sterner Puritan - the most obvious and one-note characters in these two pieces. In The Scarlet Letter these women were not names nor really important people involved in the story, he used them to show how the community felt about Hester and her "whore" ways, saying "At the very least, they should have put the mark of a red-hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead. (Hawthorne, 49) Other comments made by women in the community include: “What do you think, you gossips? would he come out with a sentence similar to the one the cult magistrates handed down? Marty, I don't think so! (Hawthorne, 49) Here, Hawthorne seems to be using the stereotype of women who are gossips for cushio...... middle of paper ......y natural law, and condones man-made Puritan law, and it becomes very clear that Hawthorne was very direct in this approach to target Puritanism. Nathaniel Hawthorne's hatred of Puritanism is evident in both his name change that in his work, prime examples are The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil". In these two stories his use of the older Puritan women of the community and the pretty young adulterers is very reflective of his beliefs, as the Puritans themselves are obscenely critical and judgmental of anyone or anything that does not fall within Puritan law and that the Puritanism, beneath the surface, is very corrupt. Of course in The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne throws out these two character niches and introduces Mistress Hibbins, an older witch. This character was designed to openly criticize the Puritan religion, without having to use hidden meanings.