To begin with it must be said what Puritanism was. It was a movement
             within a Church of England in the second half of the 16th Century which
             attempted to carry the reformation of the Church more radically than the
             Church of England did. Puritan theology was derived from Calvinism. It
             asserted the innate sinfulness of all men due to the fall of Adam and the
             inability of man to work out his personal salvation. God is all-powerful
             and his true nature is incomprehensible to man. The Universe is God-centred
             and man is the source of all evil. His sinful nature deserves no pity. He
             may be rescued from damnation only by arbitrary divine grace. Christ did
             not die for all mankind but only for those who will be saved. God has left
             many clues of his holy work, one of them is the Bible - the perfect word of
             God - which must be read carefully in order to know God's will. In daily
             routines man must strictly obey the rules and regulations of the Bible.
             Puritans left no room for many forms of popular amusements. It was a sin to
             play chess, to wear lovelocks or to play merry music. The fine arts were
             Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story, "Young Goodman Brown",
             in which he showed the Puritans as people being devoid of ideas they
             claimed. From biographies of Nathaniel Hawthorne we know that he was
             obsessed with guilt for his ancestors deeds. We also know that Nathaniel's
             great-great-grandfather John Hathorne was a judge during the Salem Witch
             Trial. On the one hand we know that he was ashamed of his own ancestors. He
             was ashamed so much that he even added 'w' to his surname, because he did
             not want to be associated with his family. On the other hand he had to be
             fascinated with the religion of his ancestors. Otherwise he would not
             devote so much of his literary work to this topic. Although he was appalled
             by the Puritan injustice, he was convinced, that there was both good and
             evil in Puritanism. The ...