ve him the knowledge to write about Boston's Puritan society in his novel. Hawthorne's great-grandfather, who one of the judges at the Puritan witchcraft trials, was like the magistrates of The Scarlet Letter that attempted to make a society that would be a "Utopia of human virtue and happiness". A further parallel found between Hawthorne's life and the novel is the element of seclusion found in each. Hawthorne secluded himself from society with his few fam
             ...