8 Puritan Traits
...ed God’s judgement. Humankind is damned because of the fall of Adam. “The Silly Fly, caught by its leg [and by God’s] Grace [He broke] the Cord”(Taylor 21-22). “To tangle Adams race… Damn’d sins”(Taylor 36-40) The humans are portrayed as insects in these quotes. The humans’ being insects is a reference to the damnation of humankind because of Adam, because the human flies are damned. This is proven when the flies are caught in the spider’s web. The spider is Satan, and it deceives the flies into flying into its invisible web. God saves the Silly Fly, or the human, from the web, and here, one can see that humans are at the mercy of God. God reveals his word through everyday occurrences “Many were afflicted with seasickness. And I may not omit here a special work of God’s providence” (Bradford). Seasickness would have been very common on a ship in the days that the Puritans settled because ships then were much less stable than modern-day ships. Thus, many people became seasick, and they viewed this as God’s punishment, although seasickness is simply caused by being on a ship that is wobbly for a long time. Lived pious lives- in obedience to God’s law. “I blest His name that gave and took…so it was, and so ‘twas just” (Bradstreet 14-16). Here, the author speaks of her house being burned down, and she accepts it without displaying any regret. She believed that God both gave things and took things, and by burning her house down, he was taking something. She believed that the burning of her house was just because God allowed it. Puritan Work Ethic “She offered up a real sacrifice of enjoyment in devoting so many hours to such rude handwork. She had in her nature a rich, voluptuous, Oriental characteristic… which save in the exquisite productions of her needle, found nothing else in all the possibilities of her life to exercise itself upon”(Hawthorne 80) Here, Hester’s needlework is being described. She mostly made plain clothes for the poor, though she did not enjoy it and she was capable of much greater things. She devoted many hours to something that she mostly did not enjoy, and by doing so she displays here persistence and tremendous work ethic. Not materialistic- Very plain, no ornamentation. “I shall endeavor to ma...