Nathaniel Hawthorne uses his novel, The Scarlet Letter to criticize the Puritan faith. In developing the story of the adulteress Hester Prynne, he uses both religious and natural imagery to show his disdain for the Puritan religion. The Scarlet Letter is a vivid portrait of his utter dislike of the Puritans and everything they represent. Hawthorne completely disagrees with them and makes it clear throughout the book. Although Nathaniel Hawthorne is shown in The Scarlet Letter to be completely against the Puritan faith, his views, different from those shown in the book, appear to be quite similar to those of Nathaniel Hawthorne. WELL. He feels that the Puritans are nothing more than sincere hypocrites as the standards needed to be a Puritan are absolutely not met by any of them. Part of being a Puritan is being sinless. Being of sound mind, Hawthorne knows that everyone has sinned at some point in their lives and therefore sees their hypocritical mentality. Nathaniel also believes that Puritan conventions of belief are unrealistic and do not correspond at all to what it means to be a Puritan. One of the conventions of the Puritan faith states that the Bible is an indispensable guide to life. Assuming that the Puritans followed their own conventions of faith, one might think that they read the Bible and based their lives on it. Hawthorne believes this is not true unless gossiping, lying, and putting yourself above others are part of the Bible. He also believes that the Puritans are the exact opposite of what he considers an acceptable religion and wants nothing to do with them. Puritans gossip and exploit the sins of others, which is not enough for Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne's feelings towards the Puritans, although already very clear, are vividly described in his novel, The Scarlet Letter; particularly through his use of both religious and natural imagery. Hawthorne's use of religious imagery is seen when Hester Prynne is in church. While there she is ridiculed for committing the sin of adultery. Even though the other Puritans who ridiculed her had sinned themselves, they still had the courage to look down on Hester as a sinner. Hawthorne shows in this scene how hypocritical the Puritans truly are. They berate Hester without even realizing that they too are sinners. Religious imagery is used once again when the women in the story do not allow Hester, a dressmaker, to make or even touch their wedding dresses..