what was hawthornes perspective on the puritans during the 1600s?

Hawthorne was somewhat ashamed of the early Puritans partly because his uncle was a judge at the Salem Witchcraft trials. That fiasco and its basis in what Hawthorne believed was a somewhat flawed belief system made his story of Hester Prynne even more believable because the criticism of Hester and her "sin" seems somewhat hypocritical because the minister is the father and the people ostracize her, even though, like all Christians she should be subject to the grace offered in the New Testament.