Describe the Puritan women in The Scarlet Letter using one quote from the book.

Hawthorne
seems to select only the harshest
words for the Puritan women who surround Hester as she walks
toward the
scaffold early in . He says, "The witnesses of 's
disgrace
had not yet passed beyond their simplicity." These words seem to
indicate a limit to their
understanding. Their judgment is single-minded and
perhaps even somewhat lowly or common as they
have not evolved past their
"simplicity."

As Hester makes her
final approach to the
scaffold, Hawthorne adds that she does so "under the heavy weight of
a
thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her." Here, the Puritan women who
observe
the scene are singularly described as judgmental and entirely
uncompromising. Hester is bearing
the weight of her sin, she is carrying her
infant, the result of her sin, and she is wearing the
scarlet letter on her
chest, a symbol of her sin. Still, the women are not described to exhibit

compassion. They merely add the weight of their judgment upon her to the
list...