What is ironic about Hawthorne's portrayal of the Puritan society, in terms of this developing theme in the Scarlet Letter? What is ironic about...

Hawthorne
portrays the Puritans as thinking they had a perfect society. However, as he points out in the
first chapter, one of the first things they needed to built in their so-called utopia is a
prison for people who broke their laws. During the course of the novel, the society also
includes a witch who just happens to be the sister of the governor, an adulteress, a minister
who is an adulterer, a town doctor bent on revenge and a child borne out of wedlock. Thus, one
of the developingis that no person is capable of perfection and therefore we should "be
true, be true" and show our real selves to society, not hide behind a religious facade that
is not realistic for anyone to achieve.