In the 1850s, what did people belive about sin, morality illegitimacy, guilt, punishment, crime, evil, forgiveness, revenge, and justice? How does...

One of the
things that is important to remember
is that publicly, there was far more of a taboo on an
illegitimate child, on
sex outside of marriage, etc., but these things happened quite
frequently. 
People just didn't discuss them openly and they also were more likely to feel
that
there were real consequences in the form of damnation, etc., that would
be applied to those who
flaunted the religious and moral rules of the
time.

But Hawthorne and other
authors of the time were
interested in challenging some of these mores and some of these
taboos.  So
bringing out the story ofand the reactions of the town and the hypocrisy of many
of
the so called leaders is an important commentary on the social fabric of
the time and
challenging some aspects of it.