The Scarlet Letter - Use of Tone, Allusions, and Diction Puritans are well known for their morality in discipline, religious intolerance, and harsh punishments for those who challenge their beliefs. These Puritan influences had a great impact on early American literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne provides an illustrated look at the Puritans and their community in his classic The Scarlet Letter. Through the use of tone, allusions to Hester and Dimmesdale, and the diction used to describe how the village behaves during the multiple scaffolding scenes, Hawthorne provides a disapproval of the extreme lifestyle of these strict moralists. Hawthorne's use of tone revealed his feelings towards the Puritans. He begins relatively early in the book by describing these people as “beings of the most intolerant race” (86), quickly revealing the lack of understanding they had. Upon learning of Hester and Pearl, the village immediately "despised them in their hearts, and... reviled them with their tongue" (86) exposing to us the discriminating disposition the Puritans had for those who were not exactly like them or following their rules. The tone that comes from the harsh words gives a glimpse of the negative attitude that the narrator feels towards these Protestants. Along with the tone of "voice" that we can almost hear speaking to us in Nathaniel Hawthorne's rich but somewhat chilling vocabulary is the allusion to the Puritans and their influence. As the Puritans could see that "the same burning stigma was on both of them!" (225), Nathaniel Hawthorne alluded to the same marks on the crucified Christ, revealing how contemptuous the Puritans' beliefs were. While discussing future generations of Puritan influence, Hawthorne sees them wearing “the blackest shade of Puritanism” (211). This allusion allows us to see the perniciousness that flourished within the Puritans and how it was passed from one generation to the next. The allusions showing the author's feelings towards the religious intolerance of the Puritans are further developed with his choice of diction during the gallows scenes. The feelings of the Puritans were so devoid of compassion that "they were severe enough to look upon his death...without a murmur...but they had not the ruthlessness of another social state." (53). This implied that when faced with the death of a traitor they would have no reaction because their commiseration was entirely devoted to social applications.