"Maypole of MerryMoun"t by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hawthorne starts off the piece with beautiful imagery that takes you back to a time of idealism and gaiety. He personifies Midsummer Eve as a woman with roses in her lap, bringing lush vegetation to Merry Mount. He then goes on and describes the seasons as teasing friends, enjoying the company of each other. This beautiful use of personification sets the mood of the story, he weaves this beautiful, idealistic, fairy-tale environment to show exactly …

…rry Mount because the gaiety and richness they lived in was snatched away by the Puritans and their beliefs against materialistic vanities. This critique is especially evident in the scene where even the bear was shot because Endicott suspected the bear of witchcraft. The ludicrousness of the claim underscores the strictness of the Puritans. I believe that this piece was a specific example Hawthorne uses to show how much he was against the Puritan society.