The Scarlet Letter: Theocracy and Guilt and Punishment Nathaniel Hawthorne’s venerated psychological novel, The Scarlet Letter, is about the life a woman who is punished by a theocratic society. She is persecuted because she rebelled against the rules of this society. One major concept Hawthorne used in his novel is theocratic domination. The theocratic society dominated all of life with its rules and regulations. Those who were nonsubmissive to their rules would face harsh and humiliating punishment. Guilt and punishment is a system engendered by theocratic domination as a way to control and manipulate the people it dict