This work compares and contrasts the portrait of Puritans in selected novels and short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne with drama and film version of The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The work shows how Puritanism is viewed from a critical perspective by these two authors, indicating the means by which, through religion, guilt and shame was exploited. The romantic use of myth and symbolism by Hawthorne is juxtaposed with the dramatic elements employed by Miller.