Wednesday, December 23, 2015

What view did Puritans hold of pleasure among their society? To the Puritans, bear baiting was seen as immoral not because animals were tormented...

First, I would suggest that you consult your own text and
teacher because there is a great discrepancy between different authors and different
scholars as to what, exactly, Puritan attitudes were.  Some see the Puritans as having
been joyless and opposed to pleasure, as your question implies, whereas others see them
as much more moderate.


On this issue, I come down in the
middle.  I believe that it is wrong to say that the Puritans disliked pleasure.  They
did like pleasure so long as it was not the wrong sort of pleasure.  For example, they
enjoyed feasting (with alcohol, no less) and talking to one another.  These sorts of
things are surely as pleasurable as bear baiting.


Puritans
did, however, disapprove of some things that others found pleasurable.  In the case of
bear baiting, they disapproved because it often was used as a way to gamble and because
it was idle pleasure.  They also disliked such things
because they led to discord among the members of the community (as people fought over
the results of the contest, for example).


So, it was not
that the Puritans disapproved of pleasure.  It is more accurate to say that things like
bear baiting were seen as useless entertainments and therefore inappropriate for good
Puritans.

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