What is Hawthorne's purpose for writing The Scarlet Letter?

Hawthorne's purpose for writhing The Scarlet letter was to expose hypocrisy in the Puritan way of life. And show that human beings can be very misunderstood on the surface of a ragid society, and can be made to suffer, but strangely the suffering ends out to be felt more by one whose silence is to hide behide a facade than by one whose silence is to show self-esteem, love, and strength of character.

=> Puritanism, in what i think in Hawthorne's view, wasn't a good spiritual path to follow, as it led to unjustified outrage and ridiculoous punishment, and not always against the right person!