Scarlet letter question!?

Yes, pretty much. They're all Puritans, meaning they wanted to purify the church create their own little "pure" society. Basically they wanted a utopia. But everyone is different; different habits, beliefs, etc. So if you make a bunch of rules and tell people to obey them, there are going to be people who don't obey the rules (as seen in today's society as well). People have the natural instinct to go with their gut, so they do what they want. In the town in the Scarlet Letter, it's not much different. However, people who want to break free from the norm are scared to do so. Hester Prynn committed adultery, and it wasn't kept quiet, so she was very much looked down upon. There are other people in the town who also didn't obey the rules, but they never came clean about it. Some of these people act hypocritical towards Hester because they committed some sort of "crime" but they'll never admit it, so they're getting away with it. I guess it's just a matter of showing independence; because the town is so strictly run by their leaders, who are very focused on religion, the people suffer because they can't be who they are.