"Setting" comprises not just a
    geographical location, but also the historical/ social context and the time period when the
    story takes place. 
 The geographical setting of "" is in New
    England, particularly in a small town named Milford. Hawthorne traditionally sets his stories
    (and novels) in actual locations, some of which come with a backstory as in the case of
    "The Custom House" in , for
    example. 
 There is, indeed, a "city of
    Milford" in Massachusetts, but we can only assume that Hawthorne used this as yet another
    real location on which to base his story. This is because it is not certain whether Hawthorne
    was referring to "the" Milford, Massachusetts or if he just happened to use that name
    for no real reason. 
 Time period
 An important dimension of
    the setting is the time period in which the story is set, which is colonial New England. By
    "colonial", we refer back to the establishment of the original colonies, preferably
    parting from the passing of the First Navigation Acts in 1651, and all the way until the
    American Revolution.
 The colonial period in New England, where Milford is
    located, is more significant in 1686. This is the year when the actual "Dominion of New
    England" is created by King James II through the unification (combination) of 8 colonies
    into one, for several reasons, none of them punitive. The colonies included Rhode Island,
    Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Plymouth. In 1688, East and West Jersey (New Jersey) and New
    York were included in the dominion. 
 Social context
 Of
    further importance is the social setting of the story. Colonial New England was also
    puritanical. The term "puritan" is now used loosely but, at one point, it was a
    pejorative used against Anglicans from the Church of England that thought that the church needed
    to clean up its act and be, well, "more pure".
 Therefore, those
    incoming Anglican colonists who settled in Plymouth were separatists who believed that the
    Church was corrupted and believed that those who were truly Christian should get away from
    it.
 The colonists from Massachusetts Bay, however, while also felt that the
    church needed some serious cleaning up, did not want to separate from it. Imagine how crazy
    things got when everyone, separatists and non separatists, had to become one under one same
    dominion.
 The set up of the story, where the parson seems to be at the
    epicenter of the dynamics of the villagers (or acts as if so), is typical of the time period.
    The figure of the minister is quite influential, and what the parson did must have indeed caused
    a commotion. After all, the story itself is based on real life events with "another parson
    from New England" named Joseph Moody from York, Maine. 
 Therefore,
    Hawthorne kept quite true to the time period he wished to illustrate. 
        href="https://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/purdef.htm">https://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/purdef.htm    
    href="https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h546.html">https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h546.html