Scarlet Letter Essay, Research Paper
Guilt as Reparation for Sin in The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter is a novel about a Puritan woman who has committed adultery and must pay for her sin by wearing a scarlet A on her bosom. The woman, Hester Prynne, must struggle through everyday life with the guilt of her sin. The novel is also about the suffering that is endured by not admitting to one s wrongs. Reverend Mister Dimmesdale learns that secrecy only makes the guilt increase. Nathaniel Hawthorne is trying to display how guilt is the everlasting payment for sinful actions. The theme of guilt as reparation for sin in The Scarlet Letter is revealed through Nathaniel Hawthorne s use of northeastern, colonial settings, various conflicts, and characters that must live with guilt for the sins they have committed.
Nathaniel Hawthorne s elaborately descriptive writing style has been studied and criticized by people all over the world for years. Hawthorne has been thought of as one of the greatest writers in history, but his unique style has also been negatively criticized and disapproved of. No matter the opinion of his works, the people who knew him personally respected Hawthorne. On the day after Hawthorne s funeral, in May 1864, [Ralph Waldo] Emerson wrote in his journal: I thought him a greater man than any of his works betray (Martin 37). Hawthorne, however, was not so well thought of by people who did not know him well. Someone who would rather be creative and write than have a real job was not very well respected in Hawthorne s day. A writer who wrote fictional tales was even less respected than an author who wrote of actual events was. These unjustified opinions of writers influenced Nathaniel Hawthorne throughout his life and career in creative writing.
Another issue that influenced Nathaniel Hawthorne was his ancestry. His family had spent five generations in Salem. A couple of Nathaniel s ancestors of whom he was especially ashamed were William and John Hathorne. William Hathorne was a Puritan who showed fierce prejudice against the Quakers. He ordered a public beating for Ann Coleman s punishment, and she almost died consequently (Shepherd iv). John Hathorne was a judge who sentenced many people to death during the Salem witch trials. He was the
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Judge Hathorne spoken of in Miller s The Crucible. It is believed that Nathaniel added the w to his last name in an effort to distance him from these historical ancestors (Shepherd vi).
Nathaniel Hawthorne (originally spelled Hathorne ) was born to Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne and Nathaniel Hathorne in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804. He was the second child and the only son of the Hathornes three children. When Nathaniel was four, his father came down with yellow fever and died in Surinam, Dutch Guiana. After his father s death, Mrs. Hathorne moved her family into her parents house in Salem (Shepherd iv). At the age of nine, Nathaniel Hathorne suffered an injury to his legs that kept him from attending school for about two years. This injury was a blessing in disguise. During his recovery, Nathaniel read many books and developed an appreciation for the English classics. Bunyan s Pilgrim Progress and Spenser s Faerie Queene seem to have been his favorite books because he had two cats named Beelzebub and Apollyon, characters from Bunyan (Martin 17). Hawthorne later named his first child Una, after Spenser s heroine (Martin 17).
Hawthorne would spend the rest of his childhood in Raymond, Maine, hunting, fishing, and enjoying the outdoors. He returned to Salem for schooling and worked as a bookkeeper for his Uncle s stagecoach line (Martin 17). He entered Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine in 1821. He made some very impressive acquaintances during college, meeting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Horatio Bridge, and Franklin Pierce. These friends will prove to be beneficial to Nathaniel in his authorial career. During college, Nathaniel added the w to his last name (Shepherd vi).
About three years after Hawthorne graduates from college, he publishes his first book. Fanshawe is a romance novel. Out of dissatisfaction with the novel, he collects and burns all of the copies of this book that he can find shortly after its release. He also burns Seven Tales of My Native Land, a collection of short stories he began work on while in college. Two years after his failure as a publisher, Hawthorne has five of his stories published in the Salem Gazette. In 1834, some of Hawthorne s stories are published in New England Magazine. From 1836 until 1842 Hawthorne lives in Boston. He is given the job of editor of a short-lived magazine entitled The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. One of Hawthorne s works that was published in 1837, Endicott and the Red Cross, first displayed the theme that would become The Scarlet Letter (Cowley 289). While living in Boston, Hawthorne meets Sophia Amelia Peabody and
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becomes engaged to her in 1838. In 1842, Hawthorne and Sophia marry and move to Concord, Massachusetts, where they rent a house called the Old Manse from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nathaniel and Sophia s first child, a girl named Una, is born in 1844. Una proves to be the basis for Pearl s character in The Scarlet Letter (290). The Hawthornes move to Salem in 1845. Shortly after moving to Salem, in 1846, Mosses from an Old Manse is published and receives good reviews. In addition, during the year of 1846, Hawthorne is appointed surveyor of customs in Salem. President James Polk appoints Hawthorne to this position. The year 1846 proved to be a good year for Hawthorne for along with his critically acclaimed book and new job, his first son, Julian is born (Shepherd vii).
The better-known part of Hawthorne s life begins in 1849 when he loses his job at the custom house. He begins work on The Scarlet Letter and The Custom-House. (Shepherd vii). Hawthorne wanted it to be known that he was employed outside of his writing. In Hawthorne s time one had to have a real job to earn the respect of society. Hawthorne also wanted to make the story of the scarlet letter seem factual. He wrote in The Custom-House of how he found a letter describing the events of Hester Prynne s life along with the actual scarlet A . No evidence has been found to support the statement that the document or the actual A really exists. Hawthorne may have been trying to make his work seem that it was based in fact so that people would not view him as an immature writer of fictional fantasies and tales.
On the morning of June 8, 1849, he came home to announce that he had been discharged from his surveyorship by the Whig administration. Oh, then, his wife cried, you can write your book! When he asked her where the family s bread and rice would come from, she opened a drawer and showed him the savings she had made from her household allowance. One story is that he started The Scarlet Letter that afternoon (Cowley 290). His most successful work, The Scarlet Letter, is published in 1850. Hawthorne moves to Lenox, Massachusetts and acquaints himself with Herman Melville directly after his publication. The next year, Hawthorne publishes The House of the Seven Gables and his second daughter and third child, Rose, is born. Hawthorne s The Blithedale Romance is published and Hawthorne buys a house in Concord, which he names The Wayside in 1852. In addition, in 1853, he writes a campaign biography of his former classmate and presidential candidate Franklin Pierce. After the election, President Pierce appoints Hawthorne to the position of American consul at Liverpool, England. Nathaniel and his family move to Liverpool. He
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serves as consul until 1857 when he resigns and moves to Rome, Italy. The family eventually moves to Florence, where Hawthorne begins work on a romance, which is completed in England. The Marble Fawn, Hawthorne s Italian romance, is published in 1860 and the family moves back to The Wayside in Concord. Hawthorne publishes one major work entitled Our Old Home before his death in Plymouth, New Hampshire. He died in 1864 while travelling with former President and good friend Franklin Pierce (Shepherd vii).
The theme of The Scarlet Letter is that guilt is reparation for sin. All of the major characters and events in the novel revolve around guilt. The characters display the guilt they feel because of the sinful actions they have committed. Roger Chillingworth, Hester s husband, feels guilty for marrying Hester despite the fact that the two did not love each other. Unlike other characters in the book, guilt is not Chillingworth s major motivation. His obsession with revenge against Hester s lover drives him to do the things he does. Hester Prynne feels guilt for her sin of adultery and for the circumstances into which her child must be born. Reverend Mister Arthur Dimmesdale is Hester s fellow adulterer. He feels guilt because he has shared in Hester s passionate sin and because he will not admit to the sinful act and receive the punishment that he deserves. Hester will not reveal the name of her fellow sinner, and Dimmesdale says: What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him yea, compel him, as it were to add hypocrisy to sin? (Hawthorne 62). Due to Pearl s less than admirable conception, she is shunned by society and even by her parents. Pearl is said to be the direct consequence of sin. As the scarlet letter incarnate, Pearl brings both pain and pleasure to Hester (Leary 118). Pearl becomes the scapegoat of her parents guilt and regret.
The settings in The Scarlet Letter are essential to the overall mood and tone of the novel. The action of the novel takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in the early to mid-1600s. The town of Salem is famous for its stern Puritan beliefs and harsh (and often outrageous) punishments. The well-known Salem witch trials took place here. Salem, in the time of the novel, was no Utopia. The first chapter of the novel tells us of the dismal and depressing sights in the center of town: The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison (Hawthorne 42). The jail serves as both a prison and a hospital, following in the Puritan belief that sinners should be punished and at the same time healed of their sin (Kaul 10). The geographic area containing
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Massachusetts Bay is referred to by some as the Eastern Woodland Region. The weather of this region is generally cold and damp. These conditions add to the suspense and eerie appeal of the novel by reflecting the actions and emotions of the characters. The unsettled land around Salem was woodland and was considered an evil place by the inhabitants of the city. Puritans considered the forest the Devil s last unsettled preserve; therefore, anything or anyone in the woods was thought of as being evil. For example, the settlers of the Eastern Woodland region feared that the Indians were satanic people because they lived in the forest. Many rumors of witchcraft originated because someone was seen in the forest at night. In The Scarlet Letter, many references are made to the forest as a place of evil. Mistress Hibbins, a known witch, asks both Hester and Dimmesdale to meet her for a midnight rendezvous in the woods. When Hester and Dimmesdale meet each other in the forest to talk, it is in daylight, and they know that no one will see them in the woods. The forest seems to be dark, gloomy, and intimidating to the Puritans, however, it seems welcoming and friendly to Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl. The forest, since it is considered evil, seems to accept those who have sin in their hearts (Kaul 18-19). Pearl is the only of the three who is innocent, and the sun reminds the reader of this when only Pearl is bathed in sunshine in the forest. The sun is a symbol of purity and innocence, whereas the shadows of the forest are symbolic of sin and transgression.
Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many different conflicts throughout the novel to accentuate the theme. Hester experiences many conflicts at the beginning of the novel before she is released from jail. She is publicly humiliated when she must march through town to the scaffold, then stand on the scaffold in the center of town and present her sin to the entire city. The most terrible part, the truly inhuman aspect, of Hester s fate is not that she is punished publicly but that her punishment takes the form of isolating her from the rest of the community (Kaul 13). Hester s guilt creates an impenetrable barrier, which separates her from the community that will eventually be able to forgive her. This conflict can be classified as man versus society. Hester faces many more conflicts after she is released from the small prison. She enters the town and is
subjected to the glares, condescending remarks, and disapproving stares of the townspeople. These responses from her peers and neighbors trigger the guilt that has been festering inside her since her transgression. She is forced to live in seclusion with little Pearl because she is not accepted by society and everyone shuns her. She chooses to live in seclusion because she cannot bear to face the guilt that waits to rip and tear at her sanity.
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This, again, is a man versus society conflict. Hester must also deal with Roger Chillingworth, her husband, before she is released from jail. She can tell that Chillingworth will stop at nothing to wreak revenge on her fellow adulterer. This conflict is man versus man. Hester must also deal with Chillingworth after her release from prison. She knows that he is plotting against Arthur Dimmesdale, but she has promised him that she will not reveal his identity. The decision of to whom to pledge her allegiance seems to cause her many complications. A.N. Kaul says: With the insight and freedom she has so painfully won, she succeeds in relieving her lover from the torture of his morbid apprehensions, both of his world and the next, and in showing him the true path to redemption. Heaven would show mercy, she says, hadst thou but the strength to take advantage of it (Kaul 17). This means that Hester decides to be faithful to Dimmesdale. She manages to salvage his earthly life as well as his afterlife in heaven. The decision Hester must make is an example of man versus himself. Another example of man versus himself conflict that Hester faces is how to deal with Pearl. Pearl is very emotional and at times seems evil. Hester does not want to punish Pearl for the way she acts because she feels Pearl is punished enough by being the product of her mother s passionate sin. Pearl s suffering only serves to heighten Hester s feeling of guilt. She has caused the destruction of an innocent life by her sinful action, therefore adding to her insurmountable guilt.
The Reverend Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale also faces many conflicts. He does not admit the sin he has committed with Hester; therefore, his guilt must be quietly and secretly dealt with. Dimmesdale endures countless sleepless nights because of his inner guilt. He spends all night staring into the mirror and praying for forgiveness. He even whips himself for the sins he has committed. He has lost all signs of vivacity in his personality. His sins include adultery and hypocrisy because he is punishing Hester for the crime he also committed. Dimmesdale speaks to Hester of his inner suffering: Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret! Thou little knowest what a relief it is, after the torment of seven years cheat, to look into an eye that recognizes me for what I am! (Hawthorne 182). Dimmesdale s situation here is an example of man versus himself conflict. When he says that it is a relief to see someone who knows him for what he is, he is referring to the false impression his congregation has of him. Dimmesdale s congregation sees him as a sinless saint and a model citizen. When he tries to hint to them that he is not as perfect as they think, the congregation only thinks he is trying to relate to them. He is tempted to
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further deceive the people who follow him. Dimmesdale also deals with man versus man conflict when he must stand up to Chillingworth s constant bombardment of guilt-incurring statements. With the worst imaginable motives, Chillingworth is trying to get Dimmesdale to do what the structure and basic conception of the romance clearly indicates he must if he is to save his soul, in any imaginable sense clearly and openly admit his guilt, whatever the consequences (Colacurcio 38). Dimmesdale s struggle with Chillingworth serves the wrong purpose. Dimmesdale fights to do the wrong thing . He fights to keep the truth a secret.
Pearl faces man versus society conflicts when she is shunned and ridiculed by the Puritan society. Pearl s evil attitude toward the other children of the town earns her many bad names. Examples of such names are demon offspring and imp of evil . Hester must feel guilty for creating Pearl only for Pearl to be ridiculed by the townspeople (Ragussis 63). Pearl also faces man versus man conflict when Dimmesdale rejects her and Hester also denies that Pearl is her daughter. So speaking, she [Hester] undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and , taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance hither verge of the stream. With a hand s breadth further flight, it would have fallen into the water, and have given the little brook another woe to carry onward, besides the unintelligible tale which it still kept murmuring about (Hawthorne 191). This scene in A Flood of Sunshine is symbolic of Hester rejecting Pearl. It has been said that Pearl actually became a living scarlet letter. By Hester throwing away the adornment, she also throws away Pearl. The brook that flows through the forest, whispering tales of sorrow and woe, is also said to represent Pearl. When Hester throws the symbol of her past seven years suffering into the creek, it displays how Pearl receives all of the blame for Hester s guilt.