The
Scarlet Letter by
Nathaniel Hawthorne is an enrapturing story of personal
suffering and inner conflict. Set in
colonial (17th c.)
New England,
the book plays out the story of
Hester Prynne, a young woman guilty of
adultery,
and how her punishment affects her. Hester holds the reader’s pity throughout:
she was first married in England to a man she didn’t love, and was sent to the
Massachusetts Bay colony before him to prepare their life. However, while there, she
falls for the local priest,
Arthur Dimmesdale, and they have an affair. The
result is
pregnancy and resulting punishment by the
Puritan-dominated colony and
local government.
Hester
is harshly chastised in a unique way. In order that her
shame may be apparent to
all the inhabitants and newcomers to the colony, she is forced to wear a red
letter
A on her breast. In the seven years that follows, this
scarlet letter
will become almost part of her and a constant reminder of her
sin. She will be
shunned by other people (the inhabitants avoid her, and their children ridicule
her) and forced to live alone with her daughter,
Pearl.
Another
interesting twist on Hester’s
burden is that she will not, and does not,
reveal who her
partner in crime is.
Reverend Dimmesdale is loved and held in
high reverence by the people. He is very
frail due to his apparently harsh
fasting, and this, among other things, results in his being considered one of
the
holiest people in the colony. That he should have committed adultery was
blasphemy; so it is a bit
ironic, but not at all surprising, that when Hester
was first punished (elevated in front of the population), he was called upon to
demand of her the name of her
accomplice. She adamantly refused and was thus
forced on her journey of
redemption alone. This, along with being proof of her
love for him, reveals her unselfishness and determination.
In
her long torment, Hester occupies herself with
embroidery and the raising of her
child, Pearl. Though the A was her human punishment, Pearl acts as a parallel of
the letter, a mark from
God. Another surprise is brought on when Hester’s
former husband appears:
Roger Chillingworth. He is there the day she is
sentenced, and visits her in her cell,
vowing to find the man who impregnated
her. He is a doctor, and by intuition and chance, focuses himself on Reverend
Dimmesdale, moves in with him, and eventually discovers his secret, for the
Reverend had carved the letter A onto his left breast out of
torment and
guilt.
Hester
warns Dimmesdale in a
meeting in the woods, and they plan to leave the colony
together on a ship. Unfortunately, Dimmesdale dies before this plan can be
carried out. After giving an “
Election Day” sermon, where many people were
present, he calls Hester and Pearl over to the same
scaffolding where Hester was
sentenced. Here he makes his
confession to the inhabitants and dies in her arms.
Chillingworth never gets his
revenge, and Hester never removes the A from her
breast.
Though,
despite being
pardoned, she never parts with the letter, Pearl,
her
divine mark, is never seen in the Massachusetts bay colony again. Perhaps the
author meant this to be as
imagery: she had
repented before God, but the A had
become part of who she was, and people would never forget.
All
in all, I’ve found this to be an excellent
story. Hawthorne’s use of
simile
and
metaphor (especially in such scenes as the
forest meeting with Dimmesdale)
brought the work alive, while still creating
awesome parallels that were
relevant to the plot and its concerns. I found it amazing that the author could
provide such an in-depth look at the
human soul from a
third-person perspective;
and yet he managed to illustrate all the intricacies of Hester’s
shame,
apprehensions over wild Pearl, Chillingworth’s
anger, or Dimmesdale’s guilt.
In addition to its
anti-
Puritan sentiment, I believe this book held in it a lesson on human
instinct. Each character acted on his or her own basic,
primal feeling. For Hester it was love, for Dimmesdale shame,
Chillingworth hate, and Pearl harsh
innocence. For instance, all of
Dimmesdale’s actions very much revolved around his
self-hatred and
desired
redemption. Chillingworth was driven by
revenge, Hester acted only out of
compassion, and Pearl’s actions and words were often
surreal in that they
meant so much more than they seemed; she was innocent, but always touching a
sore
spot, so to speak. Pearl was my favorite character simply because of
her
wanton curiosity and the pain she caused others, especially her parents, by
her actions. She would not
kiss her
father until he had made his
violent
confession; in the book she was like the
hand of God.
The
Scarlet Letter is definitely a work of art;
It's definitely worth reading and rereading.