The Scarlet Letter

 

Why did you choose this particular book? Typical reasons might be:

 

1. You like the author.

 

2. You like this type of book (i.e. mystery, western, adventure or romance, etc.).

 

3. Someone recommended the book to you.

 

4. It was on a required reading list.

 

5. You liked the cover.

 

 

 

The reason is simple, that coincidently I have bought the English edition of The Scarlet Letter, so I started reading immediately after the teacher gave us the task. And I was curious about its Chinese translation Hongzi. And I got the explanation in the dictionary:” the letter A in red; Puritans required adulterers to wear it”.

 

 

 

The Scarlet Letter

 

Abstract：

 

The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book,Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

 

 

 

Key word:

 

(character analyses of main characters, the attitude toward love, girls’ value.)

 

Hawthorne, the scarlet letter, sin , puritan

 

 

 

The Scarlet Letter

 

1. 1.     Brief Introduction of Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

Nathaniel Hathorne was born in1804 inthe city ofSalem,Massachusettsto Nathaniel Hathorne and Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials. Nathaniel later added a “w” to make his name “Hawthorne”. He enteredBowdoinCollegein 1821, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, and graduated in 1825.Hawthorneanonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. He published several short stories in various periodicals which he collected in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales. The next year, he became engaged to Sophia Peabody. He worked at a Custom House and joined Brook Farm, a transcendentalist community, before marryingPeabodyin 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse inConcord,Massachusetts, later moving toSalem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside inConcord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political appointment took Hawthorne and family toEuropebefore their return to The Wayside in 1860.Hawthornedied on May 19, 1864, leaving behind his wife and their three children.

 

Much ofHawthorne’s writing centers onNew England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. His published works include novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend Franklin Pierce.

 

1. 2.     Plot

 

The story starts during the summer of 1642, nearBoston,Massachusetts, in a Puritan village. A young woman, named Hester Prynne, has been led from the town prison with her infant daughter in her arms, and on the breast of her gown “a rag of scarlet cloth” that “assumed the shape of a letter.” It is the uppercase letter “A.” The Scarlet Letter “A” represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin—a badge of shame—for all to see. A man, who is elderly and a stranger to the town, enters the crowd and asks another onlooker what’s happening. The second man responds by explaining that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester’s husband, who is much older than she, and whose real name is unknown, has sent her ahead toAmericawhilst settling affairs inEurope. However, her husband does not arrive inBostonand the consensus is that he has been lost at sea. It is apparent that, while waiting for her husband, Hester has had an affair, leading to the birth of her daughter. She will not reveal her lover’s identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her subsequent public shaming, is the punishment for her sin and secrecy. On this day, Hester is led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she again refuses to identify her child’s father.

 

The elderly onlooker is Hester’s missing husband, who is now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He reveals his true identity to Hester and medicates her daughter. They have a frank discussion where Chillingworth states that it was foolish and wrong for a cold, old intellectual like him to marry a young lively woman like Hester. He expressly states that he thinks that they have wronged each other and that he is even with her — her lover is a completely different matter. Hester refuses to divulge the name of her lover and Chillingworth does not press her stating that he will find out anyway. He does elicit a promise from her to keep his true identity as Hester’s husband secret, though. He settles inBostonto practice medicine there. Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and her daughter,Pearl, grows into a willful, impish child, and is said to be the scarlet letter come to life as both Hester’s love and her punishment. Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts ofBoston. Community officials attempt to takePearlaway from Hester, but with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, an eloquent minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. Chillingworth attaches himself to the ailing minister and eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with round-the-clock care. Chillingworth also suspects that there may be a connection between the minister’s torments and Hester’s secret, and he begins to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers something undescribed to the reader, supposedly an “A” burned into Dimmesdale’s chest, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct.

 

Dimmesdale’s psychological anguish deepens, and he invents new tortures for himself. In the meantime, Hester’s charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. One night, whenPearlis about seven years old, she and her mother are returning home from a visit to the deathbed of John Winthrop when they encounter Dimmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester andPearljoin him, and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refusesPearl’s request that he acknowledge her publicly the next day, and a meteor marks a dull red “A” in the night sky. It is interpreted by the townsfolk to mean Angel, as a prominent figure in the community had died that night, but Dimmesdale sees it as meaning adultery. Hester can see that the minister’s condition is worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdale’s self-torment. Chillingworth refuses. She suggests that she may reveal his true identity to Dimmesdale.

 

As Hester walks through the forest, she is unable to feel the sunshine.Pearl, on the other hand, basks in it. They coincide with Dimmesdale, also on a stroll through the woods. Hester informs him of the true identity of Chillingworth. The former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live withPearlas a family. They will take a ship sailing fromBostonin four days. Both feel a sense of release, and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. The sun immediately breaks through the clouds and trees to illuminate her release and joy.Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. She is unnerved and expels a shriek until her mother points out the letter on the ground. Hester beckonsPearlto come to her, butPearlwill not go to her mother until Hester buttons the letter back onto her dress.Pearlthen goes to her mother. Dimmesdale givesPearla kiss on the forehead, whichPearlimmediately tries to wash off in the brook, because he again refuses to make known publicly their relationship. However, he clearly feels a release from the pretense of his former life, and the laws and sins he has lived with.

 

The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday put on in honor of an election and Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever. Meanwhile, Hester has learned that Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship. Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Hester andPearlstanding before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly, exposing the mark supposedly seared into the flesh of his chest. He falls dead just afterPearlkisses him.

 

Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester andPearlleaveBoston, and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resumes her charitable work. She receives occasional letters fromPearl, who was rumored to have married a European aristocrat and established a family of her own.Pearlalso inherits all of Chillingworth’s money even though he knows she is not his daughter. There is a sense of liberation in her and the townspeople, especially the women, who had finally begun to forgive Hester of her tragic indiscretion. When Hester dies, she is buried in “a new grave near an old and sunken one, in that burial ground beside which King’s Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both.” The tombstone was decorated with a letter “A”, for Hester and Dimmesdale.

 

 

 

1. 3.     Major Theme:

 

Sin: The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge of what it means to be immortal. For Hester, the scarlet letter functioned as “her passport into regions where other women dared not tread”, leading her to “speculate” about her society and herself more “boldly” than anyone else in New England.

 

As for Dimmesdale, the “cheating minister” of his sin gives him “sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his chest vibrate in unison with theirs.” His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy. The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and most fully authorized principles in Christian thought. His “Fall” is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity but he ends in corruption. The subtlety is that the minister’s belief is his own cheating, convincing himself at every stage of his spiritual pilgrimage that he is saved.

 

The rosebush, its beauty a striking contrast to all that surrounds it—as later the beautifully embroidered scarlet A will be–is held out in part as an invitation to find “some sweet moral blossom” in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that “the deep heart of nature” (perhaps God) may look more kind on the errant Hester and her child than her Puritan neighbors do. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.

 

Chillingworth’s misshapen body reflects (or symbolizes) the anger in his soul, which builds as the novel progresses, similar to the way Dimmesdale’s illness reveals his inner turmoil. The outward man reflects the condition of the heart; an observation thought to be inspired by the deterioration of Edgar Allan Poe, whomHawthorne”much admired”.

 

AlthoughPearlis a complex character, her primary function within the novel is as a symbol.Pearlherself is the embodiment of the scarlet letter, and Hester rightly clothes her in a beautiful dress of scarlet, embroidered with gold thread, just like the scarlet letter upon Hester’s bosom. Parallels can be drawn betweenPearland the character Beatrice in Rappaccini’s Daughter. Beatrice is nourished upon poisonous plants, until she herself becomes poisonous.Pearl, in the mysterious prenatal world, imbibes the poison of her parents’ guilt.

 

In this novel, author created different characters with different sins. He wanted to show us that everyone just like these characters is sinner. In the perspective of religion(Puritanism here), everyone is sinner and only god can redeem us. And the author Hawthorne himself, as a puritan，he was identified with this. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne dug deep into the unregenerate human nature, and he made these characters be redeemed in different ways after they truly confessed.

 

4.Comments:

 

This is a short novel to read and re-read. The theme of this story is sin and redemption. The scarlet letter symbolizes a lot : 1, Hester’s A means shame, punishment and warning to others , but later it stood for “able” as the result of Hester’s care and help to the others . 2, The scarlet letter caved on Dimmesdale’s breast symbolizes the sin secretly concealed in his heart. The scaffold is a symbol of puritan justice, enforcement of the laws and also the revelation of the truth.

 

This novel is truly one of literature’s greatest triumphs, its characters and themes reverberating in our collective consciousness more than 150 years after its initial publication. Few novels inspire as much contemplation and feeling on the part of the reader. Hester Prynne, American fiction’s first and foremost female heroine continues to haunt this world, inspiring a never-ending stream of scholarly debate. Even in our less puritanical age, some doubtless see her as a villainously great temptress, but to me she is a remarkably brave hero indeed. Her sin is known to all, and she never runs away from it, bearing the scarlet letter on her bosom bravely for all to see; she realizes the true measure of that sin, fretting constantly over the effects it will have on young Pearl, remaining steadfast in her beliefs while at the same time envisioning a new society where women and men can exist on more equal terms, free of the stultifying harsh punishments meted out on even the most repentant of souls by Puritanism. She shows her noble spirit by refusing to name her partner in sin and goes so far as to allow the ruthless Roger Chillingworth to torment the man she loves deeply enough to protect him for all time. LittlePearlis somewhat of an enigma, truly manifesting traits of both the imp and the little angel; her questions about the letter her mother wears and the minister who continually holds his hand against his heart reflect an insight that amazes this reader. Chillingworth is a thoroughly black-hearted man; I can certainly understand the blow he sustained as a result of Hester’s sin, but his actions and thirst for prolonged revenge on the so-called perpetrator of the wrong he suffered can only be described as roguish and unpalatable.

 

Of course, the most complex character in the novel (and literature as a whole) is the good minister Arthur Dimmsdale. One is compelled to both like him and despise him. He is basically a good man and an unquestionably fine soldier in the army of the Lord, winning many souls to God with his impassioned sermons. He is more aware than anyone else of his sinful nature, and he punishes himself quite brutally in private in a useless attempt to make up for the public ignominy he lacks the moral courage to call upon himself with a public profession of his deed. Dimmsdale is a coward and a hypocrite. At one critical moment in the latter pages of the novel, he blames Hester for his state of misery, and it is that comment in particular that makes this tragic character a man I can only commiserate with to a limited degree. Even at the penultimate moment of the novel, as he finally bears the mark of his shame and guilt for all his parishioners to see, the very men and women who have viewed him as a saintly man of God rather than the brigand he knows himself to be, he does not openly confess-his words and deeds do make plain the secret of his heart, but it is his lack of a thoroughly bold confession that causes some of his most devoted followers, so Hawthorne tells us, to blindly judge his final act as an illustrative parable on the danger of sin threatening each member of his congregation rather than an admission of guilt and self-condemnation.

 

The American author Nathaniel Hawthorne had an intricate relationship with the tradition of American Puritanism, with which both he and his Puritan ancestors were imbued in character and in belief.Hawthorne’s specific interpretation of the prevailing Original Sin and its redemption has gone beyond Puritan ethics and belongs to the Christian Universal. The artistic truths featured by their stained protagonists, passion description and social redemption in The Scarlet Letter have made great impact on readers, and hence are a warning toll for the reform of the Puritan church practice.

 

 

 

Conclusion:

 

This novel is all about sins and redemption. InHawthorne’s ideology, everyone has sin concealed in their hearts, which is fully expressed by three characters he created in this novel. His purpose of writing this novel is not to write about adultery, but to explore the psychological effects and moral problems of it. Hester, Chillingworth, Dimmsdale all commited the sin and then were punished. Finally they were all redeemed. They all experienced this process. It revealsHawthorne’s profound understanding and thinking of humanity. Everyone is born with sin. People must pay for their sins, and receive punishments. And at the same time, people must try to purify own heart and be redeemed.