The Scarlett Letter1
The novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an intriguing account of a Puritan community that experiences a breakdown in beliefs. The story deals with a woman, Hester, who commits adultery with a Calvinistic minister resulting in the birth of a child (Martin 110). As compensation for her crime of passion and her refusal to name her lover, Hester is sentenced to wear an embroidered scarlet letter on her bosom. It is this letter, or secret sin, that becomes the emphasis of the novel and assumes many different roles (Martin 111). Hawthorne starts the novel by portraying the literary reality associated with the different aspects of the letter (Martin 110). From the start, "Hawthorne seems to say, this is a scarlet letter; because of that, it is capable of further meaning. The letter will have to carry the burden of the tale" (Martin 111). Hawthorne's use of symbolism is fully developed in the multi-meanings hidden in the scarlet letter through a variety of characters. The scarlet letter represents different ideals to different people and should be given the proper consideration (Martin 114). In the Puritan community, the letter is viewed as a moral obligation to inform others o
ages "forgotten art" that was now replaced by the darkest shade of Puritanism. The Scarlet Letter is concerned not only with passion but also with America (another possible signification of Hester's letter). "It attempts to find in the story of Hester and Dimmesdale a paradigm of the fall of love in the New World" (Fiedler 249). However the many interpretations of the letter "A", the common symbol by readers is "adultery". Hester's secret serves as an "emblem" of different fates of the Puritan generation. "Hawthorne seems to adorn the subject rather than present it, conceal it with fancy needlework, so that the Capital A might have been thought to mean...anything other than adulteress" (Fiedler 250). He portrays the guilt as craftwork, which he attributes to Hester's prototype: "sporting with her infamy, the lost and desperate creature had embroidered the fatal token with golden thread and the nicest art of needlework (Hawthorne 56). This suggests the symbol "A" may have represented the proceeding agent had the Divine permission, for a season, to burrow into the clergyman's intimacy and plot against his soul" (Hawthorne 94). Chillingworth proposes to Dimmesdale that a "sickness, a sore place, if we may so call it, in your spirit, hath immediately its appropriate manifestation in your bodily frame" (Hawthorne 99). However, Dimmesdale denies and refuses to discuss it with him. Dimmesdale becomes weaker and weaker because "by the constitution of his nature, he loved the truth, and loathed the lie, as few men ever did. Therefore, above all things else, he loathed his miserable self! (Hawthorne 105). Before Dimmesdale's death, he finally confesses to his sin on the scaffold and frees his soul and conscience. Spectators have testified to seeing "on the breast of the unhappy minister, a SCARLET LETTER-the very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynne-imprinted in the flesh" (Hawthorne 182). Dimmesdale's own personal suffering and guilt becomes known after the consequence of his sin is immersed. Since women are of less account than men, they are coerced physically rather that psychologically (Baym 283). Forced to wear a symbol of shame in public, Hester is left alone behind that symbol to develop, as she will.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1511
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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