Introduction
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Massachusetts in 1804.
His father was Captain Nathaniel Hathorne (without the “w”) and he had
one sister named Elizabeth. Hawthorne graduated from Bowdin college
in Boston in 1925. He then moved back home to Maine where he lived
with his mother and published him first book Fanshaw: A Tale at his own
expense. Later he burned all the copies he could find of that book.
He got a job at a custom house to support his family. There, he got
lots of information for his novel The Scarlet Letter. In 1851, Hawthorne
became good friends with Herman Melville who was writing Moby Dick at the
time. Other books by Hawthorne are The House of the Seven Gables
and Tanglewood Tales. Hawthorne died in 1864.
This book deals much with sin and romance and the consequences
of sin and romance (namely Pearl). Another book that dealt with a
similar theme was The Grapes of Wrath.
Summary
The book begins with an essay titled “The Custom House.”
It serves for nothing more than a preface.
The book begins by explaining that Hester Prynne has committed
adultery and has a child with a man that is not her husband. Hester
will not tell who the father of this child (Pearl) is. As a punishment
for her sin, she must stand on a scaffold and receive the insults of the
people for three hours and she must wear a scarlet “A” on her bosom for
the rest of her life as a symbol for her sin.
Hester was sent before to husband to Massachusetts. Her
husband, however, never made it to Massachusetts and was assumed lost or
dead on the Pacific. Hester found out this was not true when she
saw her husband standing in the crowd watching her on the scaffold.
Later, Hester’s husband (Roger Chillingworth) visits her in jail.
Roger apologizes that he was late but explains that he was captured by
Indians and held captive. He convinces Hester not to reveal that
he is her long lost husband, but swear that he will find and seek revenge
on the father of this baby.
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and his friend John Wilson are introduced
at the scaffold begging Hester to reveal the father of the baby so that
he may suffer just as Hester does. Ironically, it turns out that
Arthur Dimmesdale was the father of the baby and he and Hester knew it.
Roger Chillingworth who was a physician as well as Hester’s husband, moves
in with Reverend Dimmesdale because Dimmesdale was growing ill
While living with Dimmesdale, he grows suspicious that Dimmesdale
is the father of Pearl and seeks revenge on him by hurting him more than
curing him of his illness. But this was only a suspicion until one
night, Chillingworth opened Dimmesdale’s shirt while he was sleeping and
discovers a scarlet A on Dimmesdale’s Chest. Chillingworth continue
to torture Dimmesdale.
Hester and Pearl was let out of prison when their term was up.
At this point, pearl was a young girl. She was, however, drawn to
the A on Hester’s chest, a constant reminder of her sin. Dimmesdale,
feeling guilty visits Hester and Pearl. Then one night the three
of them stand on the Scaffold together and Dimmesdale imagines people mocking
him as they should have seven years ago. He apologizes to Pearl and
Hester for not being with them on the Scaffold. While they are on
the scaffold, a meteor flies through the sky leaving a trail that looked
like the letter A, another reminder of the sin. Hester tells Dimmesdale
that her real husband is Chillingworth and that he wants revenge, badly.
They decide to run away together on a ship on election day.
On election day, Hester discovers that Chillingworth booked a
ticket for the same boat that she and Dimmesdale was going to take.
Dimmesdale delivers his election day sermon, one of his best sermons ever
spoken, and walks up to the scaffold with Hester and Pearl to reveal his
sin to all his congregation. He confesses everything and falls ill
and dies soon afterward. Hester leaves with Pearl. A few months
later, Chillingworth dies and leaves Pearl a great sum of money.
Hester and Pearl move to England where she is looked upon as a wise woman
and they go to her for advice. She continues to wear the scarlet
letter there.
Plot
The plot seemed to be contrived. It had too many symbols
to be real and I didn’t find myself in the place of one of the characters.
To me, it was just a story. There was no human struggle in it and
I didn’t find myself rooting for any of the characters. The use of
the letter A was good at first but later I thought it was overworked and
was just fluff without the content of a good plot. There was one
saving grace though. The ending was a good one. It resolved
the story not by killing the characters as in East of Eden, but actually
resolved it. Hester grew into a wise lady learning from her experiences
being rejected. The fact that Chillingworth died added to the mystical
symbolic nature of the book by showing that the sole purpose of his existence
was to torture Dimmesdale, and once Dimmesdale was dead, there was nothing
more to do.
Characters
As I said before, I didn’t feel for the characters. I never
really got to know them and I didn’t care for them. I did have certain
opinions of the characters but most of them were more bad than good.
First of all, I did have sympathy for Hester for falling into this situation
where she thought her husband died, plus she didn’t even want to marry
her husband in the first place. Even though I felt sympathy, I didn’t
feel that it was right for her to sleep with Reverent Arthur Dimmesdale
for the reason that they weren’t married. Dimmesdale, I thought was
largely a hypocrite. He was seen by his congregation as holy but
he knew he wasn’t. He did have the virtue of feeling very guilty
about his sin but he shouldn’t have done it in the first place. He
is a Reverend! He has a congregation to think about. Also,
I thought the puritan society was too harsh on them. Sure Dimmesdale
and Hester sinned, but it is not a sin against society, it is a sin against
God. Let God deal with it. Also, years after the sin, they
never forgave Hester for her sin but continued to treat her as an outcast.
Chillingworth was like a tank. He drove forward toward his goal and
never stopped, until he could go no further which was when Dimmesdale was
on the scaffold out of Chillingworth’s reach. This drive that Chillingworth
had could be in a sense commendable in the sense that he did have a goal
that he tried to reach, but that goal was nevertheless evil and deceitful.
Pearl, although she was cute, was in my eyes a brat. Her mother was
suffering but she didn’t comfort her, she added to the suffering.
Perhaps I lost much of my interest in the story because I saw no one that
was good, that I could associate myself with.
Dimmesdale: Father of Pearl. He was a Reverend that in the beginning of the book begged Hester to reveal the father of the child, who was himself.
Hester: The adulteress. She sinned by having a child that wasn’t from her husband and was punished by all of society.
Pearl: The result of the sin. Pearl was the daughter of Hester and Dimmesdale. Even before she knew that Dimmesdale was her father, even when she was an infant she was drawn toward Dimmesdale. She was always a reminder to Hester of her sin and grew up in my opinion to be a brat.
Chillingworth: The avenger. This guy was MAD! He not only was mad-crazy but he was mad-angry. He had the goal of torturing Dimmesdale and worked toward it with incredible fervor.
Setting
The novel takes place in Salem Massachusetts. Salem is
known for its witch trial and witch burnings, of which one of Hawthornes
ancestors was part of. Many people during this time was publicly
humiliated so the punishment that was put upon Hester could have really
happened. The sin could have really happened. But the way Chillingworth
drove for revenge is unrealistic. The entire book is too symbolic
to be realistic. This setting is probably the best place possible
for this story, not only because of its history but because there is a
forest for Mistress Hibbens and a puritan society. If it took place
in California, we Californians would probably say, “A reverend had a child
with someone else’s wife? So?”
Style
I didn’t like Hawthorne’s style. He showed a large vocabulary
from through this work. The style sounded archaic and all the people
spoke alike. This wasn’t natural speech. Everything that was
said was like prose, as a novelists would have written narration, but not
as one should write speech. Hawthorne used a lot of figurative language.
All these things together made the reading difficult and slow. The
book dragged sometimes and at some points became downright boring.
He did have some creative uses for the letter A but that was all.
Theme
The Scarlet Letter revolves around the theme of sin. Who
had the greater sin? Was it Hester for adultering? Was it Dimmesdale
for adultering while being a Reverend? Was is Chillingworth for seeking
revenge? Hester came forth with her sin and should have been forgiven.
Dimmesdale sin should have been more harshly punished than Hester’s since
he never came out with his sin and kept it hidden. I guess you could
say that he did have a harsher punishment because he died as a result of
it. Chillingworth had, I believe, the worst sin of all. He
drove at revenge and never felt guilt. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth
punishment is an example of punishment from God: death. People didn’t
kill them but God took their lives.
Conclusion
I didn’t really enjoy this book as much as some of the others
I read for the book report. But some of the ideas of sin can be applied
to real life. It’s better to come out and confess your sin.
It’s not good to judge other peoples’ sin and leave the judging to God.
And finally, “Do not seek revenge or bear grudge against your people.”
Leviticus 19:18.