I’ll say first that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was tough going. I would have been done with it a lot sooner if there hadn’t been so many parts that put me to sleep*. But there is so much in this book to think about here that I’m not surprised that it’s been a target of scholarly interest for over a century. There are the gender issues, the double standard of adultery, the psychological effects of profound guilt, and the Puritan world view and its lingering affects on the American mindset.
The story, in a nutshell, is that Hester Prynne has an affair with local minister Arthur Dimmesdale. Because she becomes pregnant, she is caught and punished by having to wear a scarlet A on her clothes. Though she is exhorted to do so, Hester does not reveal her lover. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, arrives in town soon after Hester gives birth to Pearl, and sets about seeking Hester’s lover. He suspects Dimmesdale and sets about using his medical skill to make Dimmesdale sicken even more than he already is, as Dimmesdale is suffering some severe physical effects of his guilt about sinning with Hester. Just when you think that Hester and Dimmesdale are going to have a happy ending (in spite of what you might have heard about this book), the minister dies of a heart attack and Hester and Pearl have to carry on without him**.
I read this book a very long time ago, during an American Literature class that went by in a rush because the professor packed the syllabus with too many texts. I don’t remember having a chance to digest this book much before we had to move on to the next work. This time through, I got to watch as Hester, in her isolation from the community, got to evolve her thinking about god and the church and how people should live. She becomes a kind of saint, helping the hungry and the poor in spite of how her fellow pilgrims treat her. Among all the other things that Hester represents, Hester becomes a symbol of true goodness. In contrast, Dimmesdale racks himself with guilt because of his “fall” with Hester, torturing himself with the thought that god will condemn him to hell for his actions. He feels a hypocrite because he is revered by his flock, but he feels like the most wretched sinner for not telling them that he is Pearl’s father. Chillingworth is an interesting antagonist, but think that he chose an incredible obvious pseudonym. Why didn’t he just wear a name tag that said, “Hi! My name is villain”?
Living four hundred years after this book’s setting, it’s hard to understand the mindset of the Puritan completely. For them, and for generations before them, the supernatural was a tangible part of the world around them. If something good happened, it was divine providence taking a hand. Or it was the devil tempting them. If something bad happened, it was the work of the devil. Or it was god testing them. You can see how easy it was for Dimmesdale to tie himself up in knots about this, to the point where he suffered a fatal heart attack. These people–apart from Hester and Pearl–worried constantly about the state of their immortal soul. By punishing Hester, they were trying to stay in heaven’s good books. But Hawthorne demonstrates, time and again, that they are not good people. They think that Pearl is a demon, because she doesn’t behave like the other children. They treat Hester like a temptress. And they embrace Chillingworth into the fold because he knows how to behave like he belongs.
This is a very interesting read, a very rich book. I understand why it’s required reading across the country. At the same time, though, I can recognize why people have a hard time with it. It’s written in Hawthorne’s idea of Puritan-speak, which is though going. A lot of the rest of it takes you into the characters’ heads as they wrestle with what they should do and feel. It’s wearying after a while. But I think it’s a worthwhile read because it can tell you so much, I think, about America’s conflicted ideas about faith and personal lives.
* Not kidding. I read a twenty page stretch on Wednesday and woke up three hours later.
** This book was published in 1850, so don’t even think about calling me out for spoiling the ending.