BOOK
#48

The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne





Review by Edward Tanguay
October 19, 1996

The "Custom House" introduction was a nice autobiographical frame for the flashback story.  It is wholly different in its humorous tone than the serious story and shows that Hawthorne kept a sense of humor even after being fired. The writing of the "Custom House" reminded me a lot of Twain's writing:  funny characters with a smack of satire.  This introduction builds a mysterious frame for the story in the sense that an old, curious artifact is found and then you hear "the story behind it."  A nice effect for the book.  I wonder if they used this in the film that they made of this book awhile back.  I heard the film didn't really stick to the story line and was not accepted very well by English professors.  It would be interesting to see for that reason.

This story was disturbing to me.  It's filled with a nightmarish, symbolic, otherworldly, mean, perverse aura, with a sense of not a real but an imagined evil that eats people's souls alive.  Dimmesdale was the only relief from this in his rebellion.  His disrespectful acts after his walk with Hester were a refreshing release from the "community pressure" that Hawthorne brings out strongly and vividly in the book. You can feel a transcendentalism message coming out in the description of Dimmesdale:

Be true!  Be true!  Be true!  Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!

Dimmesdale is a fascinating character to follow.  With the "help" of Chillingsworth, Dimmesdale corrodes act by act and thought by thought.  He's a duel personality who will lose his marbles if he doesn't confess to the public who his other self is.  The description of him breaking up was fascinating to read:

No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.

I think Hawthorne had a deep understanding of human shame and the torture of the soul.

The actual embroidered letter on Hester's chest takes on a life of its own which I felt to be a bit much.  The story was necessarily dreamlike, but this "radiating power" of the letter seemed to just get a little spooky and unbelievable:

. . . that Scarlet Letter, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom.  It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself.

. . . the scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the dark passage-way of the interior.

It is not the kryptonite-like "lurid gleams" of the scarlet letter that make this book a classic study of human relations but Hawthorne's excellent description of the power that the action of others has on Hester.  None of the people in this book physically hurt her or any other person, but instead most of the inflicting of shame and disrepute is affected by the eyes, gestures, and slight actions of others, but when it adds up, it is a strong power, one which Hawthorne brought across well in descriptions like this:

Continually, and in a thousand other ways, did she feel the innumerable throbs of anguish that had been so cunningly contrived for her by the undying, the ever-active sentence of the Puritan tribunal. Clergymen paused in the street to address words of exhortation, that brought a crowd, with its mingled grin and frown, around the poor, sinful woman.  If she entered a church, trusting to share the Sabbath smile of the Universal Father, it was ofter her mishap to find herself the text of the discourse.  She grew to have a dread of children; for they had imbibed from their parents a vague idea of something horrible in this dreary woman, gliding silently through the town, with never any companion but one only child.  Therefore, first allowing her to pass, they pursued her at a distance with shrill cries, and the utterance of a word that had no distinct purport to their own minds, but was none the less terrible to her, as proceeding from lips that babbled it unconsciously.  It seemed to argue so wide a diffusion of her shame, that all nature knew of it; it could have caused her no deeper pang, had the leaves of th trees whispered the dark story among themselves,--had the summer breeze murmured about it,--had the wintry blast shrieked it aloud!  Another peculiar torture was felt in the gaze of a new eye.  When strangers looked curiously at the scarlet letter,--and none ever failed to do so,--they branded it afresh into Hester's soul; so that, oftentimes, she could scarcely refrain, yet always did refrain, from covering the symbol with her hand.  But then, again, an accustomed eye had likewise its own anguish to inflict.  Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable.  From first to last, in short, Hester Prynne had always this dreadful agony in feeling a human eye upon the token; the spot never grew callous; it seemed, on the contrary, to grow more sensitive with daily torture.

Notice how just "a human eye upon the token," that is upon the scarlet letter, can bore into Hester's soul.  This book would be an interesting study in existentialism with its concepts off "the power of the look of the other" and its sense of shame and guilt and forlorness. Both Puritanism and existentialism are based on a deep sense of insecurity:  the former is based on the dread of not knowing whether one's soul will be saved and the latter is based on the dread of not knowing whether one's soul has any eternal meaning.  Perhaps we have entered a new era of Puritanism brought on by Freud and Nietzsche and Positivism and science in which we don't ask "Am I saved?" but simply "Am I O.K.?"  If you look at the number of people who sneak off to psychologists and the number of self-help books and confidence-instilling programs in schools, you wonder if a book like The Scarlet Letter isn't speaking to us and our community where nobody is sure who they are in their relativistic worlds and are afraid to act on their inner feelings (Dimmesdale's "Be true!  Be true!") for fear that they will be seen as abnormal.  I feel that Hawthorne's transcendental critique on the Puritan society in this book is a general critique on human societies.

Hawthorne's language in this book, where it doesn't get out of hand with things like a letter "A" being formed in the sky (!) is simply powerful.  After inner tension and strife builds in Dimmesdale, his consideration of putting his private life out in front of the public is paralleled with a pure physical release, nicely described here:

She silently ascended the steps, and stood on the platform, holding little Pearl by the hand.  The minister felt for the child's other hand, and took it.  The moment that he did so, there came what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life, other life than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart, and hurrying through all his veins, as if the mother and the child were communicating their vital warmth to his half-torpid system.  The three formed an electric chain.

Pearl was a strange little character.  Like everything in this story, she seemed to be huge symbol bubbling over with potency and meaning.  But I never really caught on to what she was supposed to mean. Someone mentioned in their notes that she symbolized the future, which makes sense.  She seemed to be a very rebellious imp which was the opposite extreme of the Puritans.  She and Dimmesdale both rebelled against the Puritan society, he in a semi-controlled adult way, and she in her impish, chaotic child way.  But she was not evil, just rebellious.  She seemed to take the Puritans at face value.  I liked the character of Pearl as much as I didn't understand her.

As one of the first quality books to come out of America with a truly American theme, The Scarlet Letter is clearly a classic.  In some essays at the end of my copy of this book it was mentioned that the character of Chillingworth was "a mistake, or at most a wasted opportunity."  Although he was an odd character in the story and seemed to be added on in an unnatural way as to become quite the come-in-from-out-of-town external character, his torture of Dimmesdale was a classic process, at times reminding me of Poe's crazy narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart!  Another comment from these essays was that the "symbolism is puerile."  And it is a bit much.  But it gives this story its unique dreaminess and uncanniness, I think.

The Scarlet Letter isn't one of my favorite stories:  its themes of shame and dread and anguish are just too much for me to not be disturbed by it.  But in that it is a disturbing book, it's also significant one about humans and their relationships. I would be interested in any recent reinterpretations of The Scarlet Letter.  It's also a solid American classic and I'm glad I read it.

Edward Tanguay


Subject: The Scarlet Letter
From: Kathryn Obenshain <kobensha@runet.edu>


I did manage to reread THE SCARLET LETTER: in fact, I have a new edition pub. by the Quality Paperback Book Club which is very well-done. Strangely enough, one of the most interesting things about this edition to me is the "Introductory Note," which had some items unfamiliar to me. The first of these is that Hawthorne had made a very slight mention of a "young woman with no mean share of beauty, whose doom it was to wear the letter A on the breast of her gown, in the eyes of all the world and her own children. And even her own children knew what that initial signified. Sporting with her infamy, the lost and desperate creature had embroidered the fatal token in scarlet cloth, with golden thread and the nicest art of needle-work; so that the capital A might have been thought to mean Admirable, or anything rather than Adulteress." From this"slight germ of fancy or fact," the author developed the "complete story" so to speak. Another interesting item is the anecdote that, when the book was almost completed, Hawthorne read it aloud to his wife, and, when she inquired as to what the ending would be, replied, "I don't know."

Other writers have commented before on the manner in which characters sometimes seem to have a will of their own and the plot takes turns not envisioned at the beginning by the author! Hawthorne's style seems to me to capture the "tone" of the period in which the story is set very well: it has a dark, brooding quality, and the extensive and sometimes almost "florid" vocabulary which strikes a little strangely on the modern ear, is itself evocative of the Puritan sermon or treatise.

It seems a little strange that Pearl is not more bowed down by the weight of heavy disapproval of the townspeople--It is comforting to the reader that she is able to blithely rise above this and, later, apparently, make a good life for herself elsewhere. If I had my "druthers" (as we say in SW VA!) I would want Hester and her love to be able to go away together and make a new life together, only regretting the 7 years they "waste" before doing so, but, given the Puritan conscience, that wouldn't be a very credible conclusion, I'm afraid!

Oh, a further "tid-bit" from the Introductory Note: apparently the section on the Custom House, which the author apparently intended as a means of lightening the story a little was received with great disapproval by his contemporaries in Salem--They recognized, or thought they recognized, the characters described and took offense! One gentleman even declared that he would not read another word written by Hawthorne (of course hurting only himself, since the author was not even aware of this resolve!)

Best regards to all--and happy reading!
Cordially,
Kathryn o/o/ o/


The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Thoughts by Sher Schwartz
Burlington College Low Residency Program
September 29,1996

It's difficult for me to discuss The Scarlet Letter without thinking of it in relation to Hawthorne's other works. The Scarlet Letter is my mid - favorite. My lessor favorite is The house of Seven Gables, because the story line wasn't compelling enough for me to want to turn the next page. My most favorite is a short work called, The Minister's Black Veil. This tale captivated me with it's unanswered questions. Questions that my imagination answered, But who will ever really know? Why mention the other works? I do because they all dig deeply into the dark sides of human nature whether it be ancestral sins, moral sins or societal sins. Hawthorne reveals darkness for us to ponder. The Scarlet Letter scrutinizes early American puritanical society. It shows how rigid, suffocating and hypocritical it could be. Dimmesdale led two lives. The townsfolk thought Dimmesdale the greatest example of high virtue, and yet he was the Hester's lover. To think that none of those women near the scaffold scene were guilty of the same crime, or at least guilty of desiring to do the same was unrealistic. I think that's one of the main points of the novel: Puritans lived unrealistic lives that were horryfyingly rigid and that led them to acts definitely on the outside of love.

Chillingworth was truly diabolical and was afforded the perfect situation to enact his evil. He was bent on revenge and able to infiltrate Dimmesdale's life because of the societal structure. It wasn't as if Dimmesdale could resign from his ministerialship and start a new life somewhere. He was trapped as was Hester and Chillingworth used this to his full advantage. I think Hawthorne showed how much incredible suffering the puritan ethic could create.

Lastly, I experienced a bit of frustration when I followed Hester's life. It was so bereft of happiness. I hoped that she could somehow rise beyond her guilt and societal expectations, but of course Hawthorne's purpose was for Hester to follow a fatalistic path.

The one glimpse of hope was in Pearl who represents the next generation away from Puritanical society. She seems to have been freed by Dimmesdale's public acceptance of her. And in accepting her publicly I feel that Dimmesdale destroyed the power that puritanical ethic could have played in her life. She went on to find happiness. I think Hawthorne was saying; we must rebel against the puritan ethic and find real life - with genuine wholesome values based on love and not control.

Overall I liked The Scarlet Letter and the shadow of this story will remain in my memory for a long while; unlike some books that pass from thought o' so quickly.

Just a few opinions!
Sher Schwartz
sennys@ptialaska.net


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