The Scarlet Letter

        The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
1.      Theme

The theme in this novel tells about sins, knowledge and human condition. The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. After they got punishment, they will more knowledge about life.

2.      Main Characters

 Hester Prynne  

The Scarlet Letter is story about Hester Prynne. The early chapters of the book suggest that Hester was a strong-willed and impetuous young woman as we can see from prior to her marriage. The fact that she has an affair also suggests that she had a passionate nature. But after Hester’s affair that makes her into the woman of shamed and alienated from the rest of the community and then make her becomes contemplative. Hester also becomes a kind of compassionate maternal figure as a result of her experiences. Hester moderates her tendency to be rash, for she knows that such behavior could cause her to lose her daughter, Pearl. Hester is also maternal with respect to society. She cares for the poor and brings them food and clothing. By the novel’s end, Hester has become a proto-feminist mother figure to the women of the community.

 Roger Chillingworth 

Roger Chillingworth is a man deficient in human warmth. His twisted, stooped, deformed shoulders mirror his distorted soul. His early years with Hester he was a difficult husband, he ignored his wife for much of the time. Chillingworth represents true evil. He is associated with secular and sometimes illicit forms of knowledge, as his chemical experiments and medical practices occasionally verge on witchcraft and murder. He is interested in revenge, not justice, and he seeks the deliberate destruction of others rather than a redress of wrongs. His desire to hurt others stands in contrast to Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin, which had love not hate.

 Arthur Dimmesdale

His past suggests that he is probably somewhat aloof, the kind of man who would not have much natural sympathy for ordinary men and women. However, Dimmesdale has an unusually active conscience. The fact that Hester takes all of the blame for their sin goads his conscience. And his resultant mental anguish and physical weakness open up his mind and allow him to empathize with others. Consequently, he becomes an eloquent and emotionally powerful speaker and a compassionate leader, and his congregation is able to receive meaningful spiritual guidance from him. In his death, Dimmesdale becomes even more of an icon than he was in life. Many believe his confession was a symbolic act, while others believe Dimmesdale’s fate was an example of divine judgment.

3.      Summary of the Story (plot)

The story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” on her breast. A man in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished for adultery.

Hester’s husband sent her ahead to America, but he never arrived in Boston. The consensus is that he has been lost at sea. While waiting for her husband, Hester has apparently had an affair. From her affair she has given birth to a child. She will not reveal her lover’s identity and the scarlet letter, along with her public shaming, is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy. On this day Hester is led to the town scaffold and tellall to the town fathers, but she refuses to identify her child’s father again. The elderly onlooker is Hester’s missing husband, who is now practicing medicine. He settles in Boston, intent on revenge. He reveals his true identity to no one but Hester, whom he has sworn to secrecy.

Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress. And Pearl grows into a willful, impish child. Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester. But with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, a young and eloquent minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale 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 a mark on the man’s breast 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, when Pearl is about seven years old, she and her mother are returning home from a visit to a deathbed when they encounter Dimmesdale at top the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl join him and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refuses Pearl’s request that he acknowledge her publicly the next day, and then a meteor marks a dull red “A” in the night sky. 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 but Chillingworth refuses.

Hester arranges an encounter with Dimmesdale in the forest because she is aware that Chillingworth has probably guessed that she plans to reveal his identity to Dimmesdale. The lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. They will take a ship sailing from Boston in four days. Both feel a sense of release and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday 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 and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly when exposing a scarlet letter of his chest. He falls died, as Pearl kisses him.

Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later Hester returns alone to Boston, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resume her charitable work. She receives occasional letters from Pearl who has married a European aristocrat and established a family of her own. When Hester dies, she is buried next to Dimmesdale. The two share a single tombstone, which bears a scarlet “A.”

4.      Setting and atmosphere

Setting
It all goes down in mid-17^th century New England, specifically Boston (Massachusetts Bay Colony). The Puritans had settled in New England to practice their religious beliefs after leaving the Old World, where they had been persecuted. The physical setting of The Scarlet Letter reflects the beliefs and habits of the Puritans. In the first chapter, we are taken on a mini tour of the most important town buildings and structures, the prison and the town scaffold. Law and religion form is the heart of the town.

Atmosphere
The novel The Scarlet Letter is mainly a gloomy, dark story because it is centered on sin in the puritan society.

5.      Symbol/ Allegory

Pearl
Pearl, Hester’s daughter, is a symbol of all that Hester gave up when she committed adultery and gave up her place in Puritan society. Pearl is a sort of living version of her mother’s scarlet letter. She lives in perpetual punishment because of Pearl, and that is why she loves Pearl so much. Pearl’s existence gives her mother reason to live, bolstering her spirits when she is tempted to give up. The name “Pearl” makes us think of precious jewels, we know that she becomes a great and wealthy heiress.

The Scarlet Letter
The scarlet letter is meant to be a symbol of shame, but instead it becomes a powerful symbol of identity to Hester. Originally intended to mark Hester as an adulterer, the “A” eventually comes to stand for “Able.” The letter showcases her talent and artistry skills that allow her to live as a single parent in Puritan Boston. Also it represents her strength and independence. Then many years later, when Hester returns and voluntarily takes up the scarlet letter again, it has become, for her and others, a symbol of grace.