Hester: Heretic or Transcendentalist

Hester: Heretic or Transcendentalist?
Alan Reid
It is apparent in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter that the symbol A

embroidered on Hester Prynne’s chest is representational of the earthly penitence she
must endure as a result of the adulterous sin she committed with Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale.
In doing so, Hawthorne’s narrative tone consequently generates a sympathetic
understanding of Hester Prynne with which the reader identifies. It is on the tenets of this
matter that two respected critics disagree. Frederic Carpenter first published an article in
College English in 1944 entitled “Scarlet a Minus” in which he proposes that “explicitly,
[Hawthorne] condemned Hester Prynne as immoral; but implicitly, he glorified her as
courageously idealistic” (Carpenter 173). Darrel Abel refutes this notion in “Hawthorne’s
Hester” in the same journal in 1952 by saying “we are expected to love and pity Hester,
we are not invited to condone her fault or to construe it as a virtue” (Abel 309). These
two critics clearly disagree in their interpretations of Hawthorne’s Hester. Similarly,
Carpenter and Abel’s perspectives on the function of Nature in the text are oppositional.
Carpenter, a transcendentalist, views Hester’s retreat into Nature as liberation from the
bondage of society. Abel, a traditionalist, equates nature with evil and the unknown, and
faults it with corrupting Hester.
Carpenter’s article differentiates between traditional moralists, romantics, and
transcendental idealists. Traditional moralists essentially view Hester as a sinner, poised
for tragedy and punishment. The author places Darrel Abel, a Catholic critic, in this
category. Despite the sins of Dimmesdale’s hypocrisy and Roger Chillingworth’s
deception, Hester is still held accountable for her violation of scripture, and in fact, “the
law she broke was immutable, and the human tragedy was inevitable – according to the
traditional moralists” (Carpenter 175). Conversely, romantics blame “social determinism”
for the tragedy of The Scarlet Letter and insist that the “intrinsic evil of society”
condemns Hester to her fate (Carpenter 175). Lastly, Carpenter describes the
transcendental idealists as a middle ground between the traditionalists and romantics. The
transcendentalists maintain, “Hester’s love was neither blindly passionate nor
purposeless” (Carpenter 176). The author considers Hester Prynne and himself to be
members of the latter of the three categories.
Unlike Carpenter, Darrel Abel fails to differentiate between romantic idealists and
transcendental idealists. Abel concludes that Hester Prynne exemplifies the ideals of a
romantic, and traditionally speaking, “in any practicable system of ethics the sinner must
be held individually accountable for [her sins]” (Abel 309). He agrees with Carpenter in
that Hester Prynne is deserving of reader sympathy, but disagrees with him in that she
does not acquire it in the same manner in which Carpenter suggests: by triumphing over
Hawthorne’s intentions. Abel suggests that “we sympathize with Hester at first because of
her personal attraction, and our sympathy deepens throughout the story because we see
that she is more sinned against than sinning” (Abel 304). He focuses specifically on the
sinning that takes place in the novel, through the lens of an orthodox Catholic. Abel even
likens the judgment and treatment of Hester around the scaffold to the parable of Jesus
Christ and the adulteress woman sentenced to a public stoning. Although Abel
acknowledges the reader sympathy for Hester Prynne, he does so because he attributes
her to romantic individualism, and it is her ‘duty’ as a romantic to “reject both the
authority of God…and the authority of society…to affirm the sole authority of Nature”
(Abel 303), not to her transcendental motives, as Carpenter suggests.
Another fundamental disagreement exists between Carpenter and Abel: the effect
of Nature in the text. Carpenter argues that Hester is more than a romantic because “she
did not deny ‘the moral law’ but went beyond it to a ‘higher law,’ and that “Hester
transcended both romance and tradition” (Carpenter 176). Her retreat into Nature had
freed her from the constraints of society, in which she “embodies the authentic American
dream of a new life in the wilderness” (Carpenter 179). Abel, on the other hand,
considered Nature as a moral threat. He states, “Hester’s history show the corruption of
the feminine virtues of passion and submission in a sinner who has been thrust out from
the human community on which those virtues depend for their reality and function” (Abel
307). Where Carpenter attributes Nature to Hester’s transcendental appeal, Abel charges
Nature with the corruption of her traditional values.
Despite their differing interpretations, both critics offer valid insight into Hester’s
character. Both Frederic Carpenter and Darrel Abel acknowledge the presence of reader
sympathy attached to Hester Prynne and her tragedy. But if Abel would elaborate more
on the romanticism of Hester, he would distinguish between a romantic and a
transcendentalist, and more than likely agree with Carpenter’s diagnosis: Hester Prynne is
more of a transcendental idealist than an earthly heretic. Abel may realize that the
sympathy for Hester results from her spiritual struggle within the text, and not just from
her outright violations of Puritanism and her corresponding punishment. However, the
conflicting viewpoints on Nature in the text may not be reconciled between the two
critics. The connotations of Nature for a traditional idealist such as Darrel Abel
completely contradict those of a transcendentalist such as Frederic Carpenter. Abel will
forever relate Nature with Hester’s corruption and Carpenter will continue to associate
Nature with Hester’s salvation and freedom from society. Whether Hester Prynne is a
Puritan heretic or a transcendental icon remains dependent upon the reader, but one thing
is certain: the character of Hester Prynne demands a sympathy from the reader, regardless
of his or her private beliefs.
Works Cited
Carpenter, Frederic I. “Scarlet a Minus.” College English 5.4 (1944): 173-180.
Abel, Darrel. “Hester the Heretic.” College English 13.6 (1952): 303-309.

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Hester: Heretic or Transcendentalist?

It is apparent in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter that the symbol A

Carpenter, Frederic I. “Scarlet a Minus.” College English 5.4 (1944): 173-180.

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