The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, is an American novel written by Nathaniel

Hawthorne and is generally considered to be his magnum opus. Set in Puritan Boston in
the seventeenth century, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth after committing
adultery, refuses to name the father, and struggles to create a new life of repentance and
dignity. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores the issues of grace, legalism, sin, and
guilt.
The story of The Scarlet Letter is framed by a preface (called "The Custom-House")
in which the narrator, a surveyor in the Custom House, claims to have found documents
and papers that substantiate the evidence concerning Prynne and her situation. The
narrator says that when he touched the letter to his breast it gave off "burning embers...as
if the letter were not of red cloth, but red hot iron." Among these documents, the narrator
claims to have found the death certificate of Anne Hutchinson, previously believed to have
been destroyed by the Puritan church leaders as they tried to cover up her brutal murder
two years earlier. The manuscript, the work of a past surveyor, Jonathan Pue, detailed the
events of the trials of Hutchinson's alleged murderers. When the narrator lost his post, he
decided to write a fictional account of the events recorded in the manuscript. The Scarlet
Letter is the final product.
Historically, Nathaniel Hawthorne worked in the Custom House in Los Angeles,
California for several years, eventually losing his job. There is no factual basis for the
documents described in the book, however, and the preface is properly read as a literary
device. Introductions that justify the fantastic content to come were a typical device in
romance.

Plot summary
The novel begins in 17th-century Boston, Massachusetts, 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 bosom. The scarlet letter "A" represents the act
of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin a badge of shame
for all to see. A woman in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished
for adultery. Hester's husband, who is much older than she is, was sent 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, as she has given birth to a
child. She will not reveal her lovers identity, however, 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 harangued by the town fathers, but she again refuses to identify her
childs father.

The elderly onlooker is Hesters missing husband, who is now practicing medicine
and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. 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 (her daughter) grows into a
willful, impish child, who is more of a symbol than an actual character, said to be the scarlet
letter come to life as both Hester's love and her punishment. 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, an eloquent minister, the
mother and daughter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale, however, 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 ministers
torments and Hesters secret, and he begins to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn.
One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers an "A" (for adultery) on
the mans breast, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct.
Dimmesdales psychological anguish deepens, and he invents new tortures for
himself. In the meantime, Hesters 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 atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl
join him, and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refuses Pearls request that he
acknowledge her publicly the next day, and a meteor marks a dull red A in the night sky .
It is interpreted by the townsfolk to mean Angel, as a prominent figure in the community
had died that night, but Dimmesdale sees it as meaning Adultery. Hester can see that the
ministers condition is worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to Chillingworth
and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdales self-torment. Chillingworth refuses. [2]
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 former 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. She is unnerved and expels a
shriek until her mother points out the letter on the ground. Hester beckons Pearl to come to
her, but Pearl will not go to her mother until Hester buttons the letter back onto her dress.
Pearl then goes to her mother. Dimmesdale gives Pearl a kiss on the forehead, which
Pearl immediately tries to wash off in the brook.

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, exposing the mark seared into the flesh of his chest. He falls dead just after 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, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resume her charitable
work. She receives occasional letters from Pearl, who was rumored to have married a
European aristocrat and established a family of her own. Pearl also inherits all of
Chillingworth's money even though he knows she is not his daughter. There is a sense of
liberation in her and the townspeople, especially the women, who had finally begun to
forgive Hester of her tragic indiscretion. When Hester dies, she is buried in "a new grave
near an old and sunken one, in that burial ground beside which King's Chapel has since
been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with[in] a space [set] between, as if
the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both."
The tombstone was decorated with a letter "A", and one tombstone was used for Hester
and Dimmesdale.

Major themes
1. Sin
Sin and friendship are linked in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Bible begins with
the story of Adam and Eve, who were expelled from the Garden of Eden for eating from the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a result of their sin, Adam and Eve are made
aware of their disobedience, that which separates them from the divine and from other
creatures. Once expelled from the Garden of Eden, they are forced to toil and to procreate
two labors that seem to define the 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. But it also results in friendshipspecifically, in knowledge of what
it means to be human. For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as her passport into regions
where other women dared not tread, leading her to speculate about her society and
herself more boldly than anyone else in New England.
As for Dimmesdale, the cheating minister of his sin gives him sympathies so
intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his heart vibrate[s] in unison with
theirs. His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy. Hester and
Dimmesdale contemplate their own sinfulness on a daily basis and try to reconcile it with

their lived experiences. The Puritan elders, on the other hand, insist on seeing earthly
experience as merely an obstacle on the path to heaven. Thus, they view sin as a threat to
the community that should be punished and suppressed. Their answer to Hesters sin is to
ostracize her. Yet, Puritan society is stagnant, while Hester and Dimmesdales experience
shows that a state of sinfulness can lead to personal growth, sympathy, and understanding
of others. Paradoxically, these qualities are shown to be incompatible with a state of purity.
The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and
most fully authorized principles in Christian thought. His "Fall" is a descent from apparent
grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity. He ends in corruption. The
subtlety is that the minister is his own deceiver, convincing himself at every stage of his
spiritual pilgrimage that he is saved.
The rosebush, its beauty a striking contrast to all that surrounds it as later the
beautifully embroidered scarlet A will be is held out in part as an invitation to find some
sweet moral blossom in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that the deep
heart of nature (perhaps God) may look more kindly on the errant Hester and her child
(the roses among the weeds) than do her Puritan neighbors. Throughout the work, the
nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.
Chillingworths misshapen body reflects (or symbolizes) the evil in his soul, which
builds as the novel progresses.
Although Pearl is a complex character, her primary function within the novel is as a
symbol. Pearl herself is the embodiment of the scarlet letter, and Hester rightly clothes her
in a beautiful dress of scarlet, embroidered with gold thread...just like the scarlet letter upon
Hester's bosom. It would be interesting to draw a parallel between Pearl and Beatrice, in
Rappaccini's Daughter. Both are studies in the same direction, though from different
standpoints. Beatrice is nourished upon poisonous plants, until she becomes herself
poisonous. Pearl, in the mysterious prenatal world, imbibes the poison of her parents' guilt.
But, in either instance, behind this imported evil stands the personal soul: and the question
is, Shall the soul become the victim of its involuntary circumstances? Hawthorne, in both
cases, inclines to the brighter alternative.

2. Past and present

The clashing of past and present is explored in various ways. For example, the
character of the old General, whose heroic qualities include a distinguished name,
perseverance, integrity, compassion, and moral inner strength, is said to be the soul and
spirit of New England hardihood. Now put out to pasture, he sometimes presides over the
Custom House run by corrupt public servants, who skip work to sleep, allow or overlook
smuggling, and are supervised by an inspector with no power of thought, nor depth of

feeling, no troublesome sensibilities, who is honest enough but without a spiritual

compass.
Hawthorne himself had ambivalent feelings about the role of his ancestors in his life.
In his autobiographical sketch, Hawthorne described his ancestors as dim and dusky,
grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steel crowned, bitter persecutors whose better
deeds would be diminished by their bad ones. There can be little doubt of Hawthornes
disdain for the stern morality and rigidity of the Puritans, and he imagined his
predecessors disdainful view of him: unsuccessful in their eyes, worthless and disgraceful.
A writer of story books! But even as he disagrees with his ancestors viewpoint, he also
feels an instinctual connection to them and, more importantly, a sense of place in Salem.
Their blood remains in his veins, but their intolerance and lack of humanity becomes the
subject of his novel.

Publication and response

The book's immediate and lasting success are due to the way it addresses spiritual
and moral issues from a uniquely American standpoint. In 1850, adultery was an extremely
risqu subject, but because Hawthorne had the support of the New England literary
establishment, it passed easily into the realm of appropriate reading. It has been said that
this work represents the height of Hawthorne's literary genius; dense with terse
descriptions. It remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth, and
continues to be read as a classic tale on a universal theme.

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hathorne; July 4, 1804 May 19, 1864)
was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is seen as a key figure in
the development of American literature for his tales of the nation's colonial history. In 1837,
he published Twice-Told Tales and became engaged to Sophia Peabody the next year.
Much of Hawthorne's writing centers around New England and many feature moral
allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His work is considered part of the Romantic movement
and includes novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend, the United States
President Franklin Pierce.

Literary style and themes

Hawthorne's work belongs to Romanticism, an artistic and intellectual movement
characterized by an emphasis on individual freedom from social conventions or political
restraints, on human imagination, and on nature in a typically idealized form.
Much of Hawthorne's work is set in colonial New England, and many of his short
stories have been read as moral allegories influenced by his Puritan background.

One of Hawthorne's most famous tales, "The Birth-Mark" (1843), concerns a young
doctor who removes a birthmark from his wife's face, an operation which kills her.
Hawthorne based parts of this story on the penny press novels he loved to read.
Hawthorne is also considered among the first to experiment with alternate history as
literary form. His 1845 short story "P.'s Correspondence" (a part of "Mosses from an Old
Manse") is the first known complete English language alternate history and among the
most early in any language. The story's protagonist is considered "a madman" due to his
perceiving an alternative 1845 in which long-dead historical and literary figures are still
alive; these delusions feature the poets Burns, Byron, Shelley, and Keats, the actor
Edmund Kean, the British politician George Canning and even Napoleon Bonaparte.
Contemporary response to Hawthorne's work praised his sentimentality and moral
purity while more modern evaluations focus on the dark psychological complexity. [38]
Recent criticism has emphasized Hawthorne's narrative voice, treating it as a selfconscious rhetorical construction, not to be conflated with Hawthorne's own voice. Such an
approach complicates the long-dominant tradition of regarding Hawthorne as a gloomy,
guilt-ridden moralist.

Criticism
Edgar Allan Poe wrote important, though largely unflattering reviews of both TwiceTold Tales and Mosses from an Old Manse, mostly due to Poe's own contempt of allegory,
moral tales, and his chronic accusations of plagiarism. However, even Poe admitted, "The
style of Hawthorne is purity itself. His tone is singularly effectivewild, plaintive, thoughtful,
and in full accordance with his themes." He concluded that, "we look upon him as one of
the few men of indisputable genius to whom our country has as yet given birth." Ralph
Waldo Emerson wrote that "Nathaniel Hawthorne's reputation as a writer is a very pleasing
act, because his writing is not good for anything, and this is a tribute to the man." Henry
James praised Hawthorne, saying, "The fine thing in Hawthorne is that he cared for the
deeper psychology, and that, in his way, he tried to become familiar with it". Poet John
Greenleaf Whittier wrote that he admired the "weird and subtle beauty" in Hawthorne's
tales. Evert Augustus Duyckinck said of Hawthorne, "Of the American writers destined to
live, he is the most original, the one least indebted to foreign models or literary precedents
of any kind."