FREE ESSAY ON SCARLETTE LETTER

SCARLETTE LETTER

OTHER ELEMENTS
SETTING
There are two ways to talk about setting in The Scarlet Letter. One way is to look at the
meaning or emotional overtones of specific places. A second and broader way is to examine
the whole Puritan world in which Hawthorne has set his novel. Not just the time and
place, Boston in the 1640s, but the values and beliefs that define Puritan society. 
THE MARKET-PLACE AND THE FOREST 
Far and away the most important scenes in The Scarlet Letter take place in two locations,
the market-place and the forest. These are presented to us as very different places,
reflecting very different human aspirations. 
The market-place is public. It lies at the very heart of the tiny enclave of civilization
the Puritans have managed to carve out of the vast, untouched continent. The market-place
contains both the church and the scaffold- institutions of law and religion. It is where
criminals like Hester are punished, where penitents like Dimmesdale confess, and where
men put on the faces they wear for the world. 
The forest, on the other hand, is dark and secret. It is where people come to let loose
and be themselves. The forest track leads away from the settlement out into the
wilderness where all signs of civilization vanish. The forest track is precisely the
escape route from the dictates of law and religion to the promised land to the west where
men can breathe free. 
The market-place and the forest are symbols of the choice that confronts the major
characters in the novel. The choice is not as simple as it seems. 
For all its restraints, the market-place is safer and warmer than the forest. And you
can't get into so much trouble there. In the heart of the settlement, there is the
comfort of values that are shared, of laws that are laid down and respected. Above all,
there is the comfort of people who care. 
The open air of the forest is exhilarating, but cold. Nothing is known in the wilderness,
everything is up for grabs. There is no one around to stop you from going to the devil.
And when you do, he is right there waiting for you. 
THE PURITAN WORLD 
Surely the setting of The Scarlet Letter- the stern, joyless world of Puritan New
England- is one of the grimmest on record. It is all gloom and doom. If the sun ever
shines, we hardly notice. The whole place seems shrouded in black. A question comes to
mind as we read the novel. Why did Hawthorne choose this dark world for his masterpiece?

Perhaps we can tackle that question by asking another one. Why did Hawthorne reject the
contemporary scene? Even if he chose to ignore the richly suggestive American settings of
the 1820s and '30s, (the Erie Canal, for instance, or the Alamo), he had first-hand
material to draw on in his own life and career. 
Part of the answer, of course, is that Hawthorne could write about the contemporary
scene. He did write about it in The Custom House. But what he could write was comedy. The
pathetic old Salemites who worked for Uncle Sam lent themselves not at all to the tragic
work he had in mind. 
Perhaps if Hawthorne reached back to Salem in the 1600s, he would find more figures
invested with the same dark and dusky grandeur, more men and women who would speak as
directly to his creative imagination. 
The Puritan world of the mid-17th century apparently gave Hawthorne something he badly
needed- people who lived their lives to the full instead of snoring them away. In the
pages of The Scarlet Letter, the Puritans emerge from the shadows of an earlier time,
broad shouldered, ruddy cheeked, firm of step, and direct of speech. 
They were a stern people, of course, and repressive. They probably put the lid on more
natural human impulses and emotions than any society before or since. But just for that
reason, emotions boiled over, passions a novelist could seize at red heat. 
More important, the Puritans had a moral vitality never again found on the American
scene. For a writer like Hawthorne, intrigued with the subject of conscience, here were
people with conscience to spare. 
Whatever their faults, the Puritans at least knew the difference between right and wrong.
And that was the sensibility Hawthorne was after. 
THEMES
LAW VS. NATURE 
We live in a permissive society. By and large, the law only bothers us when we bother the
other guy. There is no law to tell us what to wear, how to think, or whom to love. In
Puritan New England, life was vastly different. There, laws covered just about every
aspect of life. Not surprisingly, human nature revelled against such strict supervision.
Certain impulses and emotions, passion foremost among them, would not be denied. 
In the love of Hester and Dimmesdale, Hawthorne tells the story of one such rebellion. In
a very real sense, the lovers are criminals. Their passion is a violation of the rigid
Puritan civil and religious code. As wild as the forest which shelters it, the love of
Hester and Dimmesdale asks us to weigh the justice of society's laws against the claims
of human nature; that is, against men and women's most deeply felt desires and needs. 
THE INDIVIDUAL VS. SOCIETY 
The individual vs. society. Law vs. nature. These are really just different terms for the
same basic conflict. Hawthorne is a Romantic writer with a Romantic subject: a rebel who
refuses to conform to society's code. Most of us instinctively side with the rebel, the
nonconformist. But society in this novel has a good deal to be said for it. It has
assurance, dignity, strength. We can argue that Hester is right in her assertion that
fulfillment and love are worth fighting for. And we can argue, with just as much
validity, that society is right in its joyless insistence that adultery is a crime
deserving of punishment. 
SIN AND REDEMPTION 
Hawthorne, as a descendant of Puritans of the deepest dye, is the heir to a strong
tradition of sin. Puritan theology began with the thoroughgoing conviction of sin. After
Adam's fall, every man and woman was thought to be born an awful and vile sinner, who
could be redeemed only by God's grace (not by good deeds or by any actions which lay
within human control). 
Now, Hawthorne is a 19th-century man of enlightenment. He is not a Puritan. Nevertheless,
he is, morally speaking, something of a chip off the old block. As a writer, he is
utterly immersed in sin, in the wages of sin, in the long odds on redeeming sin. 
The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of Hester,
Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. In every case, the effect is devastating. Once these
characters stumble into evil, they flounder about as if in a morass. Sin changes the
sinners. It darkens their vision and weakens the spirit's defenses against further
temptation. 
And yet, sin also pays some unexpected dividends. Sin strengthens Hester. It humanizes
Dimmesdale. Hawthorne, departing from his Puritan ancestors, considers the possibility
that sin may be a maturing force. 
If sin is an encompassing shadow in the The Scarlet Letter, redemption is, at best, a
fitfully shimmering light. Chillingworth never seeks redemption at all. Hester looks for
it in good works, and fails to find it. 
Dimmesdale alone undergoes the necessary change of heart to find a doubtful peace. 
THE HEART VS. THE HEAD 
Is there really a war waging inside us between our emotions and our reason? Hawthorne
thinks so, and he's pretty sure which side he wants to win. The heart leads Hester and
Dimmesdale astray, but the intellect- untempered by feeling, mercy, humanity- thoroughly
damns Chillingworth. Hawthorne comes down on the side of the heart. 
THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE SELF 
Hawthorne's Puritan New England is a world which encourages duplicity. So much is
forbidden that almost everyone has something to hide. Hawthorne's characters walk around
in daylight with pious and sober expressions on their faces. But once they get home at
night and lock the door, they pull out their secret thoughts and gloat over them like
misers delighting in a hidden stash of gold. 
SYMBOLISM
Let's talk a little bit about what a symbol is. The common definition says that a symbol
is a sign or token of something. A lion, for instance, is a symbol of courage. The bald
eagle is a symbol of America. A white bridal gown is (or used to be) a symbol of purity.
We take symbols like these pretty much for granted. They are a part of our everyday
experience. 
In literature, matters are a little more complicated. Literary symbols usually don't have
instantly recognizable meanings. Rather they take their meanings from the works of which
they are a part. 
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne gives us a symbol, a red letter A whose meaning has to
be deciphered. What does the scarlet letter mean? It is a question repeated by almost
every character in the novel who is confronted with the blatant red token and who has to
deal with it: by Hester herself, as she sits in prison, decorating the emblem with golden
thread; by Reverend Wilson, who addresses the crowd at the scaffold with such terrifying
references to the scarlet A that it seems to glow red with hellfire; by Pearl, who asks
about the letter so often that she threatens to drive her mother (and all of us) mad. 
The symbol's meaning is hard to pin down because it is no passive piece of cloth, but a
highly active agent. The scarlet letter provokes hostile feelings in the citizens of
Boston, who shun Hester and insult her as something tainted and vile. 
Society's response to the letter, in turn, affects Hester. On the surface, she becomes a
patient and penitential figure. She looks like someone seeking to live down the sin that
the scarlet letter represents. But beneath the surface, rebellion is brewing. Society's
insults make Hester angry and bitter. She becomes a scornful critic of her world. Hester
takes the letter to herself. She becomes in fact the renegade she is labeled. Hester
breaks free of conventional ideas and, as we see in the forest scene, she opposes Puritan
truths with some devastating truths of her own. 
The point Hawthorne is making is that our lives are inevitably shaped by our past actions
and by the signs of those actions- be they medals or badges of infamy- which we wear.
Symbols like the scarlet letter shape our perceptions and our temperaments. They
determine the kind of people we become. 
Over the years, the scarlet letter and its wearer blend into one. The letter, whatever it
means, is the summation of Hester's life. But a letter is a remarkably ambiguous symbol.
It can stand for any word beginning with A. 
Does the A stand for Adulteress, surely the intention of the magistrates who imposed it
in the first place? Does it stand for Able in recognition of Hester's devotion as a
nurse? Does it even mean Angel, with the consequent suggestion that Hester has risen
above the society which condemned her? 
There is danger and excitement in the uncertainty. If we knew for sure that the A stood
for Adulteress, we would have Hester neatly pegged. We would know we were supposed to
condemn her. But Hawthorne is not content to let the matter rest at that. He asks us to
look at Hester from other, very different, viewpoints. We are never altogether sure
whether we should condemn Hester or admire her. 
STRUCTURE
The Scarlet Letter began life as a short story. (Hawthorne was advised to expand it into
a novel, which he did.) In many respects, it retains the characteristics of a short
story. The Scarlet Letter has the tightness and the economy we generally associate with
the shorter fictional form. 
Hawthorne's novel has only one plot. There are no subplots- no secondary love stories,
for instance, such as you find in the novels of Jane Austen. It also has only one
setting: Boston in the 1640s. Although Pearl and Hester eventually sail off to Europe,
the reader is not invited to follow them there. 
The Scarlet Letter has only four main characters: Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and
Pearl. All the other characters are really part of the historical tapestry against which
the action takes place. 
Perhaps most important of all, The Scarlet Letter has one predominating mood. For this,
the lighting is largely responsible. We move in a world of darkness which is relieved
only occasionally by a ray of light. (The darkness sets in early, with the beadle's
presence obscuring the sunshine in Chapter 2. It continues to the end of the novel, with
the legend on Hester's tombstone: so somber... and relieved only by one ever-glowing
point of light, gloomier than the shadow.) 
Since Hawthorne's novel is such a spare and unified work, it is curious that readers
disagree about its heart or structural center. Some critics believe that the heart of the
book's structure is the scaffold, or penitential platform, to which Dimmesdale finally
brings himself to stand by Hester's side. According to this view, the scaffold scenes
alternate with the pivotal forest scenes, where the lovers confront the critical choice
of escape from society or return to it. 
But no less an authority than Henry James (the novelists' novelist and the acknowledged
master of form in American fiction) disagrees. James dismisses the forest scenes- and
indeed, any of the scenes where Hester plays a major part- as secondary. The Scarlet
Letter, James says, is no love story. It is the story of retribution. And its center is
the relationship between Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, the guilty lover and the sinister
husband whose sole purpose is to keep that guilt alive.