The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a piece of fiction that illustrates an environment heavily luring religious themes that can portray a character’s morality and actions with such reasoning behind them. With the constant usage of sin, Hawthorne implements many mutual dilemmas for Puritan society and their outlook on the protagonists of the plot.
Hawthorne suggests that sin is not a simple, black-or-white, either/or proposition. Sin is messy and complicated, but all too often we humans fear what we can't fully understand, define, or control.
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This quote defines how the text tells about the author’s purpose of incorporating sin within the main story. Having Hester wear a letter on her chest, “A”, to symbolize the amount of sin being weighed on her own morale is one of the first introductions of sin giving by Hawthorne. Hester wears the letter to give the viewpoint of her humiliating stature and she continues to wear it to show that it has embedded itself into her character. The Puritans made Hester wear the symbol as a punishment for her own wrong-doing that is adultery upon in that society is in Chapter 2 of The Scarlet Letter. This made her quite the audience as stated in this Chapter 2 quote.
But it drew all eyes to the embroidered scarlet letter, which so transformed its wearer that people who had known Hester Prynne felt they were seeing her for the first time. The letter had the effect of a spell, removing her from ordinary humanity and placing her in a world by herself.
This explains how the Letter illustrates Hester in a new light from the perspective of Puritan society.
Hawthorne wrote in the Puritan philosophy in which every circumstance must be under the judgment of the lord or God. Puritans will try to convert any social norms into a situation that must abide by their core religious values, which is where Roger Chillingworth makes his presence known. Roger’s character was anonymous with the plot during the early stages of the Scarlet Letter as he was the reason they put Hester on the pedestal for the letter A. Roger is not a Puritan by any means as stated with his affairs with Hester’s adultery claim. He remains distant from Hester for her sake and his sake as well wanting to indulge himself in personal favors and revenge against the very people he despised. Roger’s mind deteriorates into a blood-lusting man who sought the sin he views in others.
He forgives Hester for her infidelity. Revenge, however, creeps into his heart and wraps him. Despite this, Chillingworth keeps the appearance of virtue on the outside. The people of the town refer to him as 'an absolute miracle' because of the medical aid he can give their beloved minister, Reverend Dimmesdale.
Dimmesdale is another protagonist of this story in which he puts himself between Hester and her scorned daughter Pearl as they feel the sin crawling upon their backs, while he indulges and tangles with the madness the two has brought upon him. With all these factors at play, he also knew what Roger was scheming when he met back up with Hester.
“The sinful snare into which Dimmesdale has fallen is his awareness of his own hypocrisy. He presumes to be the moral light of the entire town, an example for all to follow. Yet he cannot find the courage to admit his truth. He feels himself a coward because he can't bear to lose his social standing or to face a worse punishment to follow.”
This quote symbolizes the aftermath of sin being a factor within Dimmesdale own psyche as he believes what he is doing is normal when this whole time he’s been doing exactly what he wishes not to do and all Dimmesdale can do is blame anyone but himself.
Another key factor of sin portrayal in the Scarlet Letter is the character of Pearl. The puritans despise Pearl as they consider her a reject because of being conceived from Hester after her accusation of adultery. Several themes of her prowess are the darkened sky or how there is a “black man” in the forest symbolizing other sources of sin within society.
The irony of public appearance and private knowledge are themes throughout this story. The only escape from public scrutiny is the forest. They catch the lovers up in a web of lies and deception. They can safely meet and discuss Chillingworth's identity and their plan of escape in the forest, haunt of the Black Man.
Puritan society trusts Dimmesdale and they do not believe he has any involvement with Hester’s situation. Only those involved with Hester would know about Dimmesdale's true intentions in public. If he claims that he is innocent and is at peace with his own conscience then he would be at peace with making terms to the public which is an example of Hawthorne’s storytelling by explaining the fact that no matter what any official says is false or true, most of the society will believe what they say. The standards of modern society can see this psychology as any powerful leader can make claims that the public cannot seem to be false.
Hawthorne wanted to incorporate a dark theme to this story as he believes that a nineteenth-century based religious topic would involve multiple layers of dramatic tones buried within this mysterious and ominous plotline. While intentional or not, Hawthorne has introduced many aspects of sin throughout this classic piece of fiction. This story not only illustrates life in Salem during the nineteenth century but to express how much society differs today and how similar some concepts remain to this day.
Bibliography
- LitCharts. “Sin Theme Analysis.” LitCharts, https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-scarlet-letter/themes/sin.
- Study.com, Study.com, https://study.com/academy/lesson/sin-in-the-scarlet-letter.html.
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