Scarlet Letter Literature Review

Title: The Scarlet Letter

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Genre: Novel of character, romantic novel

Narrative Point of View: Omniscient

Setting: Mid-to-late 1600s in Boston, Massachusetts.

Plot: A young woman named Hester Prynne who has committed adultery is brought to
shame in Boston and forced to wear a scarlet “A” as punishment; she refuses to reveal the
father of the child. She married in Europe before she came to Boston to a man she did not
love but had to marry for monetary reasons. Her husband does not show up until, almost
two years later due to sailing problems, Hester is on the ceremonial scaffold of shame. He
decides not to reveal himself as her husband and search for the father to take revenge as a
doctor under the assumed name of Roger Chillingworth; Hester agrees not to reveal his
identity. She longs to reunite with the child’s father, the esteemed Reverend Arthur
Dimmesdale, and since he believes fully in the tenets of Puritanism he longs to confess
his sin but does not to continue to hold his office as minister. Chillingworth suspects that
Dimmesdale is the father, and since the stress the minister is putting himself through is
damaging to his health, Chillingworth moves into the same boarding house as
Dimmesdale to use medicine to keep him alive and pry into his heart. Dimmesdale
survives longer than he should thanks to the physician’s drugs but lives in agony at his
guilt and hypocrisy and from Chillingworth’s prying. The child, whom Hester names her
Pearl since she is Hester’s prize possession, grows into a very rebellious young child in
reflection of Hester’s act of passion. In the woods Hester and Dimmesdale meet and, after
Hester reveals that Chillingworth is her husband, they decide to leave to return to Europe
after confessing their sin together. After delivering his best sermon yet, Dimmesdale
climbs onto the scaffold with Hester and Pearl to finally relieve himself of his burden
and, now being free of Chillingworth’s torment, dies soon after from relief. Hester returns
to England with Pearl and, without wearing the scarlet letter, she returns to Boston
several years later without Pearl to be a counselor for young women; she puts the scarlet
letter back on after returning.

Opening Scene: The opening chapter describes the dismal jail and points out that a
rosebush grows next to the door. Hawthorne writes that he hopes the bush will be a
symbol of the moral of the story since the story begins and ends quite drearily. The
opening scene contains people going to the scaffold to see the public punishment of
Hester, which displays the character of the Puritans and sets the plot for the entire book.

Closing Scene: The closing scene describes Hester’s return to Boston and her death. Her
grave lies next to Dimmesdale’s grave and one tombstone serves both of them reading,
“ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES.” This inscription means that on a black field lies a
red letter “A” for adultery, symbolizing how much their sin stands out once both have
confessed to it.

Characters: Hester Prynne: Hester is a tenacious and passionate young woman who keeps
her words, acts ashamed for society, and begins to question whether the Puritans truly are
right in their harshness. She is believable since it is perfectly reasonable for a stubborn
woman whom society chastises to begin to wonder whether society is right in its austerity
towards her.
Arthur Dimmesdale: Dimmesdale is a fiercely devout Puritan minister who continually
punishes himself for his adultery with Hester, hoping that by paying enough penance for
it he will begin to regret doing it. He is believable because many Puritan ministers were
extremely pious and believed fully in the tenets of Puritanism, and it would not be
unreasonable for one who breaks one of the Ten Commandments not only to punish
himself for it but also to long to feel remorse for his sin like he should according to his
religion’s rules.
Roger Chillingworth: He is a kind and respectable young man turned fiend out of intense
desires for revenge against whoever violated the virginity of his wife. He is believable
because often when people marry someone they think they can trust and find out that
something has happened to violate that trust they become vindictive and wish to ruin
whoever caused the trust to break.
Minor Character: Pearl Prynne: She is the illegitimate child of Hester and Dimmesdale
and her wild temperament reflects the act of passion that brought her into the world. Her
purpose is to be an ever-present reminder of Hester’s sin of passion and be a living
symbol of the scarlet letter.

Conflict: The novel has several basic conflicts, all of which carry equal yet strong
significance. The first is an internal conflict within Dimmesdale, who longs to reveal the
truth but cannot bring himself to do it. A second conflict is another internal conflict, this
time within Hester since she longs to be with Dimmesdale but knows she must quietly
accept society’s ostracism. Another is an external conflict between Dimmesdale and
Chillingworth. It does not come full out until Dimmesdale finds that Chillingworth
continually has been prying at his heart to exact his revenge. A minor conflict is between
Hester and Pearl since Hester tries to raise Pearl to be a standard Puritan but Pearl’s
nature prevents this from happening.

Theme: Confess dark secrets openly and do not torture those who do with exclusion.

Structure: Hawthorne divided the book into twenty-four chapters. The structure is not
confusing, and it is effective because Hawthorne stays with one plot line long enough to
create suspense before moving on to another plot line. The point-of-view does not
change.

Symbols: Pearl: Pearl symbolizes the scarlet letter and Hester’s adulterous act of passion.
It is an effective symbol since she always has a passionate and rebellious side that comes
out and since she is the result of Hester’s sin.
The scarlet letter: The scarlet letter symbolizes Hester’s passion, sin, and forced shame. It
is an effective symbol since it is ubiquitous throughout the novel and Hawthorne
constantly makes references to it.
The Woods: The woods are a gloomy place of darkness where the evil Black man lives
and witches supposedly hold meetings. It also serves as a refuge for the two sinners
Hester and Dimmesdale as they finally discuss their act of adultery. It is effective because
it causes the juxtaposition of clear evildoers, the Black man and witches like Mistress
Hibbins, with the secretive pair of sinners of Hester and Dimmesdale.
The Prison: The prison symbolizes the severity of the Puritans’ punishment and the
darkness of sin but yet the possibility for redemption in the rosebush at its door as well. It
is effective because it appears at the beginning of the novel and sets up the story
remarkably well.
The Scaffold: The scaffold is a symbol of the Puritans’ harsh shame that they impose on
those who commit very obvious sins. It is a successful symbol because it returns twice
more to emphasize the secret sins of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth and the public sin of
Hester.

Title: The title refers to the scarlet letter Hester must wear and it insinuates that the letter
will have great importance. It successfully relates to the symbolism of the scarlet letter.

Tone: The tone generally is solemn but Hawthorne does use irony like on page 120 when
it says that it is an absolute miracle of Heaven that the physician Chillingworth should
happened to end up at the door of the ailing Dimmesdale’s study. He also uses hyperbole
often, like on page 242 in describing the dying Chillingworth.

Use of Time: It is chronological within a flashback.

Recurring Motifs: iron, plants, truth, the juxtaposition of light and darkness, Dimmesdale
putting his hand on his heart, and the color red.

Pace: The pace is moderately slow because of its use of an old style of writing and some
antiquated terms, but it is not dreadfully slow.

Style: He writes in a style common of his time that is now out-of-date. His use of
symbolism is very obvious but his irony is not always as evident. He uses well-developed
diction, though does use the same words to describe the same things throughout the
novel, like calling Dimmesdale’s voice powerful and sweet. Sentence length varies, but
he wastes no words. He often uses parenthetical remarks set off by dashes to add further
information and uses other punctuation extensively.

Purpose: Hawthorne is retelling a story that appeared as early as 1837, according to the
book’s forward. It is yet another example of Hawthorne’s internal struggle between his
admiration and detestation of his Puritan ancestors. He wrote it partially to express his
disappointment at the Puritans’ austerity but also to relate the moral of encouraging
people to confess their sins and forgive others of theirs.

Quotes:
1. “What can thy silence do but tempt him – yea, compel him, as it were – to add
hypocrisy to sin? …Take heed how thou deniest to him – who, perchance, hath not the
courage to grasp it for himself – the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to
thy lips!” (Hawthorne 73) Character

Speaker: Rev. Dimmesdale

To: Hester

Dimmesdale says this while Hester is on the scaffold originally and the lead
Puritan ministers are trying to get Hester to reveal identity of the father of her child. They
call on Dimmesdale to try to get her to confess since he is her pastor. In this quote he is
not just asking Hester to reveal himself as the father, but pleading for her to do it since he
knows he will not be able to bring himself to do it. He hopes that Hester will expose him
so he will not have to do it himself.

2. “Brooding over all these matters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit, but,
by some irregularity in the process of conjuration, has failed to win the master-word that
should control this new and incomprehensible intelligence.” (95) Character

Speaker: Narrator
To: Reader

This passage is from the chapter devoted to describing Pearl. It reveals the
volatility of Pearl’s temperament by calling her a conjured spirit, and also shows Hester’s
exasperation with the child. Hester is not quite sure of what to make of the child or what
to do with the child.

3. “Meeting them in the street, she never raised her head to receive them in their greeting.
If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter, and passed on.
This might be pride, but it was so like humility, that it produced all the softening
influence of the latter quality on the public mind.” (156) Character

Speaker: Narrator
To: Reader

Over the course of her years with the scarlet letter, Hester becomes a freethinking
individual with all sorts of ideas about the Puritan religion that the ministers would have
considered blasphemous. One of her thoughts is that she is somehow higher that the rest
of the public since she is not a blind sheep following the supposedly good shepherds of
the Puritan hierarchy. She chooses not to mingle with people and passes off her pride
cleverly as humility.

4. “Then tell her… that I spake again with the black-a-visaged hump-shouldered old
doctor, and he engages to bring his friend, the gentleman she wots of, aboard with him.”
(229) Character

Speaker: Seaman of the Spanish Main

 To: Pearl

Here the sailor wishes Pearl to carry a message to Hester that Chillingworth has
bought a ticket for the same ship ride to Europe as she and Dimmesdale have. This
displays the tremendous tenacity that Chillingworth has in his revenge toward
Dimmesdale. Chillingworth has not yet had his fill of it and plans on continuing his
fiendish ways in Europe.