Metaphysical Ideas in the Scarlet Letter Author(s): Harry R. Warfel Source: College English, Vol. 24, No. 6 (Mar.

, 1963), pp. 421-425 Published by: National Council of Teachers of English Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/373879 . Accessed: 25/03/2011 10:14
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constructed according to the imagined pattern with deliberate and methodical skill in the manner best calculated to evoke in the reader the mood from which it grew in the mind of the poet.

In short, "The Raven," and with certain necessary individual differences, every other poem Poe wrote, was the product of conscious effort by a healthy and alert intelligence.

Metaphysical Ideas in The Scarlet Letter

R. HARRY WARFEL
The Scarlet Letter is an allegory because Hawthorne maneuveredits materials on the four necessary levels of action. The basic narrativeis of a woman's enmeshmentin the toils of the law and in the creed of a particularreligion. Her progress in freeing herself from all authority save her own constitutes the main story line. On the second level she becomes a type of all humanbeings who have in some way deviatedfrom the path of normal behavior and fruitlessly have tried to judge themselves as they have been judged by man-made codes. She gains freedom as she acquiresan increasing awarenessof the relative weight to be assigned to circumscribingopinions. The third level relatesto the institutions of State and Church.Like Billy Budd she suffers unjustly, and her sufferingpoints up the need for reform. The fourth level of the romance relates to Hawthorne's own absolutepresuppositions concerning nature, deity, and man. It is with these that I wish to deal briefly in this paper. The overridingmeaning of The Scarlet Letter is found in Hawthorne'sconclusions concerning the ideas that were current in 1650 and to some degree in 1850. The "joyless deportment"of the first and second generation of citizens, who "wore the blackest shade of Puritanism, . . . so darkened the national
visage with it, that all the subsequent years have not sufficed to clear it up." The continuous comparison of "then and now" indicates how thoroughly the romancer was aware of the persistence of wrong ideas. Like his Concord neighbor Emerson, Hawthorne sought the abiding principles by which one's life can be guided. By different methods both sought the same kind of answers. Emerson maneuvered theological concepts in essays illuminated with images. Hawthorne worked in a sociological laboratory and drew his conclusions from the actions of persons who strayed from the path of virtue and happiness. For another approach to the similarity between the thought of Hawthorne and Emerson, see B. R. McElderry, Jr., "The Transcendental Hawthorne" in The Midwest Quarterly, 2 (Summer 1961), 307-323. Like all well-constructed books The Scarlet Letter states all the fundamental facts in the beginning and then returns to them at the end. The first chapter gives the bare data of the situation. A throng stands before a prison. This image of the wonder and possibly the awe of the populace comes to have great significance in the course of the story. In the first sentence these men and women express no opinion. As the story proceeds, the group takes on the quality of a Greek chorus, a commentator upon the Having set down new theories in Language: events which transform Hester from a A Science of Human Behavior (1962), Harry sinful creature to a person of R. Warfel (University of Florida) is now de- despised, similar principles about the structure noble character. The throng alters into veloping "the great heart of mankind"; as such it of literature.

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ENGLISH gests that the story of Hester also will prove to be that of a "sainted" martyr. The rosebush, and therefore Anne and Hester, may serve "to symbolize some sweet moral blossom," that is, to provide a basis for an allegory that illuminates "a tale of human frailty and sorrow." This tale relates to the whole human race, not merely to Hester. Thus the opening chapter provides a framework of images that can be lifted into the realm of universal meaning. In Chapter 2 these physical facts begin to operate as ideas. A crime against state law is being punished; the prescribed penalty is death. The jail and the cemetery do seem to belong in close proximity. But in this instance the court has decreed not death but a three hours' exposure to public ignominy on the pillory. The immense disparity between the possible penalty and the actual sentence is significant. The wages of crime is not death, at least in the case of Hester, and hence a question is raised immediately concerning the validity of laws that can be so easily relaxed. The Beadle represents "the whole dismal severity of the Puritanic code of law," but, when he laid his hand upon Hester's shoulder, "she repelled him, by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character, and stepped into the open air, as if by her own free will." Thus imaged is the clash between a man-made code of law and the free will of an individual. Later Hester clashes with authority in similar fashion in the home of Governor Bellingham. "With almost fierce expression" she confronted the assembled men in the knowledge that "she possessed indefeasible rights against the world, and was ready to defend them to the death." To Dimmesdale she said, "What we did has a consecration of its own." In the end she held a firm belief that "a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness." Dimmesdale, after his forest

is merciful, kind, and understanding. "Never in vain" is an appeal made to it by "a human heart, sorrow-laden, perchance guilty, telling its secret, whether of guilt or sorrow." And so Dimmesdale, to whom this passage relates, was given his "power" in the final sermon by the people's "profound and continual undertone" of sympathy and forgiveness. Society "loves more readily than it hates," says Hawthorne; "although the public is despotic, . . . frequently it awards more than justice." Even Roger would have been "pitied and forgiven" if his guilty sorrow had been revealed to the world. Dimmesdale and Hester are more than forgiven; he gains the reputation of a saint and she of an angel. This maneuvering of the throng into being an active interpreter of the character's actions suggests that Hawthorne manipulated all the materials in the first chapter so that they can dramatize certain ideas in the context of Boston in 1650. This village provides a place and time in which to pinpoint these ideas. Hence it is necessary to view as a narrative pedal point the announcement that crime is universal and that "it seemed never to have known a youthful era." The oak-timbered, iron spike-studded prison gate comes to represent the harsh quality that inheres in old customs. The weeds growing by the jail, "the black flower of civilization," are symbols of a natural growth (called crime by law), but near the door is the wild rosebush symbolizing "that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind" to "the condemned criminal." Weeds and roses, the jail and the church, crime and death, punishment and salvation stand close to each other, just as at the end Hawthorne inquires "whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom." In Chapter 1 the fact of physical relatedness is merely stated, as is the propinquity of the jail and the cemetery. Although the reference to Anne Hutchinson seems merely a fanciful allusion, her name sug-

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meeting with Hester, went home "with a wretched." In this context it must be total change of dynasty and moralcode," remembered that all nature knew Hesthrew away the original Election Day ter's shame; yet this lonely woman was sermon, and wrote a new one in which "backed by the sympathies of Nature." he foretells "a high and glorious destiny" The mystery of the brook "had become for the people of New England. His a mystery of joy," for common men seven-year-old habit made it necessary have been oppressed with the "joyless for him to speak cryptically and to deportment" enjoined by Puritanism, a clothe his remarksin a conventionalthe- man-made and erroneous code. "We ological context. Yet he spoke in such a have yet to learn again," says Hawway that "the sermon had a meaningfor thorne, "the forgotten art of gaiety [Hester], entirely apart from its indis- that is found in Nature." This view is in line with Hester's opinion that "the tinguishable words." It seems clear, therefore, that Haw- angel and apostle of the coming revethorne was universalizingthe social ar- lation" must be "wise moreover, not rangements of mankind. He brought through dusky grief, but the ethereal 1650 and 1850 under comparison,and he medium of joy." In nature are sunshine contrasted Old and New England. In and freedom; "Love . . . must always effect he stated that the government of create a sunshine." The weeds, the darkNew England was falsely oriented, be- ness and brooding quality of nature yield cause its authority was maintained by under the influence of right thought to unjust and unequally administeredreg- images of love, gaiety, and joy. Thus ulations,principles,and prejudices.Other does Hawthorne explain the statement persons of "free will" like the Indians of Chapter 1 that the wild rosebush is and marinersoccasionally "transgressed, "a token that the deep heart of Nature without fear or scruple, the rules of be- could pity and be kind." havior that were binding on all others." The jail vs. church image leads HawSo quixotic an arrangement,as Hester thorne to draw the conclusion that the saw, deservedto be destroyed;therefore, two institutions must be separated. In "The world's law was no law for her the Boston of 1650 "religion and law mind." At her marriage she had been were almost identical." The preachers misled by Roger because of inadequate intervene in the legal punishment of social arrangements for women, and, Hester to add a theological punishment. though she accepted the fact of punish- The Reverend John Wilson, says Hawment for her crime, she knew that an thorne, "had no . . . right . . to step unfair statute led to her suffering. At forth . . . and meddle with a question of this level, therefore, the narrative con- human guilt, passion, and anguish." A cerns the conflict between an individual crime against a cruel human law had and the state. been committed; the investment of that The weeds vs. rose image of the novel deed with a supernatural stigma was unis also carried out systematicallyto the warranted. Bellingham's bond-servant, a end. Crime is an event which is related recent immigrant, viewed the scarlet letto the area of human fallibility. Thus at ter with eyes accustomed to a different the conclusion of the tale "people social system; he saw nothing bad in the brought all their sorrow and perplexi- red cloth. Chillingworth, although he ties. . . . Women, more especially,-in the quotes Scripture to lacerate Hester and continually recurringtrials of wounded, Dimmesdale, is sure that these two sorwasted, wronged, misplaced, or erring rowful partners in a social crime are not
and sinful passion, . . . came to Hester's cottage, demanding why they were so to be judged by any code other than that of human necessity. Chillingworth's re-

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ENGLISH "the great heart of the world" alone is to be trusted. Man's salvation rests not in an escape from the punishments promised by theology but from those which he inflicts upon himself. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl achieve an equivalent of Calvinist grace by their ultimate fidelity to their own higher intuitions, just as they were most harshly punished inwardly and outwardly as a result of their failure to conform to their own human standards. Chillingworth knew the evil course upon which he embarked; he therefore invited and accepted the punishment doled out to him. In rejecting Puritanism, Hawthorne espouses a humanism. Truth is of the human heart, and is the more acceptable when intuitions correspond with the principles discernible in nature's joyous moods. Despite the fact of mankind's age-old belief that "The wages of sin is death," this axiom is correct only as a metaphor. Crime, any evil deed, deforms the body and the psyche; it destroyes the criminal's kinship with his fellows, and to this extent any alienation from society is a death. At the height of Hester's selfinflicted sorrow, her "face became like a mask; or rather, like the frozen calmness of a dead woman's features; owing this dreary resemblance to the fact that Hester was actually dead, in respect to any claim of sympathy, and had departed out of the world with which she still seemed to mingle." The jail thus symbolizes social death even as the cemetery shows forth physical death. Concealment, therefore, is not wise. And in this spirit Hawthorne reaches his ultimate generalization: "Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred." In conclusion it may be stated that Hawthorne believed in Deity and accepted the wisdom of spiritualizing life in a universal manner. Pearl is a child of God, and so are all other people.

fusal to ask the Church or the State to intervene in punishing Dimmesdale arises from his view that "Heaven's own method of retribution" lies within the mind of each person and not in "the gripe of human law." The novel is largely a working out of the effect upon Hester and Dimmesdale of the concepts of sin which have been fostered in them by Calvinism. Both worry about these matters, and Hester is deeply concerned to watch Pearl's unfolding to see whether the demonic or angelic quality will emerge uppermost. In the end Hester comes to reject the validity of dogmatic theology even as she denies the right of the State to punish actions that belong in the sphere of the heart and arise from the laws of nature. This rejection of current manmade law seems to be a fundamental conclusion of Hawthorne. The origin of mankind, Hawthorne says, lies in an inscrutable decree of God. Each individual enters the world as an innocent being, whose lifelong duty is to make wise choices between the twin forces of right and wrong that tug at him during his earthly journey. He has freedom of choice. A stern necessity invests each evil deed with the character of doom. "Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these." Good deeds, though they cannot erase a blemish, bring rewards of honorable reputation, personal satisfaction, and joy. No reliance can be placed in the assertion that supernatural intervention guides the affairs of men (of. Hawthorne's comment upon the "highly disordered mental state" of any man who reads the flash of a meteor as "a fitting page for his soul's history and fate"). Systems of religion and systems of government alike are the products of ancient tradition. Changes, possibly revolutions, are necessary to renovate them. The institution of

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Hawthorne also believed that each individual has within himself the standards of right and wrong as a result of his God-given constitution. Man errs when he tries to hide his true quality, and the State and Church have no right to probe into this innermost heart of a person. The renovation of society, therefore, must move in the direction of freeing

the individual from institutions so that he may make the most of himself. The first step in this direction must be taken by the individual. Hester did not hide the symbol with her hand when she first stood on the pillory. Her every act thereafter strengthened her capacity to be herself and to stand up for her rights. Like Emerson, Hawthorne said, "Trust thyself."

Mark Twain and the Mystery of Identity

BRADFORDSMITH whose rags he wears. He merely makes himself ridiculous when he tries to be the king he really is (his father having just died), while Tom Canty quickly takes on kingly qualities and is soon able to rule as well as Edward. King Arthur (in A Connecticut Yankee) without his royal accoutrements cannot be recognized as a king. So he wanders through his own kingdom, shorn of his identity as surely as of his royal clothes. Huck's king and duke make a mockery of the whole sham and pretense of royalty. This brings us to the central problem of identity. A king is not a king unless he possesses the innate traits that prove him. The common man with his sufferings, his ability to work and endure, is not only equal to kings but superior to them. The Yankee proves this by becoming The Boss-superior of kings and knights and of the wastrels and crooks spawned by poverty and the class system. The classes man has set up and rigidified by custom and prerogative go against nature and result in false identifications. Good men and bad are found in all walks of life. The mystery of identity therefore becomes a matter of seeking out the true character beneath Bradford Smith is the author of twenty the social disguise. booksincluding Bradford Plymouth, Danof A Roxana can change the two babies Yankees Paradise, Porin and gerousFreedom, trait of India which appeared this fall (1962). about so that her Chambers becomes the The key to Mark Twain's mind is the concept of identity. In every one of his important books it is the identity of the individual on which his attention focuses. And on the mystery of identity. The quest for identity is central to both his writing and his personality. Its importance in his works can be traced to its importance in his life. The devices that recur in his stories-disguise, deception, self-deception and make-believe-all grow out of this concern with identity. Nearly everyone in Mark Twain's books, consciously or unconsciously, is playing a part. Colonel Mulberry Sellers pretends to be a successful businessman and political power instead of the conspicuous failure he is. The Yankee plays at being a knight, a ruler, a magician. Sally Sellers, to humor her father, has to be the Lady Gwendolen. Miles Herndon gracefully pretends to believe in the royalty of his little pauper. Disguise is often a way of exposing either the "real" identity or the essential mystery of all identity. In The Prince and the Pauper Prince Edward, shorn of his fine clothes, is no better than the boy