Manongsong, Loida P.

BSED ENGLISH 3201

EEd 322 LITERARY CRITICISM

Nathaniel Hawthorne the author of scarlet letter once said, “She could no longer borrow from the future to ease
her present grief.” His intent in writing The Scarlet Letter was to highlight the life and immorality of the Puritan society
back then. He emphasizes that many people were unfairly convicted and accused of many sorts of sins back then in the
stiff and hard culture. In Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne effectively uses Point of View, Setting, Characters, Plot, Symbols,
and Theme to clearly convey the message of the book.
The Scarlet Letter is written in a third-person point of  view in which the narrator explains the major characters'
thoughts and feelings as well as the general attitudes of the people and highlighting how the characters interact within a
larger community. Furthermore, the narrator offers commentary about characters and their behavior, which shapes the
reader's view. For example, he laments Dimmesdale's incapability to overcome his fears and doubts, which may lead a
reader to perceive Dimmesdale as a weak and useless character. The narrator engages the reader directly by  highlighting
that we are taking part in an interpretation of a work of fiction.
The Scarlet Letter was set in Boston in 1600s, prior to American Independence. At that time, Boston was part of
the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which had been established after the first group of English settlers arrived in Plymouth in
1620.
 When it comes to characters, Hester is the novel’s protagonist and the carrier of the scarlet letter that
gives the book its title.   As a young woman, Hester married an elderly scholar, Chillingworth, who sent
her ahead to America to live but never followed her. She had an affair with a Puritan preacher called
Dimmesdale while waiting for him, and she gave birth to Pearl as a result. Hester is fascinated but also
strong—she endures years of sadness and condemnation. In terms of intelligence and thoughtfulness,
she equals both her husband and her boyfriend. Her isolation puts her in the position to make critical
judgments about her community, notably concerning its treatment of women.
 Pearl, Hester's illegitimate daughter, is a little girl with a temperamental, naughty personality and the
ability to see things that others do not. She rapidly realizes the truth about her mother and Dimmesdale,
for example. The townsfolk believe she doesn't appear human and create myths about her unknown
father being the Devil. She is clever above her years, and she regularly engages in sarcastic play with her
mother's scarlet letter.
 Roger Chillingworth" is Hester's husband in disguise. He is considerably older than she is, and he had
sent her to America while he tended to his business in Europe. Because he is kidnapped by Native
Americans, he gets in Boston late and discovers Hester and her illegitimate child on the scaffold. He
craves vengeance and resolves to remain in Boston despite his wife's treachery and humiliation. He is a
scholar who disguises himself as a doctor in order to uncover and punish Hester's unknown lover.
Chillingworth is oblivious to his surroundings and physically and mentally nasty. His single-minded desire
of vengeance exposes him to be the novel's most wicked character.
 Dimmesdale is a young man who gained power as a theologian in England before moving to America. In
a moment of weakness, he and Hester fell in love. He is the father of her kid, albeit he would not admit
it publicly. He copes with his guilt by hurting himself physically and psychologically, resulting in a cardiac
issue. Dimmesdale is an intellectual and sensitive guy, and his sermons are masters of eloquence and
persuasiveness. His duties to his flock are always at odds with his sense of sinfulness and the desire to
confess.
  Governor Bellingham is a rich, elderly guy who spends the most of his time speaking with the other town
founders. Despite his status as the ruler of a developing American society, he has a strong resemblance
to a traditional English aristocracy. Bellingham is a rule-follower, yet he is readily seduced by
Dimmesdale's eloquence. 
 Mistress Hibbins is a widow who lives in a gorgeous home with her brother, Governor Bellingham. She is
well recognized as a witch who rides into the forest at night with the "Black Man," and her public
appearances inform the reader of the dishonesty and concealed wickedness in Puritan community.
 Reverend Wilson, Boston's senior priest, is both intellectual and grandfatherly. He is a fictional
equivalent of the rigid, sharply drawn portrayals of American ancestors. Wilson, like Governor
Bellingham, rigorously respects the community's norms but is seduced by Dimmesdale's eloquence.
Unlike his younger colleague, Dimmesdale, Wilson teaches hellfire and damnation and urges severe
retribution for sinners.

To sum up the novel. This part will talk about plot. Two hundred years after the events of the story, the
anonymous narrator works as the surveyor of the Salem Customhouse. He discovered an ancient manuscript in the
building's attic that chronicles the story of Hester Prynne; after he loses his job, he resolves to compose a fictional
rendition of the narrative. The narrator is a high-strung man whose Puritan lineage makes him feel terrible about his
literary profession. He writes because he is interested in American history and feels that America needs to better
comprehend its religious and moral past.

The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne set in Boston, then the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in
the mid-17th century (about fifty years before the nearby Salem Witch Trials). It tells the story of the relationship
between the Puritan community and Hester Prynne, the protagonist, after it is discovered that she bore a child out of
wedlock—an act that cuts against society’s religious values. As punishment for her actions, Prynne is forced to wear a
scarlet “A,” which, as it is never said outright, presumably stands for “adultery” or “adulterer.” The narrative, which is
framed by an introductory piece entitled “The Custom-House,” depicts the seven years following Prynne’s crime.

This introduction, written by a nameless first-person narrator who shares many biographical details with the
book’s author, serves as the main narrative’s framework. In this section, the narrator, who has an interest in writing,
tells of how he works as a surveyor at the Salem Custom House—a moment he takes as an opportunity mainly to
disparage and mock his colleagues, many of whom are older and have secured lifetime appointments through family
connections.

This section takes place in the mid-19th century, and, as such, the Custom House has much less activity than it
did during its heyday two centuries earlier. As a result, the narrator spends a good deal of his time snooping about in the
attic of the building, whereupon he finds an old piece of red cloth in the shape of the letter “A,” as well as a century-old
manuscript by a previous surveyor named Jonathan Pue, about a series of local events from a century even before his
time. The narrator reads this manuscript, and then reflects on how his Puritan ancestors, whom he holds in high esteem,
would have looked down on him writing a work of fiction, but, after he loses his job as a result of a shift in local politics,
he does so anyway. His text, loosely based on the Pue manuscript, becomes the basis of the novel.

In mid-17th century Puritan Boston, then the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a local woman, Hester Prynne, is
discovered to have had a child out of wedlock. This is a major offense in the extremely religious community. As
punishment she is made to stand for several hours with her child, Pearl, in a stocks on a scaffold in the town square, and
then to wear a scarlet A embroidered on her clothing for the remainder of her days. While standing on the scaffold,
exposed to the public, Prynne is hectored by both the mob and the prominent members of the town, including the
adored minister Arthur Dimmesdale, to name the child’s father—but she stalwartly refuses. Also while she is standing
there, she sees a white man, guided in by a Native American man, enter the scene at the back of the mob. Prynne and
this man make eye contact, but he puts a finger in front of his lips.
 After the spectacle, Prynne is brought to her prison cell, where she is visited by a doctor; this is the man she had
seen at the back of the crowd, who is also, it turns out, her husband, Roger Chillingworth, recently arrived from England
after having been thought dead. They have an open and amiable conversation about each of their shortcomings in their
marriage, but when Chillingworth demands to know the identity of the child’s father, Prynne continues to refuse to
reveal it.

Upon her release from prison, Prynne and her daughter move to a small cottage on the edge of the town, where
she devotes herself to needlework (producing work of notable quality), and helping others in need as best she can. Their
isolation eventually starts to affect Pearl’s behavior, as lacking playmates other than her mother, she grows into a
rambunctious and unruly little girl. Her behavior starts to attract the townspeople’s attention, so much so that members
of the church recommend that Pearl be taken away from Prynne in order to receive better supervision. This, obviously,
greatly upsets Prynne, who goes to speak with Governor Bellingham. With the governor are the town’s two ministers,
and Prynne appeals to Dimmesdale directly as part of her argument against the townspeople’s motions. Her plea wins
him over, and he tells the governor that Pearl should remain with her mother. They return to their cottage as before,
and, over the course of several years, Prynne begins to earn herself back into the town’s good graces through her helpful
deeds.

Around this time, the minister’s health begins to worsen, and it is suggested that Chillingworth, the new
physician in town, take up residence with Dimmesdale to watch over him. The two get along at first, but as
Dimmesdale’s health deteriorates, Chillingworth begins to suspect that his condition is in some way the manifestation of
psychological distress. He begins to ask Dimmesdale about his mental state, which the minister resents; this pushes
them apart. One night, shortly thereafter, Chillingworth sees on Dimmesdale’s chest, while the latter is sleeping, a
symbol that represents the minister’s guilt.

Dimmesdale then, tormented by his guilty conscience, wanders one night into the town square and stands upon
the scaffold where, several years before, he had looked upon Prynne as the town antagonized her. He acknowledges his
guilt within himself, but cannot bring himself to do so publicly. While there, he runs into Prynne and Pearl, and he and
Prynne finally discuss the fact that he is Pearl’s father. Prynne also determines that she will reveal this fact to her
husband. Pearl, meanwhile, is wandering around beside her parents throughout this conversation, and repeatedly asks
Prynne what the Scarlet A stands for, but her mother never responds with a serious answer.

Shortly thereafter, they meet again in the forest, and Prynne informs Dimmesdale of Chillingworth’s desire for
revenge on the man who usurped him. As such, they make a plan to return together to England, which gives the minister
a new bout of health and enables him to give one of his most rousing sermons at Election Day a few days later. As the
procession leaves the church, though, Dimmesdale climbs up onto the scaffold to confess his relationship with Prynne, at
which point he promptly dies in her arms. Later, there is much discussion amongst the townspeople over a mark seen
upon the minister’s chest, which many claim was in the shape of an “A.”

With this affair now effectively settled, Chillingworth soon dies, leaving Pearl a large inheritance, and Prynne
voyages to Europe, though she returns several years later and resumes wearing the scarlet letter. At some point
thereafter she dies, and is buried in the same plot as Dimmesdale.

The most significant symbol in Hawthorne's story is the scarlet letter itself. Hester wears a large, red letter 'A' on
her chest, a letter marking her as an adulteress; this letter appears as a visible sign of her sin. Hester becomes the object
of shame, anger, and ridicule by the townsfolk around her. By facing her accusers and openly bearing the shame of
adultery, however, Hester's character is strengthened in such a way that the scarlet letter, at first, represents her sin but
later becomes a mark of her grace and high, almost angelic, character.

Guilt is a major theme in The Scarlet Letter, and appears primarily in the psychology of Arthur Dimmesdale.
Dimmesdale is tormented both by guilt at his sinful act of fathering an illegitimate child, and then by the guilt of failing
to take responsibility for his actions and having to hide his secret. As he explains, “Had I one friend…to whom… I could
daily betake myself and be known as the vilest of all sinners, methinks my soul might keep itself alive.” The minister’s
guilt is also exaggerated by a sense of hypocrisy, because he is considered by many to be exceptionally holy and
righteous: “It is inconceivable, the agony with which this public veneration tortured him!”