Content Summary
The book by Nathaniel Hawthorne titled The Scarlet Letter is considered the best work of his not in vain – the contents and the topics touched upon in it raise much profound thinking and reveal the true nature of human beings under the pressure of the Puritan community that does not accept any sins and weaknesses and struggles only for integrity and honor. Hawthorne managed to reveal the whole scope of inner qualities, the torments that people experience when their sins do not let them go, and the transformations that occur in people when they are possessed by evil thoughts and intentions.
The narrative begins from the preamble in which the narrator justifies the contents by the manuscript he occasionally found and then proceeds to tell the story itself. The narrative takes place two centuries earlier in the newly settled USA, in the Puritan colony where the woman called Hester Prynne leaves the prison with her daughter Pearl – she is urged to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest that signals her adultery. She kept the name of the man with who she committed it secret, which causes even more accusation for her. It is also mentioned that she has a husband who did not arrive in the USA, but as it turns out further he did, and took another name – Roger Chillingworth – and continues his medical practice in Boston (Hawthorne, 1889).
As the narrative develops, the reader understands that Arthur Dimmesdale, the official who protected Hester and helped her remain with Pearl is the person with who she had adultery. When Dimmesdale suddenly falls ill because of the inner torments he has because of the sin they committed, Chillingworth driven by his wish for revenge tries many forbidden and dangerous medicines on him, worsening his state and adding to his aching conscience. Pearl often asks why her parents do not reveal the truth, and he finally confesses to the community dying at the same time. Chillingworth is frustrated by his failure of revenge because the plan they had arranged was to run away in three, with Pearl. As the plan was ruined because of Dimmesdale’s confession, he also dies in a year and Hester with Pearl leave Boston, with Hester coming back in some time after Pearl’s marriage and continues wearing her scarlet letter “A” (Hawthorne, 1889).
Interpretation
Initially, Hawthorne was trying to find out how sin and knowledge are connected in human nature and how they can be mutually justified – by the adultery Hester and Arthur commit they give birth to new life, to their child who becomes the true treasure, a symbol of their secret love. But at the same time, these two people have no strength to overcome the stigmas of society and have to keep their love secret, with Hester carrying a whole load of shame and persecution on her weak shoulders. Even being a strong-willed and independent woman, she is broken by the pressure of society and subdue to the stigma, which is symbolically shown at the end of the book when she returns to the city where everyone has long forgotten her shame and sin but still wearing the scarlet letter as a sign for her self-punishment and identification in the old world she left.
The topic of evil is also clearly felt and analyzed by Hawthorne – through the image of Chillingworth the author manages to show how the dark sides of one’s personality can create a horror that will spoil his own life and many other lives. Hawthorne shows complete immorality in tests that Chillingworth conducts on Dimmesdale without any hesitations, considering him to be the root of his misfortune. Again, the topic of the whole book, the question that is asked by the author and is hardly answered is who is wrong, who committed the initial sin that brought about such disastrous consequences? Was it Hester because of her infidelity or Dimmesdale who refused to accept Pearl and save Hester from her shame? Or did everything started even earlier, from Chillingworth who killed all emotions between him and her wife thus pushing her to act the way she did?
This question is rather hard to answer, but what is clear is that all those people would not have lived the life they did if something had not happened. Human life is full of mistakes and sudden turns, so in case people live only according to the rules prescribed by tough religious dogmas and considerations of morality and multiple virtues, there will be no life at all – it will become plain and gray, losing colors and sense. Hawthorne investigates the way life was arranged in the USA in the 17th century under the Puritan influence and tries to find out how those who do not fit the profile established by the community are treated and how they survive, physically and spiritually.
Evaluation
It is possible to say that the book possesses the power of persuasion in the evils the Puritan society used to have – people’s lives were ruined by religious pressure; parallel to the overall picture of a community that existed in the USA he shows the individual effort of several people to face the challenges they have come across. So, I would advise other students to read this book because it reveals much about the secrets of human nature. But in general, I think the book is not highly relevant for the present time because there are only local Puritan communities and the society in any country enjoys a much higher degree of freedom and democracy, so the situation in which the heroes of this book found themselves are not likely to be repeated. I learned much about human relations and the weird destinies that move people and make them act in different ways, and surely I think it is a great experience in my life. But the characters remained too distant from me because of the great difference in life perception by a person born in the 20th century and people who lived four centuries ago.
References
Hawthorne, N. (1889). The Scarlet Letter. Houghton, Mifflin and Co.