The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne authored the book in 1640 in the Puritan community setting. The text narrates the story of Hester Prynne whose husband disappeared and the community presumed that he died. Through this presumption, Hester begins an affair with a man from the locality and conceives. After giving birth, she gets communal interrogation, humiliation, and shame. Reverend Master Arthur Dimmesdale, the pastor in the local community briefly and half-heartedly takes part in the grilling. He requests her to name the man she has an affair with because every person in the locality wanted to know the lover in question, but Hester declines and opts to face the consequences. In this case, the paper seeks to provide a review of the book, and some two or three lessons learned from reading the book.

Punishment and Public Prosecution

As punishment for taking part in the extra-marital affair, Hester Prynne has to put on a sparking scarlet letter “A” embroidered by the breast part of her dress. Letter “A” stands for adulteress. During punishment and interrogation, she is paraded in a community gathering with 500 people watching and condemning her. For several hours, Hester has to stand and endure a scorching sun with her infant daughter, Pearl held near the chest.

The Husband’s Return and Secrets

While facing the prosecution in shame in front of everyone, Hester sets eyes on her husband in the distance standing next to an Indian wearing their native attire. Unbeknownst to the local gathering, the husband has come back as Roger Chillingworth, the physician of the town, to watch the public prosecution of his wife. After getting back to her prison, she is excited though nervous, and her baby Pearl begins to struggle in convulsions. The jailer admits the doctor to examine Hester and the infant daughter. The husband explains that Indians had kidnapped him and compelled him to take an oath to preserve his secret. The past lovers hold an honest conversation, and the husband also requests to know her wife’s lover, but once again she declines to disclose the name of the man in question. Chillingworth is not empathetic in their jail cell meeting, and he also mocks her in the encounter. Hester is now preserving the secrets of the two lovers in her life.

Banishment and Hypocrisy

Chillingworth, the husband, returning as a town doctor vows to investigate her wife’s mysterious lover. When Hester is set free from prison, the community banishes her, and she lives a lonely life in an abandoned cottage on the outskirts of the town. She survives and earns a living by doing embroidery work for people specifically, dresses, gloves, robes, glove, etc. The people’s hypocrisy is quite evident because they shun and despise her as adulterous and yet they highly admire her creative works and designs.

Tension and Intervention

As the story advances, Pearl grows and starts following her mother to town as she moves around to deliver her embroidery orders. When Pearl is roughly three years, the Governor, Bellingham proposes that the child is taken away from her so that she be brought up in a disciplined way and equipped with earth and divine truths. Hester adamantly declines this proposal, and there is tension between the two. All these happen under the watch of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth.

Symbolism and Themes

Hester keenly observes her husband as the conflict between her and the governor proceeds and notes how uglier his qualities have grown symbolizing his lousy character. The Chillingworth wants to collaborate with the governor and take away Pearl, but Prynne cannot yield to their advances. She calls for the intervention of Dimmesdale and asks him to intercede on her behalf, and he accepts the request though anxiously.

The text is full of symbolism. The letter “A” stands for adulterous and many other issues connected with it throughout the plot. The misshapen form and Chillingworth’s name depicting the nature of his heart, Hester dressing the little girl in Scarlet, the acts and the scenes played in the forest, the wild rosebush at the prison door and the various meanings represented by light darkness. The girl Pearl appears symbolic all over the text and describes such issue as reminder conscience to the parents. At some stage, Pearl tells her mother Hester Hester that sunshine did no love her, that whenever she shows up, the sun runs and hides because it is anxious about something at her bosom.

Conclusion

Finally, there are two things one can capture from the book. One is the nature of the Puritan society; the author depicts it as repressive, harsh, and legalistic. The Puritan community portrays a complete lack of grace in the way it treats Hester. The book advances three significant themes; mercy and judgment, repentance and regret, and perceived versus true identity. Chester and her partner exhibit different personas from their real characters, and they appear to destroy their real being because of it. The book is an exciting read. I recommend The Scarlet Letter to everyone who may wish to read interesting classic literature because it is a perfect representation of the character of people in a communal setting. Moreover, it is not light reading so, and anyone must be prepared to invest a good deal of time.

Bibliography

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, and Cindy Weinstein. The Scarlet Letter. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.