The Scarlet Letter as Novel of Distinctions

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is known for presenting some of the greatest interpretive difficulties in all of American literature. While not recognized by Hawthorne himself as his most important work, the novel is regarded not only as his greatest work, but frequently as the greatest novel in American literary history. After it was published in 1850, critics hailed it as initiating a distinctive American literary tradition. Ironically, it is a novel in which, in terms of action, almost nothing happens. Hawthorne's emotional, psychological drama revolves around Hester Prynne, who is convicted of adultery in colonial Boston by the civil and Puritan authorities. She is condemned to wear the scarlet letter "A" on her chest as a permanent sign of her sin. The narrative describes the effort to resolve the agony suffered by Hester and her co-adulterer, the minister Arthur Dimmesdale, in the years after their affair. In fact, the story excludes even the representation of the passionate moment which enables the entire novel. It begins at the close of Hester's imprisonment many months after her affair and proceeds through many years to her final acceptance of her place in the community as the wearer of the scarlet letter. Hawthorne was masterful in the use of symbolism, and the scarlet letter "A" stands as his most potent symbol, around which interpretations of the novel revolve. At one interpretive pole the "A" stands for adultery and sin, and the novel is the story of individual punishment and reconciliation. At another pole it stands for America and allegory, and the story suggests national sin and its human cost. Yet possibly the most convincing reading, taking account of all others, sees the "A" as a symbol of ambiguity, the very fact of multiple interpretations and the difficulty of achieving consensus.

         The time period when The Scarlet Letter  takes place, there was no such thing as a feminist in the modern sense, yet Hester’s character combines traditional ideas of feminine behavior with a free-thinking and rebellious perspective that can be seen as kind of precursor to later feminist philosophy. When the reader first sees her, Hester is described as a beautiful mother who conceived a child out of wedlock. Hester has defied convention. She further defies her community by refusing to name the baby’s father. Since the authorities of her society are all men, this refusal is the one kind of power Hester can assert. The authorities can punish her, but they cannot force her to reveal her secret. In claiming the one form of power available to her – the power to keep a secret – Hester displays a feminist agency over her own life.

         Hester’s reaction to her punishment might seem the model of feminine obedience, but in fact contains an element of rebellion and radicalism in her self-sufficiency and determination to keep her child. She is a devoted mother and her skilled needlework aligns her with a traditional female occupation that was viewed as appropriate and respectable. But her status as a single working mother, completely responsible for the well-being of her daughter but also free to raise Pearl.

          Hester expresses feminist tendencies when she asks Dimmesdale to leave New England and begin a new life with her and Pearl, but her eventual return to her community proves an ultimately more fitting statement of independence and personal liberation. While talking to Dimmesdale, Hester tears off The Sarlet Letter and takes off her cap to let her hair down, symbolizing her rejection of society’s attempts to control her. While the scarlet letter is a punishment designed specifically for her, any respectable woman of the era would have worn a cap, so Hester is rejecting all of the ways that women are subjected to patriarchal control: “Her sex, her youth, and the whole richness of her beauty came back.” Yet despite this rebellious behavior, the novel ends with Hester voluntarily returning to New England, and continuing wearing the scarlet letter. This hardly seems like a feminist act of rebellion. But in wearing the letter out of choice, not obligation, Hester actually continues her feminist self-determination. As she goes on to support other women who are struggling in the community, she extends her personal liberation to others suffering under the patriarchy. In living the life she chooses, Hester embodies powerful ideas about female agency.

          The Scarlet Letter is also a historical novel, in that it was written in 1850 but set in the 1640s and contains real-life settings, characters, and actual historical events. In setting his story in 17th century Boston, Hawthorne explores the Puritanical foundation of our country, and uses the period’s strict laws and repressive beliefs to ask enduring questions about the nature of sin and guilt. Several characters from the book are based on actual historical figures such as Governor Bellingham, Mistress Higgins, and the character of the narrator himself, whose life story closely follows Hawthorne’s own biography. Hester’s punishment for adultery in the form of a scarlet letter “A” affixed to her dress echoes the true instance of a woman named Mary Batcheller, who in 1651 was sentenced to have the letter A branded into her flesh after she was found guilty of an extramarital affair. (In The Scarlet Letter, one of the townswomen suggests Hester’s punishment is too lenient, and she should have had “the brand of a hot iron” on her forehead.) By the end of the 17th century, women convicted of adultery had to wear the letter ‘’A’’ sewn into their clothes.

             The Scarlet Letter is an example of the romance genre. In fact, the novel’s original title was The Scarlet Letter: A Romance. The term romance refers to a work of fiction that does not adhere strictly to reality. In the preface of the book, Hawthorne defines romance as taking place “somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each infuse itself with the nature of the other.   Hawthorne combined realistic and imaginative elements to tell an impressive and dreamlike story. The Scarlet Letter is beautiful combination of real world the imaginary world, The Scarlet Letter A seen by Dimmesdale in the sky when he stands on the scaffold during his vigil in the night is supernatural touch in the tale. The revelation of the letter A imprinted on the Dimmesdale’s flesh belongs to the same category of fantastic and marvelous. These supernatural effects heighten the sense of drama in the story.

        The Scarlet Letter qualifies as a romance in that it unites fantastic elements while remaining emotionally and psychologically realistic. ” In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne emphasizes the emotional accuracy and truthfulness of his tale. For example, when the A appears in the sky, he leaves open the possibility that it may be an optical illusion caused by Dimmesdale’s guilty conscience: Similarly, Hawthorne suggests that some witnesses claimed that there was no mark on Dimmesdale’s chest when he died on the scaffold. The acknowledgments that characters’ emotions influence their interpretation of events reinforce the sense of psychological accuracy in the novel.