The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter

Title page, first edition of The Scarlet Letter, 1850
Author	Nathaniel Hawthorne
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Romantic novel
Publisher	Ticknor, Reed & Fields
Publication date	1850

This article is about the 1850 book. For films based on the book see The Scarlet Letter (film)

The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, is an American romance written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and is generally considered to be his masterpiece. Set in Puritanical Boston in the seventeenth century, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth after committing adultery, refuses to name the father, and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores the issues of grace, legalism, sin, and guilt.

Contents 1 Plot introduction 2 Plot summary 3 Major themes 3.1 Sin 3.2 Past and present 3.3 Civilization versus the wild 4 Publication and response 5 Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science 6 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations 7 Allusions/references from other works 7.1 Freethought 7.2 Literature 7.3 Music 7.4 Television 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

Plot introduction

The story of The Scarlet Letter is framed by a preface (called "The Custom-House") in which the narrator, a surveyor in the Custom House, claims to have found documents and papers that substantiate the evidence concerning Prynne and her situation. The narrator says that when he touched the letter it gave off a "burning heat...as if the letter were not of red cloth, but red hot iron." Among these documents, the narrator claims to have found the death certificate of Anne Hutchinson, previously believed to have been destroyed by the Puritan church leaders as they tried to cover up her brutal murder two years earlier. The manuscript, the work of a past surveyor, Jonathan Pue, detailed the events of the trials of Hutchinson's alleged murderers. When the narrator lost his post, he decided to write a fictional account of the events recorded in the manuscript. The Scarlet Letter is the final product.

Historically, Nathaniel Hawthorne worked in the Custom House in Salem, Massachusetts for several years, eventually losing his job as a result of an administration change. There is no factual basis for the documents described in the book, however, and the preface is properly read as a literary device.

Plot summary

The novel begins in 17th-century Boston, Massachusetts, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” on her bosom. The scarlet letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin – a badge of shame – for all to see. A women in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester's husband, who is much older than she is, sent her ahead to America, but he never arrived in Boston. The consensus is that he has been lost at sea. While waiting for her husband, Hester has apparently had an affair, as she has given birth to a child. She will not reveal her lover’s identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her public shaming, is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy. On this day Hester is led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she again refuses to identify her child’s father.^[1] The elderly onlooker is Hester’s missing husband, who is now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He settles in Boston, intent on revenge. He reveals his true identity to no one but Hester, whom he has sworn to secrecy. Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and Pearl (her daughter) grows into a willful, impish child, who is more of a symbol than an actual character, said to be the scarlet letter come to life as both Hester's love and her punishment. Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Salem. Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but, with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, an eloquent minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. Chillingworth attaches himself to the ailing minister and eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with round-the-clock care. Chillingworth also suspects that there may be a connection between the minister’s torments and Hester’s secret, and he begins to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers an "A" (for adultery) on the man’s breast, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct.^[1] Dimmesdale’s psychological anguish deepens, and he invents new tortures for himself. In the meantime, Hester’s charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. One night, when Pearl is about seven years old, she and her mother are returning home from a visit to a deathbed when they encounter Dimmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl join him, and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refuses Pearl’s request that he acknowledge her publicly the next day, and a meteor marks a dull red “A” in the night sky (which is misinterpreted by others to stand for Angel, when in reality it is meant to stand for Adultery). Hester can see that the minister’s condition is worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdale’s self-torment. Chillingworth refuses.^[1] Hester arranges an encounter with Dimmesdale in the forest because she is aware that Chillingworth has probably guessed that she plans to reveal his identity to Dimmesdale. The former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. They will take a ship sailing from Boston in four days. Both feel a sense of release, and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. She is unnerved and expels a shriek until her mother points out the letter on the ground. Hester beckons Pearl to come to her, but Pearl will not go to her mother until Hester buttons the letter back onto her dress. Pearl then goes to her mother. Dimmesdale gives Pearl a kiss on the forehead, which Pearl immediately tries to wash off in the brook. The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday and Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever. Meanwhile, Hester has learned that Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship. Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly, exposing the mark seared into the flesh of his chest. He falls dead just after Pearl kisses him.^[1] Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resume her charitable work. She receives occasional letters from Pearl, who was rumored to have married a European aristocrat and established a family of her own. Pearl also inherits all of Chillingworth's money even though he knows she is not his daughter. There is a sense of liberation in her and the townspeople refuse to look at her. When Hester dies, she is buried in "a new grave near an old and sunken one, in that burial ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both." The tombstone was decorated with a letter "A", and one tombstone was used for Hester and Dimmesdale.

Major themes

Sin

Sin and knowledge are linked in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Bible begins with the story of Adam and Eve, who were expelled from the Garden of Eden for eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a result of their knowledge, Adam and Eve are made aware of their disobedience, that which separates them from the divine and from other creatures. Once expelled from the Garden of Eden, they are forced to toil and to procreate—two “labors” that seem to define the human condition. The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge—specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be human. For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as “her passport into regions where other women dared not tread,” leading her to “speculate” about her society and herself more “boldly” than anyone else in New England.^[2] As for Dimmesdale, the “cheating minister” of his sin gives him “sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his heart vibrate[s] in unison with theirs.” His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy. Hester and Dimmesdale contemplate their own sinfulness on a daily basis and try to reconcile it with their lived experiences. The Puritan elders, on the other hand, insist on seeing earthly experience as merely an obstacle on the path to heaven. Thus, they view sin as a threat to the community that should be punished and suppressed. Their answer to Hester’s sin is to ostracize her. Yet, Puritan society is stagnant, while Hester and Dimmesdale’s experience shows that a state of sinfulness can lead to personal growth, sympathy, and understanding of others. Paradoxically, these qualities are shown to be incompatible with a state of purity.^[2] The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and most fully authorized principles in Christian thought. His "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity. He ends in corruption. The subtlety is that the minister is his own deceiver, convincing himself at every stage of his spiritual pilgrimage that he is saved.^[3] The rosebush, its beauty a striking contrast to all that surrounds it — as later the beautifully embroidered scarlet A will be — is held out in part as an invitation to find “some sweet moral blossom” in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that “the deep heart of nature” (perhaps God) may look more kindly on the errant Hester and her child (the roses among the weeds) than do her Puritan neighbors. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.^[4] Chillingworth’s misshapen body reflects (or symbolizes) the evil in his soul, which builds as the novel progresses.^[4] Although Pearl is a complex character, her primary function within the novel is as a symbol. Pearl herself is the embodiment of the scarlet letter, and Hester rightly clothes her in a beautiful dress of scarlet, embroidered with gold thread...just like the scarlet letter upon Hester's bosom. ^[2] It would be interesting to draw a parallel between Pearl and Beatrice, in Rappaccini's Daughter. Both are studies in the same direction, though from different standpoints. Beatrice is nourished upon poisonous plants, until she becomes herself poisonous. Pearl, in the mysterious prenatal world, imbibes the poison of her parents' guilt. But, in either instance, behind this imported evil stands the personal soul: and the question is, Shall the soul become the victim of its involuntary circumstances? Hawthorne, in both cases, inclines to the brighter alternative.^[5]

Past and present

The clashing of past and present is explored in various ways. For example, the character of the old General, whose heroic qualities include a distinguished name, perseverance, integrity, compassion, and moral inner strength, is said to be “the soul and spirit of New England hardihood.” Now put out to pasture, he sometimes presides over the Custom House run by corrupt public servants, who skip work to sleep, allow or overlook smuggling, and are supervised by an inspector with “no power of thought, nor depth of feeling, no troublesome sensibilities,” who is honest enough but without a spiritual compass.^[4] Hawthorne has ambivalent feelings about the role of his ancestors in his life. In his autobiographical sketch, Hawthorne describes his ancestors as “dim and dusky,” “grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steel crowned,” “bitter persecutors” whose “better deeds” will be diminished by their bad ones. There can be little doubt of Hawthorne’s disdain for the stern morality and rigidity of the Puritans, and he imagines his predecessors’ disdainful view of him: unsuccessful in their eyes, worthless and disgraceful. “A writer of story books!” But even as he disagrees with his ancestor’s viewpoint, he also feels an instinctual connection to them and, more importantly, a “sense of place” in Salem. Their blood remains in his veins, but their intolerance and lack of humanity becomes the subject of his novel.^[4]

Civilization versus the wild

In The Scarlet Letter, the town and the surrounding forest represent opposing behavioral systems. The town represents civilization, a rule-bound space where everything one does is on display and where transgressions are quickly punished. The forest, on the other hand, is a space of natural rather than human authority. In the forest, society’s rules do not apply, and alternate identities can be assumed. While this allows for misbehavior — Mistress Hibbins’s midnight rides, for example — it also permits greater honesty and an escape from the repression of Boston. When Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the woods, for a few moments, they become happy young lovers once again. Hester's cottage, which, significantly, is located on the outskirts of town and at the edge of the forest, embodies both orders. It is her place of exile, which ties it to the authoritarian town, but because it lies apart from the settlement, it is a place where she can create for herself a life of relative peace.^[2]

Publication and response

The Scarlet Letter was published in the spring of 1850 by Ticknor & Fields, beginning Hawthorne's most lucrative period.^[6] The book attained an immediate and lasting success because it addressed spiritual and moral issues from a uniquely American standpoint. In 1850, adultery was an extremely risqué subject, but because Hawthorne had the support of the New England literary establishment, it passed easily into the realm of appropriate reading. It has been said that this work represents the height of Hawthorne's literary genius; dense with terse descriptions. It remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth, and continues to be read as a classic tale on a universal theme.^[7] The Scarlet Letter was also one of the first mass-produced books in America. Into the mid-nineteenth century, bookbinders of home-grown literature typically hand-made their books and sold them in small quantities. The first mechanized printing of The Scarlet Letter, 2,500 volumes, sold out within ten days,^[8] and was widely read and discussed to an extent not much experienced in the young country up until that time. Copies of the first edition are often sought by collectors as rare books, and may fetch up to around $6,000 USD.

Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

• Anne Hutchinson, mentioned in Chapter 1 - The Prison Door, was a religious dissenter (1591-1643). In the 1630s she was excommunicated by the Puritans and exiled from Boston and moved to Rhode Island.^[4]
• Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.
• Sir Thomas Overbury and Dr. Forman were the subjects of an adultery scandal in 1615 in England. Dr. Forman was charged with trying to poison his adulterous wife and her lover. Overbury was a friend of the lover and was perhaps poisoned.
• John Winthrop (1588-1649), first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

• 1917: A black-and-white silent film directed by Carl Harbaugh with Mary G. Martin as Hester Prynne
• 1926: A silent movie directed by Victor Sjostrom and starring Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson.
• 1934: film directed by Robert G. Vignola and starring Colleen Moore
• 1973: Der Scharlachrote Buchstabe a film directed by Wim Wenders in German
• 1979: PBS version starring Meg Foster and John Heard
• 1995: The Scarlet Letter, a film directed by Roland Joffé and starring Demi Moore as Hester and Gary Oldman as Arthur Dimmesdale. This version is "freely adapted" from Hawthorne according to the opening credits and takes liberties with the original story.
• 1996: The film Primal Fear references The Scarlet Letter.
• The Red Letter Plays (In The Blood produced in 1999, and F--ing A, produced in 2000) by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, rewrote the story placing it in contemporary New York and Houston.
• 2001: A musical stage adaptation which premiered at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, by Stacey Mancine, Daniel Koloski, and Simon Gray.
• 2004: The Scarlet Letter is a Korean noir-thriller featuring an adulteress' monologue, that mentions a plan to raise her unborn child as Pearl in America, in a desperate plead to exit her obsessive affair.

Allusions/references from other works

Freethought

Richard Dawkins's Out Campaign for freethought, currently utilizes a red 'A' entitled, "The Scarlet Letter."^[9] The 'A', also serves to identify the wearer as an atheist.^[9]

Literature

• The 1993 novel, The Holder of the World by Bharati Mukherjee re-wrote the story, placing it in present day Boston, Colonial America, and seventeenth century India during the spread of the British East India Company.
• Deborah Noyes wrote a companion to this novel entitled Angel and Apostle with Pearl as the main character.
• Postmodern writer Kathy Acker borrows from the Scarlet Letter in her novel Blood and Guts in High School. Janie, the main character, identifies with Hester Prynne and intertwines their stories in a vulgar manner.
• In the novel 'Speak', Hairwoman, the English teacher, refers to the Scarlet Letter in her lesson. The novel's protagonist, Melinda Sordino, is a freshman in high school who is ostracized from her fellow schoolmates during the school year, much as Hester Prynne was ostracized by the puritans in Boston.

Music

• The band Halifax have a song entitled "Scarlet Letter Part 2" on their EP "A Writer's Reference".
• The band As Blood Runs Black titled their song Hester Prynne including lyrics that hint towards sin.
• The Music Man character Harold Hill sings a line in the song "The Sadder But Wiser Girl" about his desire for a strong-willed woman: "I smile, I grin, when the gal with a touch of sin walks in. / I hope, and I pray, for a Hester to win just one more 'A'."
• The band Trophy Scars refer to the title of the book in the opening lines of their album "Alphabet. Alphabets.". There are also other allusions to the novel over the course of the album via a similar theme and lexical device. In a recent interview to Absolute Punk, Jerry Jones, the band's lead singer said "I did indeed adopt Nathaniel Hawthorne's motif for his book The Scarlet Letter".
• The Virginia-based Hip-Hop group The Clipse refers to Hawthorne in an unreleased track from their 2006 album Hell Hath No Fury. Pusha T delivers the line "Like a Scarlett letter, for the world to see" on a song called "Pussy" which was later released on their mix tape album .
• The band Sweetbox references it in their song "Chyna Girl", in which vocalist Jade sings "And now my scarlet letter burns".
• American composer Robert Ward composed a ballet in 1994 for the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony based on the novel.
• American composer Stephen Paulus composed a monodrama opera in 2003 entitled "Hester Prynne at Death" (to a text of Terry Quinn) based on the novel.
• The Casting Crowns song "Does Anybody Hear Her?" includes the line; "Can't see past her scarlet letter/And they've never even met her."
• The rosebush is referenced in the song "Don't Forget Me" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the line; "I'm the rainbow, in your jail cell, all the memories of everything you've ever smelled."
• The Tool song "The Grudge" deals with the themes of forgiveness and guilt with lyrics like "Unable to forgive your scarlet letterman"
• The Say Anything song "People Like You Are Why People Like Me Exist" mentions the line "Repressed and overdressed with a Scarlet Letter on your chest."

Television

• An episode of the America teen drama Popular was based around each of the main characters confessing their Scarlet Letter.
• The show One Tree Hill features an episode with a voice over by character Lucas Scott where a quote from The Scarlet Letter is used.
• In "Easy-Bake Coven" plot The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VIII, Edna Krabappel is seen wearing a scarlet letter 'A'.
• In "Grey's Anatomy", the episode "Who's Zoomin' Who?, George is trying to get Olivia to say she had slept with other men. He says "it's not like I'm handing out Scarlet Letters or anything."

See also

• Boston in fiction

References

External links

• The original text of The Scarlet Letter hosted by the University of Virginia
• Hawthorne in Salem Website Page on Hester and Pearl in The Scarlet Letter
• The Scarlet Letter, available at Project Gutenberg.
• Public Domain audiobook of The Scarlet Letter by LibriVox

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Novels
The Blithedale Romance • Doctor Grimshaw's Secret • The Dolliver Romance • Fanshawe • The House of the Seven Gables • The Marble Faun • The Scarlet Letter
Tales
Twice-Told Tales • The Gray Champion • Sundays at Home • The Wedding-Knell • The Minister's Black Veil • The May-Pole of Merry Mount • The Gentle Boy • Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe • Little Annie's Ramble • Wakefield • A Rill from the Town-Pump • The Great Carbuncle • The Prophetic Pictures • David Swan • Sights from a Steeple • The Hollow of the Three Hills • The Toll-Gatherer's Day • The Vision of the Fountain • Fancy's Show Box • Dr. Heidegger's Experiment • Legends of the Province-House • The Haunted Mind • The Village Uncle • The Ambitious Guest • The Sister Years • Snow-Flakes • The Seven Vagabonds • The White Old Maid • Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure • Chippings with a Chisel • The Shaker Bridal • Night Sketches • Endicott and the Red Cross • The Lily's Quest • Foot-prints on the Sea-shore • Edward Fane's Rosebud • The Threefold Destiny
The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales • The Snow-Image • The Great Stone Face • Main-street • Ethan Brand • A Bell's Biography • Sylph Etherege • The Canterbury Pilgrims • Old News • The Man of Adamant • The Devil in Manuscript • John Inglefield's Thanksgiving • Old Ticonderoga • The Wives of the Dead • Little Daffydowndilly • My Kinsman, Major Molineux
Mosses from an Old Manse • The Old Manse • The Birth-Mark • A Select Party • Young Goodman Brown • Rappaccini's Daughter • Mrs. Bullfrog • Fire-Worship • Buds and Bird-Voices • Monsieur du Miroir • The Hall of Fantasy • The Celestial Rail-road • The Procession of Life • Feathertop • The New Adam and Eve • Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent • The Christmas Banquet • Drowne's Wooden Image • The Intelligence Office • Roger Malvin's Burial • P.'s Correspondence • Earth's Holocaust • Passages from a Relinquished Work • Sketches from Memory • The Old Apple-Dealer • The Artist of the Beautiful • A Virtuoso's Collection
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