paper:10,American Literature

Name: Joshi Deepti M

Sem: 3              

 Paper: American Literature

Topic: The Scarlet Letter as puritan novel

 Submitted to: Smt.S.B Gardi

                        Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji

                                    Bhavanagar University, Bhavanagar

                                                  Gujarat (India)

  

 Introduction:

                       “The scarlet Letter “by Nathanial Hawthorne is a historical novel, historical in the sense that it studies a people and manner peculiar to a particular time and place. And “the Scarlet Letter “is the novel which throws light on the 17^th century of Boston, which known as puritan period.

Basically Puritanism is a movement in the 16^th century which greatly influenced by the reformation and its main objective was to purify the Church of England of its Roman Catholic style, rituals and organization.

In the novel, Nathanial Hawthorne expresses the aspects of relationship, religion, community, discipline and punishment in the puritan society or community. Here religion seemed to govern over-all, people would look up to reverends and the community believed that fate was their destiny.

Puritan believed in discipline and punishment, and for Authority it was a weapon to use against those people who dare to raise the voice against the established authority. With this weapon authority used to discourage other people from committing the same crime and sin. During puritan period Man and woman relationship was very constrained and it what made adultery such a bad sin in the eyes of everyone in the community.

Puritans were much strict and rigid about their religious and culture, so if any individual like Hester Prynne challenges the norms and rituals of society, she has to suffer till the death. For instance in the beginning of the novel Hester Prynne is publically humiliated as a punishment from breaking a puritan belief and one of the Ten commandments; Adultery. She is then forced to stand in front of the town for hours as the crowd tries to break her down with criticism and shamed words. And people are taking delight by making her feel ashamed and using shaming words for her.

After giving her punishment, people and authority thought that they cleansed the town and now our town is pure, but it was not enough that Hester had been given the Letter “A” embroidered, to wear on her bosom as a reminder to herself and society that she has committed adultery. And after that this so-called perfect puritans threw her out of their lives because she was not drone to their ways, but a distinctive person. So here we can see that how public punishment was used by authority in those days not only as punishment but also a weapon to discourage other from committing same crime.

Since religion was such a key part of puritans, anyone who did disobey their God was looked down upon. What make s religion ironic in this story was how everyone looked up to a reverend that had committed the same sin as someone they looked down upon severely Dimmesdale says,

“Before the judgment seat, the mother and thou, and I, must stand tougher!

And daylight of world shall not see our meatinng! The reverend knows his sin and wants be punished with Hester Prynne and Pearl. Yet not until what he calls judgment day.”

In the puritan society relationship were looked upon as something sacred and a woman should be loyal to her husband. Once married, it was considered a horrible offense if you un-loyal to your spouse. Woman still did not have rights, so anything Hester said in her defense would have just been ignored. Relationship was not supposed to be broken unless by divorce, even if the husband was at the bottom of the sea-where Hester’s husband was believed to be. Hawthorne has shown here that how women were treated in puritan society through the character of Hester Prynne and how for puritans, belief and religion were at the centre of purity rather than Individuals true love and feelings for other.

Through “The Scarlet Letter “Nathanial Hawthorne has shown pain and suffering of a Puritan woman when she unknowingly breaks her marriage, and disobeyed her religion’s ultimately Hawthorne has thrown the light on the dark side of Puritan society and belief, who believes in Gog but having no humanity at all.

By and Large, Nathanial Hawthorne has used his novel to critique the puritan faith and norms. Here in developing his story of the Adulteress Hester Prynne, he has used both religious and natural imaginary to show his disdain for the puritan religion. He found the puritan society-repressive and cruel, sadistic and rigidly orthodox. Yet, if this is the dark side of the puritan Forefathers of America, there is credit side also. They may be critical of a sinner but they also accepted Sinner who humbly performs his or her duty in their society, it can be applied to Hester’s case, as she becomes “Angel’’ and “Able” only because there is a gradual acceptance of her in the society.

Critics have even remarked for Hawthorne that,

“Through ‘The scarlet Letter’, he turns his instrument of allegory, the gift of  the  puritans, against the puritans themselves.’’

On a superficial reading; ‘The scarlet letter’ does appear to be an allegory on puritan society’s rules, beliefs and mentality towards one who according to them has committed crime or sin.

In the novel both Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are guilty of their secret adulterous relationship at a time before the tale actually begins. While Hester is publically exposed for her sin, her secret paramour’s name is unknown, and Dimmesdale escapes the immediate consequences of his sin. However, Dimmesdale is a sensitive man who suffers privately through inner turmoil. From this point of view it can be said that the novel in a way deals with their percussions of their sin of adultery on two characters-the public humiliation and shame of Hester Prynne and the private tribulation of Arthur Dimmesdale. Both stand for two different ideas, Hester for open, public shame and disgrace, Dimmesdale for a private, subjective torment.

In the novel Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale suffer throughout the novel while with them one of the puritans Roger Chillingworth also suffers from the feeling of revenge. Here he stands for idea of revenge, But among these three characters Hester can be seen as a rebellious puritan, but even she accepts the codes and manners of her society.

Though Hester goes in against of puritan norms of loyalty towards her husband, she readily accepts the punishment that has been given to her. There is one more suggestion that Hester hides herself behind her mask of the scarlet letter. Yet she accepts Pearl who also symbolizes the scarlet letter itself as her sorrow and her happiness, it shows that she admits the validity of the puritan ethics and it makes clear, she neither becomes a witch nor does she become a rebel. On the other hand, she returns home from Europe to Boston to become a sister of Mercy and to lead a life of duty and penance in the puritan settlement.

As I said earlier that Hawthorn has used the puritan allegorical form in ‘The scarlet Letter’ According to Winters &Charles Fiedelson JR,

Hawthorne makes the sexual sin as the best example of original sin that the puritans believe in.

In novel, Hester herself achieves social redemption by good deeds and dutiful life, according to the Calvinistic theory of good works. Hawthorn has also exploited the puritan idea of the inner depravity and he lack of grace of man. He points out the guilt in the hearts of the sinners as well as their persecutors.

As I earlier said that in the novel, Hawthorne has used two types of imaginary, religious and natural. Among these his use of religious imaginary is seen when Hester Prynne is at church, where she is ridiculed because of her sin of adultery. Even though the other puritan ridiculed her has sinned themselves they still had the nerve look down upon Hester as a sinner, Hawthorn has shown in this scene that hypocritical the puritans are! They scold Hester without ever realizing that they too are sinners.

Religious imagery yet used again when the woman of story don’t allow Hester, a seamstress, to make or to touch their wedding dresse.They feel that since Hester is as sinner and she is not loved by God, she will somehow put curse upon whoever wears a dress made by her. Hawthorne shows here just hoe narrow minded and ignorant the puritans are!  Third time religious imaginary can be seen that how the cemetery and prison are close to each other .The prison represents how everyone succumbs to sin, but the puritans feel is true except in their case, they die without sin. The prison and cemetery being close together represent how sin and death are so closely related; you cannot have one without other. This is what Hawthorne is showing us how the puritans think that they are pure and completely different from everyone else when in fact that is not true; in fact are most impure.

Along with religious imaginary Hawthorne uses natural imagery to prove his true disgust with the puritans. In one of the scenes of novel, when Hester and pearl are walking, the sun shines on the pearl. But as Hester walks the sun keeps moving away from her. Hawthorne has shown that how innocent Pearl really is! And that even though she is born from sin, God still loves her and she is not a sinner. The puritans feel that Pearl is a sinner as she is born from the sin so that God do not accept or love her.

Natural imagery is seen second time n the novel through the use of woods. In the woods, Hester and Pearl are accepted for who they are and can live their lives as they wish. There is no one to pass judgment in the woods on anything that they do. The final use of natural imagery is with the rose bush. The rose bush represents how though there is lots of evil in the world, you can still find good in it, it is represented by flowers. Hawthorn feels,

You can still find good people, like Pearl, even in a world filled with evil, like puritans.

Conclusion:   

             

By showing the puritan society’s norm and belief in the novel, He has shown his true disagreement with the puritan religion on a whole. He has been against the Puritanism before the novel and in the novel made it quite clears as well.