E-C-303. American Literature

Name- Patel Payal G

Roll no- 16

M.A.Sem-III

Paper- E-C-303. American Literature.

Year- 2011

Topic- Critical Appreciation of “The Scarlet Letter”

Submitted to Mr. Dilip Barad.

Department of English.

Bhavnagar University.

Bhavnagar.

Critical Appreciation of “The Scarlet Letter”

Character   Analysis:

Hester Prynne:

She is the protagonist of the novel “The Scarlet Letter”. She is mentally very strong as well as passionate, as she bears the scorn and criticism of public and does not reveal the name of her child’s father. She may be the purest woman in the town, but, she has done sin after all, and she also gets the punishment to stand on the Scaffold and bitterly criticised by the town’s people. She bears the scorn and condemns of people for very long period of time, until Arthur Dimmesdale confesses his sin before the people. Though she is the wife of Roger Chillingworth, she genuinely loves Arthur Dimmesdale, as he is pure by heart and the man of God. Here, Hawthorn not only presents the condition of Hester Prynne but of all women during his time. He portrays the actual picture of woman among his puritan society people. Women were not allowed to live alone in home; they were supposed to remain inferior to men. If they did something related to men they would be surprised and shocked. For example, when Hester Prynne rides the horse, people are not able to imagine this situation, and they cannot bear such things. Though women are given freedom, they are mentally chained by men. So, through her character, Hawthorn wants to depict the portrayals of Puritan women. When she was presented on Scaffold and insulted by the public, it directly symbolizes that it is the insult of whole woman space of that  town, as men are not be pointed but the women are. So, it is Hester Prynne whose journey starts as a sinner but ends as a saint. As a mother also she is very sincere.

Roger Chillingworth:

He enters in the novel containing fake name Roger Chillingworth instead of his real one Roger Prynne. His appearance at the initiative stage arouses curiosity among the readers by making them confused about who that man is! Why he signs Hester to keep quiet? He is very intellectual and knowledgeable personality. He is a doctor, cold-hearted doctor. He is just a leech, as he tortures Dimmesdale, his patient. He sent Hester to Boston and stayed in Europe. When he is captured by native Americans and when he comes to Boston, he identifies himself as a doctor and he is a great scholar who becomes well-known doctor in the town, and because of his this profession, he is able to meet Dimmesdale. When he comes across the secret of Dimmesdale’s being a father of Pearl, he dies to take revenge upon him. Though he is a doctor, gives mental torture instead of medicine. He is so clever that he finds no injury is deeper than the burden upon the heart, as Dimmesdale is suffering from that. He is the symbol of society, he is one among those who critically condemn Hester.

Tu Dian Liu (China) writes in his paper, “Chillingworth: The Wronged Husband and Criminal”, that Chillingworth is not at all evil kind of personality, and he is a man budding with love, so, can he endure to let his wife to be Dimmesdale’s love. He also writes that Chillingworth is also much tortured, as no one can bear that one’s wife has an illegal or illegitimate child. So, he is also mentally suffered. However, Lui favours Chillingworth and writes that all the characters suffer because of their actions of duality.

“......But actually, these characters all have their duality in their actions. Sometimes the duality consists of good and evil forces. Roger Chillingworth is no exception. We cannot conscientiously say that Chillingworth only intensifies the stuggle of the two aspects of his duality......”

But, here, what becomes more focusable is Chillingworth himself, he considers himself to be a cruel person, as he says for him, “It was my folly. I have said it. But, up to that epoch of my life, I have lived in vain”(ch.4.p.68). He believes that he had made mistakes two times, first was, he married Hester and smashed her life, as he is older than she is. He himself says, “Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into false and unnatural relation with my decay” (ch.4p.68-69). His second and most disastrous mistake is his friendship with Dimmesdale. Though he is a doctor, he does not treat him well and tries to dig out what secret lies in his heart and when he comes to know that secret, he decides to destroy him mentally. It is rightly said that everyone is evil but there are different levels of sin and evil.

Arthur Dimmesdale:

He is the man of God, which is said by the Boston town people. He is a good orator, as he gives speeches in the Church and the people feel themselves enough fortunate for having the minister like Dimmesdale. They enjoy his speech and take everything in a literary meaning whatever he speaks, not symbolical instead. For example, his conscience pains him for not accepting his sin before the public and that is why he tries to speak out those things, but people get it in an erroneous way. He punishes himself, as he cannot face the reality of life, and that is why when Pearl asks him to hold her hand the next day, he denies by saying that he would hold their hands on  the Judgement Day. That means he is ready to face God, but the society, and when the novel proceeds, his heart ache also rises. Whatever thing may be wrong about Dimmesdale but his love for Hester is genuine. Dimmesdale is punished much than Hester, as he gets mental pain much than Hester. Another thing is that his soul or conscience beats him every moment of life and that is why he died of this pain. No doubt, he is a noble personality as well as respectable human being but he did sin and got its punishment by getting decease.

Pearl:

Pearl, the daughter of Hester is very symbolic one here. She is presented as a sin of Hester and Dimmesdale as their illegitimate child. Though she is very young girl, she speaks beyond her age. It is said that Hawthorne has used this character very bitterly in the way to make the novel more effective. She is having very realistic point of views. Perhaps, whatever question she asks to her mother might be stupid, but also full of sarcasm and symbolism.

The Narrator of the Novel:

The Narrator is unnamed and he is not the relative of Hester or Pearl. He works in the Salem Custom House. There is the mention of the narrator’s basic information and he gets an old manuscript which tells the story of Hester Prynne and her life. The story took place before two hundred years. When the narrator loses his job, he decides to write the fictional article of the narrative. He is interested in American History and wants to write because he wants to sustain the religious and moral heritage of American society.

Themes and Background:

Sin: Knowledge and Human Condition.

The main theme of “The Scarlet Letter” is the effect of sin on the soul. Hester’s sin is discovered and she is punished to wear “A” forever on her dress and in her heart. She is rejected by the whole community. Dimmesdale is able to conceal his sin but the irony is that Hester is locked by the public and Dimmesdale is destroyed within. Pearl is the personification of sin. Hester and Arthur never wanted to hurt anybody. Chillingworth does not perform sin in the eyes of society, yet he does serious damage to those around him.

Sin and knowledge are interconnected when the earth was created, as Adam and Eve are the pioneers of these aspects. So, it is said that excessive knowledge is very dangerous if not for one’s own self then for others. Unless you do not commit sin, you do not get knowledge. So, this is the cycle of sin and knowledge. Chillingworth, being a knowledgeable doctor, takes full advantage of being a doctor and somehow he knows that his patient Dimmesdale is the criminal. They are crushed under the human’s situation and conditions they are just puppet and they have to play their roles.

Gender Equality:

The condition of women during his time was so serious. Hester, the woman is forced to display her sin, whereas Dimmesdale, the man can hide successfully, which is symbolical. But, Dimmesdale cannot hide to his own soul. Gender equality plays a very important role in this novel. In an age when women were considered to be inferior to men in many societies, it is remarkable that Hawthorne ends his novel with a favour for feminism. “One day”, Hester says, “When God is ready; there will be a new world- a better world for women. We will be the same as men.”

The Nature of Evil:

There is one debate which takes place in the minds of the characters like Chillingworth, Prynne, Dimmesdale etc. is about the “Black Man”, who is considered to be the embodiment of evils. No doubt, most of the characters are associated with the Black Man. For example, Mistress Hibbins, who is like a witch and a widower, lives with her brother Governor Bellingham, in a luxurious mansion. It is believed that she ventures in the forest with the Black Man, and she shows her hypocrisy and hidden evil in Puritan Society. Even Pearl is considered to be the Devil’s child. Different characters are having their own notions of the Black Man. For example, Dimmesdale is the Black Man for Pearl until at the end of his life Pearl believes him as an evil kind of person. In the same way Puritan society may be the Black Man for the persons like Hester and Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth is the Black Man for the tortures of Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. So, here, in one or another way the nature of evil changes according to the perception of the beholder towards it.

Identity and Society:

The question and problem of identity has been remaining the burning issue since the time of Adam and Eve. When the characters fit in the formation of the society, men and women are having different identities in society. In Puritan Age the women were not allowed to commit sin. If they committed it, that sin became their identity. In this novel the scarlet letter “A” becomes Hester’s IDENTITY which symbolizes her ‘adultery’.

Symbols and Motifs:

Hawthorne writes the things based on symbolism. This novel is full of symbolic events and characters. He has written in his “Young Goodman Brown”, “Evil is the nature of mankind”. It reflects his deep sense of symbolical meanings.

There are three characters who commit sin but the degrees of their sin are different. Hester is punished publically and other two characters Roger and Arthur are not. But what is more important here is, three are punished by destiny and they are punished by their innermost.

Civilization versus Wilderness:

In this novel, there is the reference of Puritan society who believes that the Puritan people are more civilized and that is why they consider Hester as a sinner. They make her stand on Scaffold, force her to wear the scarlet letter “A”, not even that, they imprison her with her child. So, the question, here, arises, who is civilized or who is wild in nature? Because Hester is perhaps, the most civilized kind of personality, as she does not reveal the secret of Dimmesdale to the public under their compulsion, and the example of Mistress Hibbins displays the wilderness of Puritan society.

Evocative Names:

This novel is having very suggestive names in it, as the names show somewhere the personality and nature of the characters. Hester Prynne’s name is rhymed with sin, as she committed sin according to the town’s people. Dimmesdale is a kind of Dim personality, who shows his dimness, weakness, lack of vision and lack of will power. Chillingworth is very chill kind of personality and also like a chilly, having a short tempered nature, especially for Hester and Dimmesdale.

Woman with PAST has no FUTURE:

It is said here that the woman who is having the past (illegal actions) has no future at all. In the Puritan time even in the present time or in any particular time woman with her past is never accepted by the society. They are forbidden for freedom. They are mentally tortured by them, if not by punishments then by derision of the society. Here, if we take the example of Sita, it would be better to understand the point that though she was as pious as mother Ganga(river), she was rejected by Rama because of the society, as the people believed that she had stayed with the Devil, Ravana. So, Sita’s unknown past is the destroyer of her peaceful future, and at last she had to suffer for that. But in this novel, Hester gets, at least, at the end of the novel, the respect of the people and she became a saint from sinner. Her grave is also buried next to Dimmesdale’s by the people who show their respect towards Hester. But the question here raises, if Dimmesdale had not revealed his sin at the end of his life, would have people buried her respectively?

Significance of the title:

“The Scarlet Letter” as a title becomes very noteworthy, as it draws the letter “A” in the mind of the reader. Hawthorne has given very suitable title to this novel, since everything causes because of this letter “A” which symbolizes ‘adultery’. All the characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Pearl, even the town’s people, etc. are associated with this in one or another way, and this letter “A” is the talk of the town as well as the burning or current issue in the society.

The Comparison between “The Scarlet Letter” and “Wuthering Heights” :

There are some similarities between both these novels in characters and some situations. Like “Wuthering Heights” (Emile Bronte) “The Scarlet Letter” is having the suspense, and fear, when this novel opens, readers are put in a situation that they become curious to know what happens next to Hester Prynne? Why is she imprisoned? Who is the husband of Hester? So, here, Hawthorne very cleverly creates the atmosphere of mystery and grasps the attention of the reader at the very beginning. “Wuthering Heights” starts with suspense, when Lockwood (the first narrator) comes to Heathcliff, he comes across the ghost of a lady. After Nelly Dean’s (the second narrator) explanation, he comes to know what happened to Catherine (the ghost). The characters are also somewhat similar, as Heathcliff  is Arthur Dimmesdale, though Arthur is not as cruel as Heathcliff  is, both of their love is genuine for their beloved Catherine and Hester respectively. Edgar Linton is Roger Chillingworth, who in “Wuthering Heights”, is the husband of Catherine. They both are very keen in their actions and are very chill. That is why Roger’s name is Chillingworth.

Next important thing is the pure love of Hester and Dimmesdale, as they are, at the end of the novel, after their decease, buried next to each- other. In the same manner Catherine and Heathcliff were buried. Catherine was sandwiched between Edgar and Heathcliff and in this novel “The Scarlet Letter”, Hester is passing through the same experience between Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Though there are many other differences, some situations are same in both the novels.

Conclusion:

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s real intention behind writing this novel is to demonstrate the condition of women during his time. The conflict between man and woman, conflict between man and society and the conflict between man and religion (sin), he shows through this novel. Perhaps, he is in favour of feminism as he portrays, Hester as superior to other two male characters, Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale.