The Scarlett Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne had his own post on his birthday, July 4. Now we look closer at his first published book The Scarlett Letter. I first read the book years and years ago and, finding it in a thrift store recently, thought it was time to read it again. 

The story brings together a disgraced woman, her lover and father of her child, and her husband.  Hester Prynne has recently given birth to a daughter Pearl and is forced to stand on the gallows for three hours to accept the scorn and contempt of her goodly Puritan neighbors. She is also condemned for the rest of her life to be shunned and to wear a scarlet “A” on her breast. She refuses to reveal who her lover was and he, a much-beloved clergyman, is unwilling to reveal himself, fearing the loss of his position and the admiration of his congregation. Thought dead in a shipwreck, her husband has changed his name and has taken up medicine. He treats the child and warns Hester not to reveal who he is or he will discover the name of her lover and ruin him.

While Hester accepts her restrictions in society because of her sin and lives in a small cottage making a living with her needlework, Dimmesdale the clergyman and Chillingworth the doctor rent rooms in the same house so that the doctor can look after his “patient”, who is already exhibiting physical symptoms because of the guilt he carries. Because of the revenge Chillingworth is consumed with, he too begins to fail physically and mentally. Hester, seeing what is happening to the men, finally decides to tell Dimmesdale who Chillingworth is and to be careful of him. She convinces Dimmesdale that they should leave Salem and go away together where they can live a free life with their daughter. She books passage on a ship but subsequently discovers Chillingworth has found them out and is also going.

Reverend Dimmesdale delivers a speech at the Election Day festivities but as the participants are leaving the meeting house, Dimmesdale, barely able to walk, sees Hester on the scaffold and goes to her, collapsing in her arms. He reveals that he has been carrying the “A” on himself too. He acknowledges Pearl and Hester and then dies.

The three characters all keep secrets and refuse to confess their sins. All this time, Hester has borne the shame of wearing the “A” and has worked to help the poor and sick in the town, thinking of this as penance. She has been alienated from society and from God and has convinced herself that her earthly sins will not keep her – or Dimmesdale – from getting to Heaven. Forgiveness can be gained, not from oneself, but from God, but there first has to be true contrition.