The
Scarlet Letter: The Range Of Three Major Problems
By
Markandeswar
Dani
The Scarlet Letter presents before a reader three major problems. The
first is Hawthorne’s view of sin. The reader is not certain whether Hawthorne
supports the Puritanic view of sin. In this paper I have made an attempt to
find out whether the author justifies Hester’s stand point of her being a
sinner in the eyes of the Puritans.it may be that Hawthorne attempts
Psychological analysis of the conflict in the minds of the characters who
believe themselves to be sinners. The problem of sin provokes n endless debate,
but remains unsolved. Secondly, Hawthorne’s attitude towards Puritanism poses a
question for the reader of The Scarlet
Letter: he does not know exactly how Hawthorne opposes the quintessence of
the Puritan way of life. As he goes through the novel he is puzzled by
Hawthorne’s attachment to it. Hwthorne seems to be product of Puritanism and
lso reaction against it. Thirdly, the reader wonders whether Hawthorne is an
allegorist or a symbolist. Hawthorne was fascinated by allegories and his
symbolic imagination was obvious to all. Here is an attempt to find some of the
emblems Hawthorne makes use of here and there in the novel, and to suggest
whether he was also an ‘emblematist’ in the old sense of the term.
While
wandering without any clue in the subtleties of the novel, what puzzles the
reader most is the problem of the sin. What is sin after all? Is it the act of
adultery committed by Hester and Arthur, or the violation of what Hawthorne
calls “the sanctity of a human heart?” Hawthorne does not seem explicit at all.
He is more concerned with the consequences of sin rather than with the nature
of sin. He seems to explore, explain, and assuage the lifelong torment of a
mind in conflict.
A
reader of The Scarlet Letter, who is
reminded of Hawthorne’s “home feeling” and belief that his family ws ccursed,
may feel that Hwthorne is trying to dismiss the problem of sin in The Scarlet Letter. He may find that the
sins of Author, Hester and Roger are “assumptions merely” and is appalled to
watch “the slow, relentless fires of subsequent remorse and revenge sear them
all.” We are, however, not certain if the sins of Author, Hester and Roger are
assumptions.
A
reader, who believes in the orthodox Puritan concept of sin and Predestination,
feels that the motive of sin is central to The
Scarlet Letter. He perceives that sin corrupts not only the body and the
mind but also the soul. He emphasizes the inherent sinfulness of human nature
and believes that only with the example of Arthur Dimmesdle who falls victim to
the sin of passion, leads his entire life through intolerable self –torture, and
finally seems to be relived when he confesses his sin while dying on the
scaffold.
For
another reader who believes that suffering is also a part of human education,
the problem of sin is not so puzzling. He views sin as the source of all
knowledge, wisdom, power, and spiritual happiness. For “Hester and Dimmesdle
not only expiate their sins but through them achieve wisdom, self knowledge,
spiritual power in short, greatness which repay their suffering.” Sin led to
suffering and isolation through which the characters gain knowledge, Hester
commits adultery, suffers for it and finally reaches the pedestal of a saint to
assure the wretched and wronged women that at some brighter period, when the
world should have grown ripe for it, in Heaven’s own time, a new truth would be
revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on
surer ground of mutual happiness.
A
romantic reader of the Scarlet Letter
receives the impression that no absolute sin is committed by Hester or Arthur. It
is the Puritan society which is guilty of imposing, what O.P. Grewl says, the
“red hot brand of Puritan punishment” upon them. And “the tension,” says
Randall Stewert,” is tautly drawn between the Puritan (or Christian) respect
for law and conscience and the ‘Romantic insistence’ but Hester never feels any
sense of guilt. Hawthorne does not seem to condemn Hester or author, their love
“had a consecration of its own” and it had never caused them to suffer. He
seems to allow the romantic position its full weight and the romantic reader
feels that sin is but the outcome of society’s imposition of a guilt
consciousness upon the minds of the individuals.
A
reader who thinks from a psychological point of view believes with Professor
David Levin that “Hawthorne, like his ancestors, was pre-occupied with the
normal life, with questions of responsibility and motivation, and with the
moral and psychological effects of sin or misfortune.” He believes sin as
something which disturbs the balance of the mind. He feels the conflict in
Arthur’s mind between his terrible urge to confess his sin and his inability to
do so. A mind perturbed by such a conflict gives way to endless self torture
physical and psychological.
A
reader who does not believe in the Puritan, the Romantic or the Psychological
reading of The Scarlet Letter may
feel that “sin in The Scarlet Letter is a violation of only
that which the sinner thinks he violates. To one character, adultery is
transgression against God’s law, to another no more than a violation of the
natural order of things. According to him sin means essentially something
different to each character. Hester feels to her own nature.” Arthur feels his
sin in his lack of confession. Roger never feels that he sins. Hwthorne views
his sin in the deliberate surrender of his intellect to the spirit of his
revenge.
It
seems that “there is almost always in Hawthorne a radical difference between
the sin actually committed and the sin that the characters believe they have
committed.” For instance, it is Arthur Dimmesdle and not Hawthorne for whom the
sin of adultery is the most important fact of The Scarlet Letter. Mark Van Doren observes: “sin for him, for
Haster, and for the people who punish her is equally a solemn fact, a problem
for which there is no solution in life.” The problems of sin provide wide scope
for endless debater. But, does The Scarlet
Letterprovide a solution to this problem?