The works of Nathaniel Hawthorne seem rather dated when one first reads him, but if one can forget about the rather heavy-handed, old-fashioned style then there still are gems to be found in some of his novels, especially “The Scarlet Letter”. His other large novel, “House of Seven Gables” (1851), I deem obsolete except to his most avid fans. It is about severe ancestral guilt, just as “The Scarlet Letter” is about sexual and nuptial guilt.
Suffering seems to have been the main thread in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s life as well as his works. He was born in Salem of a distinguished Puritan family. When his father died of yellow fever his mother secluded herself totally in her home and even took her meals in total solitude. The young Nathaniel fell sick with a mysterious leg injury which may also have had a psychological outspring as he was cured when he left his mother’s demure house for a three-year stay in the woods. However, he too succumbed to the hermit-like life his mother led and he lived with her for 12 years until he married Sophia Peabody who was the one who helped him to leave the family house.
As to “The Scarlet Letter” then it is about the young woman, Hester Prynne, who is married to an elderly man who starts to call himself Roger Chillingworth when he sets out to revenge himseld. She is a pretty woman who attracts the attention of the young minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. When she gets pregnant she is hit by the law so to speak. She goes to prison where she gives birth to a beautiful and gifted daughter, Pearl, whom is seen as the token of sin by the community. Hester accepts her position as a sinful woman who has been left by her enraged husband, punished by the people of the town and now has to fend for her livelihood as a seamstress. Once she embroidered a big, scarlet “A” which is part of her punishment as she has to carry it on her bosom to indicate that she is an “Adulteress”. First time she wore it was at the scaffold on which she was to stand for not being willing to disclose the name of her child’s father.
So the name of her lover has not been revealed, but it is noticable that Arthur Dimmesdale seems consumed with guilt as his health is deteriorating at a speed. The stranger, i.e. Roger Chillingworth, who is in fact Hester’s evil-minded and now disguised husband strikes up a friendship with him and also treats him medically. This he does to spy on him and simply to torture him as best he can.
Hester approaches her former lover when she learns how ill he has grown. He is consumed with guilt over their affair, but she tries to convince him that their love had a special consecration of its own. This statement does not alleviate his feeling of guilt and shortly after he dies. However, right before that happens he expounds upon his sin in the church and he accepts Hester and Pearl while denouncing himself for having been such a coward and hypocrite not to have told about his share in their lives. Then he bares his chest and some witnesses from the congregation bear witness that an “A” was embedded in his flesh whereas others said there had been nothing at all.
Roger Chillingworth screams out his hatred at the dying man as he feels that he has escaped him. As to Hester then she eventually gets a good life in Boston while her daughter, Pearl, grows up and becomes a beautiful, young woman who even marries well and has a happy life.
What is so special about this novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne is both the subject, but also the extreme passion and intense style one finds in it. A character like e.g. the evil Roger Chillingworth might easily come on too strong to be acceptable as a living and breathing man, but even he keeps his balance. As to the moral of the story it is difficult to accept all this suffering, but it is very important to one’s grasp of the wholeness to understand why it is necessary in the book: Genuine regret and penance leads to surplus spirituality like in Hester whereas cowardice and selfishness like in Arthur Dimmesdale before his break-through to genuine feelings only brings sufferings.
