Historical Context Versus Human Behavior in “The Scarlet Letter”

The blood-red earn was fall in Boston, Massachusetts in the middle 1600s and follows the backlash of the snake pitful act between Hester Prynne and Bostons suffer Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. In an ironic and masterfully executed red-herring causa twist, Dimmesdale himself publically calls for Hester to name her trespassner-in-crime in the beginning of the level, which she adamantly declines to do. The indorser, at this point, does non know that Dimmesdale is her adulterer, but knows that the game is afoot.Hester is given a scarlet A to wear upon her chest for her vice and bears the A with a sense of place and dignity, nonwithstanding up embroidering it with gold thread. Hester and her daughter of sin, off-white, end up living in a small cottage where Hester earns a living with her skillful needle operate. And, in an attempt to show her shame, yet revel in it, Hester just dresses drop cloth in scarlet dresses. Hesters long-lost and presumed dead husband, Roger Chill ingworth, returns to find Hester in prison house for her deed and informs her that she is to tell no one of his identity.Much later, once he establishes himself in corporation with a false identity as a physician, he is summoned to help the ailing Dimmesdale. Chillingworth begins to believe that Dimmesdale might be distress from a malady beyond the physical which brings him to discover that Dimmesdale is an adulterer and pearls father. Enraged and seeking revenge, Chillingworth plots to destroy Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale is so fraught with ill-doing at this point that he punishes himself physically, fasts, and staves off sleeping for a everlasting vigil.He feels a deep sorrow and horror for what he has do to Hesters husband and tells Hester, at which point she begins to see that Chillingworth moldiness be behind Dimmesdales quickly declining health. Hester and Dimmesdale shoot a moment in the woods where she confesses that Chillingworth is actually her husband. Dimmesdale is will ing to face the truth. They plan to set journey for the Old World immediately, and in an act of firedom, Hester removes her A and lets d avow her h place. off-white becomes so distraught that Hester has to once again don her shame, and this time it is with genuine sadness.They must wait until after Election Day to set traverse and Dimmesdale eagerly begins his final examination, enlightening, sermon. At the end, he brings Hester and Pearl up on distributor point and confesses e precisething to the townsfolk. This, of course, ruins Chillingworths plan to destroy Dimmesdale as he watches with fury while everything is revealed. As the degree ends, Dimmesdale dies on the public platform after his confession, Chillingworth dies a year later, and Pearl inherits his fortune. Years later, Hester is buried next to Dimmesdale in the town cemetery.In 1841, Hawthorne wrote a letter confessing that he was beginning to despise lifespan in Salem and requests, dost thou non think it re ally the closely hateful place in all the world? My mind becomes doughynothing makes me wonder more than that I found it possible to bring out all my tales in this same region of sleepy-head and stupidity (Moore, 2). He wrote this letter to Sophia, his wife, and it represents very all the way what he thought of his town of Salem and his twee upbringings. It is from this resentment that The reddened Letter was born.Going yet back in Hawthornes life, his father diedwhen he was four, an age at which, according to Freud, the virile child forms a crucial attachment to his bewilderconsequently, he was sufficient to supplant his father in his mothers affections. His attachment to his mother became an impediment to his psychological maturationespecially when she died (Kennedy-Andrews, 107-108). According to this information, The cerise Letter becomes an soft and remarkable parallel to Hawthornes own personal life.Hesters husband dies while at ocean, leaving her to believe him de ad and free to seek parvenue male companionship. A reader could parallel this to Hawthornes life in which his father died and his mother was left to seek new male companionship, albeit, with her own son. This parallel can be defined even further as finishedout the story Hawthorne continually defines Hester in name of motherhoodand in the very beginning of the narrative, Hawthorne establishes Hesters relation to the Oedipal underpinnings of the story (Kennedy-Andrews, 108).As the Oedipal interlacing goes, the son seeks to supplant his father for his mothers affections. In most cases, as Kennedy-Andrews remarks, the son is forced to contend with a very real father figure for these affections and becomes fearful and backs down (107). In Hawthornes case, without a father figure from such a new age, he became the man in his mothers life and the Oedipal complex became fulfilled. In circumstance, Hawthornes croak aims to produce an invisible change, an internal intensify like that wh ich transforms the letter even as its form remains selfsame(a) (Kennedy-Andrews, 81).Hesters attitude towards the A is to wear it, not with resignation, but pass judgment it as part of her life. Embroidering it with gold and crafting scarlet dresses for Pearl to wear symbolize this transformation externally. It is internally, in Hesters character, that the letter changes very oft more significantly. She wears it as part of her life, accepting what she did, but the shame she feels slowly transforms Hester into a muliebrity respected within the community. And the shame she once felt for Pearl is alter into pure, satisfying love for a creationdespite the fact that Pearl was consummated through sin.In the 1600s the act of sin and disruption from religion became the greatest crime and the basis for victorian beliefs. In this, and mayhap only this, Hawthorne follows history and makes a poignant mockery of the gentleman hold inmost precisely, the value stripped from women when t hey fall so far from knock down as to partake in military personnel desires. The fact that Hesters human desire happens to be a religious leader of the community only sues to highlight this point more.Hawthornes use of symbolism throughout further demonstrates how the mores and ideals of the Puritanical community practically destroyed the very reason that the Puritans came to the States in the first placefor freedom, as we be taught in history, without persecution or tyrannical leadership. Instead, the characters within The Scarlet Letter created their own sense of justice persecuting women who are not obedient and compliant, like Eve from Biblical comprehension (before she forces Adam to eat the cursed apple, of course).As a historical work, The Scarlet Letter cannot be trusted as to the accuracy of events or race involved. Hawthorne attempts to undermine the Puritan communitys judgment of Hester by employing a sentimental nineteenth-century narrator, uninformed about the spi ritual complexities of the story he tells (Thickstun, 133). This is where Hawthornes work loses all credence as a historical work of the 1600s. His narrator is fully nineteenth-century, exposing views that simply did not exist within society until Hawthornes own time. While his views make for a compelling and socialize story, they falter in historical truth.However, if this work is looked at closely, it becomes clear that Hawthornes life in the mid 1800s actually serves as a greater historical reference for the morals and attitudes presented in the story. Historically, it can be said that yes, there were inhabitants in Massachusetts during the 1600s, and they did profess Puritanical beliefs, much like the inhabitants of Boston where The Scarlet Letter takes place. However, the story within The Scarlet Letter is not that of history, it is that of human behavior and is better studied for a glimpse into humanity than for historical truths.In fact, The Scarlet Letter should not be read if the reader is hoping to find strong roots in historical context, but can be studied, to great reward, if a reader is in search of a tale inspired by unbowed human emotions brought on by the politics enforced by a strong Puritanical society. Hawthorne employ the politics and resulting changes in humanity from his own time period to form the characters and interactions in his work. In looking at the characters, Hawthorne penetrates their subconscious minds and grapples with the secrets and compulsions he finds there.He too, plays master to his fictionalized slaves. And in recognizing this, he too, sawing machine himself as a kind of spiritual villain, a marauder of the mind, and this prospect endows all of his work in both its technique and creation with an air of brooding and ineradicable guilt (Reynolds, 50). It cannot be said that he treat events from history or took a specific view on them save he created his own history with the lives of Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur D immesdale, their resulting daughter, Pearl, and the lives of those they touched.Historically, in an effort to countersink whether Hawthornes descriptions are accurate, one can look at the set of the Puritans as a basis for study. Beyond the social, cultural, and actions of the characters, however, The Scarlet Letter leaves much to be desired for historical accuracy. In truth, Hawthorne ground the story upon his own cultural times, placing his characters into a time period in which he knew prejudices against sin would make a marvelous tale.By his time, the Salem witch trials were come up know, and his background in Puritanical beliefs would film made inserting characters into that background an easy feat. Hawthorne, it can be decided, focuses on the story within the backdrophow the characters themselves class historyand seems unconcerned with literal historical events within his tale. As to my touch about historical events, no, Hawthorne did not change them. What he did was to make me see, very clearly, how easy it is for one person to become the focal point of sin within a community.To paraphrase Gary Scharnhorsts The Critical Response to Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter, the word adultery is never actually used within The Scarlet Letter, yet a reader understands very clearly by the attitudes of the characters that Hester has committed the worst of all sins and has to be physically, outwardly penalise for all time. The one thing that separates gentleman from the other animals of this world is the tycoon to choose between right and wrong. Animals are unable to make this rationalization.But, as Hawthorne has so adeptly shown, the choice is often a non-issue when swept away by the driving force of a larger crowd. On their own, humans can choose between right and wrong without consequence. In a group, a dissenter would be punished just as Hester was label publically for all to see. In this, Hawthorne is a master. The fact that he based his work i n a well-known time period serves no greater purpose than for dramatic effect. His story would be the same if set in any other time period, with any other sin. recall if Hawthorne had written about a young servant girl during the persist of King Henry VIII.She could have born his child or mouth out against Catholicism and been given the same fate. Her fate probably would have been death, and in his punishment, Hawthorne was delicateif anything he is historically inaccurate here. Witches and women of less than complete(a) repute were often put to death, not degraded by eating away a public symbol. In this he was kind, but from the outcome of the story we know why. He wanted Pearl to grow up through the castigation of her mother and still prosper in the end. The object of sin became the reason for Hesters being, and a powerful symbol of a distinguishable kind of justice.A pearl, after all, within a dark sea that appears to be full of tragedy and strife, can still become a most be autiful jewel. Truly, The Scarlet Letter is a work of fiction. The characters are not real and their lives did not play out in known history however, what Hawthorne presents, and which I feel is more important, is what could have happened. The moral of his work is not to retell an unfortunate act, but to show the nature of human character and how there is a moment where a choice must be made between good and evil. The fact that Hawthorne was raised with Puritanical beliefs only seems to lend more weight to this theme.And this is what I enjoyed about The Scarlet Letter. Hawthornes life fills the pages of his work with a profound message for humanity. The scenes could have played out in any society, based upon any sin. Hawthorne even leaves a bit for the reader to infer about humanity with the final line of the book, on a field, sable, the letter A, gules or, is stained red (Hawthorne, 201). From this, we can ask does the scarlet letter stand for sin or for cleansing? Is the epitaph a word of despair or hope? In what direction did Hawthorne remember to lead our thoughts?If asked, he would have said, read out of your own midsection (Scharnhorst, 131). And this, I think, is what readers should remember when studying his work. Being human means do choices based not only on who we are, but who others around us are and how they choose. Following the crowd, while most do so without thinking, is not always the best choice and does not, as in the case of Hester, serve the right kind of justice. In the end, once the truth is revealed, Hester finally finds peace, and the fact that her peace was granted, not by the town that punished her, but by her adulterer, is most striking of all.