Nathaniel Hawthorne was writing this book long before Freud or before anyone started to think about the psychological factors that rule our lives. Yet he managed to create characters so deep and moving, and so motivated by powerful psychological factors, he was way ahead of his time. I've only read the first four chapters and already there are two parts that really stuck out to me. I want to share them with you, but first I'll give you a brief summary of the three main characters:
Hester Prynne: She is a young and beautiful woman living in this Puritan town. She was once married to a much older man, a man she openly did not love. Her husband sent her from England on ahead of him to the Puritan colony, and she has lived there for over two years without hearing from him. Everyone assumes that he has died at sea. Hester has just given birth to a baby girl, named Pearl, but refuses to tell the townspeople the name of the father. Her punishment is that she will be forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" on her "bosom" till the end of her life. "A" presumably stands for "Adultress."
The Reverend Dimmesdale: A young and very well respected English clergymen, and the reverend of the local church. He is also the secret father of Pearl and lover of Hester. He is tortured in his soul far more than Hester by being forced to remain silent while she endures the scorn and distain of the townspeople.
Roger Chillingworth: Hester's long lost husband who turns up on the day of her humiliation. He makes Hester swear that she will not reveal to anyone that he is her husband and swears that he will find the identity of Pearl's father if it takes the rest of his life.
So let me share with you my two favorite parts from the first 4 chapters. The first is just one line. As Hester emerges from the jail for the first time wearing her Scarlet letter she has bravely embroidered it with beautiful gold thread and spent much time making the embroidery complicated and beautiful. The women of the town are horrified and begin commenting on how she has made a mockery of the punishment, but one woman speaks up in her defense and it breaks my heart what she says,
"'Oh, peace, neighbors, peace!' whispered their youngest companion; 'do not let her hear you! Not a stitch in that embroidered letter, but she has felt it in her heart.'"
My second favorite part is the scene where the whole town is assembled to witness Hester's shame. A famous Reverend from a nearby town has dragged the unwilling Reverend Dimmesdale with him and has charged him in front of the whole assembly to force Hester to reveal the name of her secret lover. He has no choice but to speak to her in front of everyone. I imagine them looking into each other's eyes from whatever distance, their eyes speaking volumes. He tortured as much as she. What he says is so incredible!
"The Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale bent his head, in silent prayer, as it seemed, and then he came forward. 'Hester Prynne,' said he, leaning over the balcony and looking steadfastly into her eyes, 'thou hearest what this good man says, and seest the accountability under which I labor. If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will therby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hipocracy to sin? Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph over the evil within thee, and the sorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him--who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself--the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips!'"
Isn't that incredible?!
17 comments:
oh no! I don't want to read this post-- I want to read the book first!
Haha! That's why I only wrote my blog about the first 4 chapters.
And it begins...Lindsey's online book club. :)
Ok Lindsey, you found the 1st book for book club. I am going to the library now. I read the Scarlet Letter in 8th grade english. It has been many moons.......
Hi Lindsey! I don't know if you remember me from PUC or not (there's lots of people I don't remember, so I'm never offended if people don't remember me), but I found your blog via Harmony's, and I've enjoyed your writing. Also... I saw the picture on facebook of the sweater you knitted Ellenor and I am COMPLETELY in awe of your mad knitting skills. Maybe you could post a tutorial of sorts? I've never attempted much more than a scarf.
I find it interesting how hawthorne opens the book with historical perspective to set the scene, then in chapter 2 focuses on women and the stock they are made of and the contrast of what we have become in comparison. Then you feel like you are trapped in the group of gossipers and wanting to be the one young woman that tries to make excuses for Hester's great crime. It amazes me how nosey people are that they show up to see someone's demise and shame. I know that it was encouraged for example to deter others from commiting such crimes, but wow.
I noticed the same thing Elizabeth. And it makes me swing too far the other way in my thinking. I have to be careful. I want the community to absolve Hester of her sin and embrace her as a child of God, and Arthur Dimmesdale too. And I want the community to encourage them to get married and forget the sin. I have to remember that a sin is still a sin. Many people in our parent’s generation left the church because of harsh rule following and legalism. But just because we don’t believe in legalism doesn’t mean that we can’t recognize the sin and treat it as such. It is important to love the sinner, but equally important to recognize the sin for the ugliness that it is. In the face of such harsh punishment it seems easy to swing the other way and embrace everyone without regard for their sin, and without their repentance.
that is the truth. people see christians as hipicrits because of the way people were so into pointing fingers without looking at the plank in their own eye. I can feel her tremble as she sees the man with "one shoulder lower than the other" out in the crowd. Poor rev Dimmsdale as he is called to appeal to Hester to give up the name of the man who is her partner in shame. It gets me when after Hester refuses to name the "man" and Dimmsdale says "wonderous strength and generosity of a woman's heart! she will not speak!" can you imagine his heart ache through this whole ordeal? his love for her is evident, yet he cannot come forward because of what it would do to him as a man of God.
In reading further into ch 5 the skill that Hester presented almost arrogantly or defiantly when first seen with her letter then becomes her sole means for livelihood. She could have made such a great reputation for herself if she had not sinned and become the shameful example to all.
It thrills me to read how Pearl becomes this source of joy for Hester and how motherhood softens Hester's heart. It is so sad that society looks at Pearl as the same sin and is outcast as well as her mother. Hawthorne uses interesting words describing how she responds to the scorn of other children and makes Hester wonder how she seems witch like in some of her interactions.
Yes Pearl is a mystery to me too. I have to remember that when this book was written no one would have thought about how the deprivation of Pearl's childhood would affect her as an adult... people just didn't think about that kind of stuff. But Hawthorne does touch on it. Pearl is a scary child and I wonder why Hawthorne made her so odd. She seems to be both loving and cruel to her mother, and take pleasure in both the love and the cruelty. She is frighteningly intuitive and yet wholly innocent. She knows that somehow her mother and the reverend are connected and that Chillingworth is evil. She knows that her mother's scarlet "A" is a source of shame to her, but Pearl seems to love it and refuses to accept her mother without it.
I also noted that Hester could have used her sewing skills to make a name for herself if she hadn't been society's outcast. But the book also notes how Hester is able to do things and go places she would otherwise not be able to because of her scarlet letter. And it talks in the book, especially in the end, about how people trusted her and confided in her because of her letter. Hester, through her goodness and her spirit of grief and selflessness was able to turn something awful into something good and useful. Isn't that amazing?
okay. I'm not reading any of these comments. I didn't know we were supposed to be reading this book! =)
hi i'm typing this comment so I can check that follow-up box.
I am at the chapter where Chillingsworth and Dimsdale are living together because of Dimsdale's "illness." He seems to have some good intention toward healing him, but do you think on some level that he knows that Dimsdale's problem is a matter of the heart as in emotional rather than a physical heart malady?
sorry it is taking me so long to read the book. I think I have time to read then John asks me to go to visit with him and poof goes my reading time. I will try to read much more tonight.
poor mr. Dimsdale. How he tortures himself physically and emotionally in pennitance. It is so painful to read. I know that as a minister he has a lot to loose if he were to publicly confess. Possibly even that his congregation would loose sight of God. It seems better however that he should have come forward and live a life shamed by others than to have this burning and effecting his health. The scene where he goes out at night and stands where Hester had stood as public example seven years prior, is so sad.
It is beautiful how Hester becomes so sympathetic of others and she is seen differently then by people because of that. "The letter was the symbol of her calling...many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength." She becomes an example in the opposite than which was originally intended. There still were some that chose to continually persecute her.
she became however an "outline" of who she once was. It is so sad how we are. we need to pray to be like Jesus and not agree with the sin, but then say"go and sin no more" and love people back to "health"
"If she be all tenderness, she will die. If she survive, the tenderness will either be crushed out of her or -and the outward semblance is the same- crushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself more." " her life had turned from passion and feeling to thought."
Elizabeth I love reading your thoughts on this. You have said it all... I have nothing more to add! Do you have a suggestion for our next book?
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