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Scarlet letter as the story of sin, crime, and punishment

Name:- Nirali dungrani

Roll no: - 24

Enrolment no:- 2069108420180012

Paper: -10 American literature

Topic: - Scarlet letter as the story of sin, crime, and punishment

Submitted to: - Department of English MKB uni.

Introduction

About author

Nathaniel Hawthorne, (born July 4, 1804, Salem, Mass., U.S.—died May 19, 1864, Plymouth, N.H.), American novelist and short-story writer who was a master of the allegorical and symbolic tale. One of the greatest fiction writers in American literature, he is best known for The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables.

About novel

The Scarlet Letter Introduction The Scarlet Letter is a classic tale of sin, punishment, and revenge. It was written in 1850 by the famous American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. It documents the lives of three tragic characters, each of whom suffer greatly because of his or her sins.

The novel is set in a 17th-century village in Puritan New England. The main character is Hester Prynne, a young woman who has borne a child out of wedlock. Hester believes herself a widow, but her husband, Roger Chilling worth, returns to New England very much alive and conceals his identity. He finds his wife forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her dress as punishment for her adultery. Chilling worth becomes obsessed with finding the identity of his wife’s former lover. When he learns that the father of Hester’s child is Arthur Dimmesdale, a saintly young minister who is the leader of those exhorting her to name the child’s father, Chilling worth proceeds to torment the guilt-stricken young man.

In the end Chillingworth is morally degraded by his monomaniacal pursuit of revenge; Dimmesdale is broken by his own sense of guilt, and he publicly confesses his adultery before dying in Hester’s arms. Only Hester can face the future bravely as she prepares to begin a new life with her daughter, Pearl, in Europe.

The Scarlet Letter as a Story of Crime and Punishment

The Scarlet Letter is essentially a story of crime, sin and punishment. It tells of the ignominy or humiliation of a woman who has broken scriptural and statutory law in a community dedicated to the maintenance of the authority of the law. The magistrates and ministers named are historical figures and the narrator acts the part of a historian, setting the account of her punishment in the context of the history of New England.

Richard Bellingham, for example, is an important figure in this story of Puritan justice, for he is said to be the chief magistrate when Hester Prynne is sentenced to wear her badge of shame.

In wearing the letter, Hester Prynne loses her individuality and becomes “the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman’s frailty and sinful passion”. Hester is the “text of the discourse” whenever there is a minister present to read the letter. It is, however, later that “many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength. The people who refuse to read the letter as the judges intended to do so because they respond to Hester as a woman rather than as  a type, as a sign, or as a text. In thus misreading the letter they are subverting the system of law based on the belief that the authority of the lawmaker is “of God”. The people of Boston do so spontaneously and unselfconsciously, for they act as the narrator tells us, from the heart. So, too does Arthur Dimmesdale when he allows the suppressed wildness in his nature to speak out and calls Hester his “better angel.”

But the strategy of subversion is employed by Hawthorne after Hester had been branded as a sinner according to the judgments of the Puritan patriarchies. To their mind, her guilt is total and unquestionable and that their morality is the absolute morality. Her sin is unredeemable according to the Puritan ethic. Hester has sinned against the seventh Commandment of God “Neither shall thou commit adultery” – and lost His favour for ever. She can be made to do penance by making her wear of her guilt. Hester’s punishment is double. Not only does she have to wear the embroidered letter on her bosom but Pearl’s presence also keeps reminding her of her sin. The Puritan society asserts its authority over the individual by forcing Hester to accept her punishment. She can, of course, avoid to escaping from the settlement. But, deep down a Puritan herself, Hester chooses to stay back. She however, tries to justify her stance by telling Dimmesdale in the forest, what we did had a consecration of its own. We felt it so: we said so to each other.

Hester is a social outcast in the community. Children follow her and shout at her. Strangers gaze at the scarlet letter on her bosom and make no secret of their contempt for her. Her numerous acts of charity as a Sister for Mercy do not secure her the society’s pardon. But Hester is not embittered by the experience.

The reverse is the case with Arthur Dimmesdale. He is Hester’s partner-in-sin and his punishment comes purely from within. He is all the time haunted by his sense of guilt. The fact of concealment serves only to intensify his misery. He undergoes various kind of penance, including vigils, fasts and self-flagellation. As he tells Hester in the forest, it is all penance and no penitence. He even mounts the scaffolds on the dark night of the vigil as an act of expiation. He ultimately manages to carry out the resolve after his  Election Day sermon and unburdens his heart to the crowd. Therein lies his deliverance.

But no such deliverance awaits Hester. She leaves the settlement with Pearl after the deaths of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, but returns to her solitary cottage on the outskirts of the settlement after a few year of continue serving the people. She has, in fact, triumphed over the punishment meted out to her through her vocation (needle work) and her service to the people and also through her implicit acceptance of the punishment. Yet a space is kept between her grave and that of Dimmesdale after her death, signifying that society might have forgiven them, but their ultimate redemption lies in the hands of God. The Puritan ethic is perfectly carried out in The Scarlet Letter even though the narrative is marked by ambiguity at several points.

Dimmesdale is a greater sinner than Hester. First he goes against the purity of his profession; secondly he tries to conceal his crime from the public. He adds hypocrisy to his sin. His conscience allows him no rest; he gets constant trouble from his soul. As for him, the burden of his sin gives 

 Chillingworth is also the greatest sinner. He is made to represent Hawthorne’s ideas of the unpardonable sinner. Arthur Dimmesdale tells Hester about Chillingworth in the forest, 

            “May God forgive us both ! we are not, Hester the worst sinner in the world. There is one worse than ever the polluted priest ! that old man’s revenge has been blacken than my sin. He has been violeted in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester never did so !"

CONCLUSION:-

                                Thus, from the deeds of all the characters in ‘The Scarlet Letter’, the novel can be seen as Crime committed by them, and the situations they are facing that is like their punishment. The Scarlet Letter is an exemplification of the theme of Crime and Punishment  It is mainly the story of Crime, say sexual crime , and the consequences arising therefrom. The act of adultery is certainly a crime against the individual, be that individual, the wronged wife or a husband  Similarly it is also a crime against society, for it involves that violation of a moral code formulated and honored by that society. Adultery has been branded as immoral in all civilized communities of the world. So we can say that the life Hester lived, Dimmesdale also face inner guilt all these shows it as the novel of Sin Crime and Punishment.

The Scarlet Letter is a tragic story of sin, crime and Punishment which can be learnt by the deeds of all the characters, the crime they committed and the situations they face. The act of adultery is certain a crime against the individual. Same way, it is also a crime against society as it involves the violation of the moral code formulated and honoured by the society. Hawthorne has given the concept of sin and evil which is a puritan heritage. Sin and crime was the constant theme in this novel and the consequences of guilt as primarily psychological in nature. Hester's loveliness is shown by a sense of guilt. The story shows the concept of sin, crime and Punishment through Hester's life and Dimmesdale's inner guilt.

(The Scarlet Letter Essay) (McDonald) (Dave) (The Scarlet Letter as a Story of Crime and Punishment) (avni)

Works Cited

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The Scarlet Letter Essay. <https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-Scarlet-Letter-P3CLE6EYVJ>.