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The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne is a prose writer, the descendant of the ancient Puritan family, played an appreciable role in the New England history. His historical interests were closely connected to his epoch. The writer felt dissatisfaction with the conditions in the society. Searching for the roots of the public evil he, as well as all romantic humanists of New England, addressed the personality, its spiritual world, "secrets of human heart ." Hawthorne picked up the popular idea about pernicious power of the past over the present, but in his works the concept of the past easily lost the features of historical concreteness, got legendary outlines, became ground for moral and philosophical generalizations. The writers historical material was limited. The past in his art system is a Puritan past of New England.
Hawthorne admired courage, resistance, spirit of independence and love of freedom which were peculiar to puritans, but fanaticism, cruelty, intolerance excited disgust inside of his soul. The writer was always absorbed by problems of goods, evil, conscience, moral perfection that is those questions which were the center of a spiritual world of puritans and were the subject of constant reflection and analysis though he considered them at the level of the American moral consciousness of XIX. Hawthorne wanted people to see that the fall was by human invention that "damnation is not inherited but chosen and is redeemable through human agency." He believed that men bear a fraternity of fault. "If guilt itself was escap able, brotherhood with the guilty was not." Hawthorne began to write novels rather late. He addressed the novelistic form for the greater space for the profound research of the social and moral problems exciting his contemporaries. The open space was necessary for detailed descriptions, reflections, comments, author's deviations, for slow conversation with the reader. But he has not simply joined the tradition of the romantic novel already existing in America that time.
Within the framework of this tradition he has created the new type of the novelistic narration which had no an equivalent in previous literary experience of America, and in the European prose of the first half of XIX. The Scarlet letter" (1851) is the first and most well-known novel of the writer. Hawthorne makes us look at the life by the eyes of inhabitants of New England in XVII century for which sorcery, signs, witches and devils were the same reality, as grass and trees, sky and stars. Action of the novel is developed in Boston, one of the main centers of the gloomy, severe Puritanism. On the city square justice over the woman, guilty in infidelity is dispensed. At a pillory there is a Hester Prynne, the main heroine holding in hands the illegitimate child; she refused to tell a name of the temper and is condemned for life punishment: to carry on her breast a brand of the shame, the embroidered on the clothes scarlet letter "A" (adulteress).
In crowd of games there were two, involved in tragedy: the young priest Dimmesdale, temper of Ester frightened to tell his name, and her husband, the gloomy old scientist possessed by jealousy and thirst of revenge. In this paper I would like to show the literary technique the author uses in this book in order to convey his idea of concealing a sin is far worse than the sin itself. The most important technique used by the author is symbolism that means a hidden meaning. The Scarlet Letter is the most symbolic novel in the American Literature. The peculiarity of Hawthorne's symbolism is that it is very difficult to be found in the text. I would like to begin with the most simple.
The prison is described by the author as "the black flower of civilized society." It delineates the sin and penalty presenting in the Puritan life. Hawthorne also confronts the prison with the gravestone saying that sin and penalty come about the termination of life. He also depicts too much weeds near the prison. The weeds are the symbols of the civilization putrefaction.
At the same time Hawthorne uses a good symbol: the bush of wild rose. It portrays the flowering of positive out of the bounds of all the dark life of the civilization. The letter A is the most symbolic. Initially it had to serve as a punishment and a lesson: "Thus the young and the pure would be taught to look at her, with the letter flaming on her chest", also "as the figure, the body andthe reality of sin" (Hawthorne 73). However, time flied and the letter got some other meanings different from the initial.
Hester was so good and helpful to the people in the town that Puritans interpreted her letter as Able rather than Adulteress; "so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength."Such helpfulness was found in her, -so much... that many people refused to interpret the scarlet "A" by its original signification" (Hawthorne 186). "A" was also interpreted as Angel. "A great red letter in the sky, the letter A... " showed up at Governor Winthrop's death in the sky" (Hawthorne 182). "For, as our good Governor Winthrop was made an angel this past night... " (Hawthorne 182). For each hero of the novel the letter had special meaning. The Puritans considered it to be the penalty.
Hester treated the letter A as a symbol of unfair disgrace. Dimmesdale looked at it as at the reminder of his fault. Chilling worth considered the A as a key to find the tempter. Pearl found the letter very interesting; it was a mystery for the child.
Hawthorne uses symbolism in the novel to show the meaning of the scarlet letter more exactly. The next important technique to show concealing a sin is imagery. Dimmesdale is the clear representation of the Puritan Society. Hawthorne draws a parallel between the dissimulations of Dimmesdale to the hypocrisy of Puritan society.
Hawthorne portrays Dimmesdale as, "a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners, " notwithstanding that Dimmesdale seems to be the most sacred person in the Puritan society. Puritan community was considered to be a utopian community and live in accordance with their English traditions. Just as Dimmesdale was considered to be sacred, both he and the Puritan society were treacherous. Secondly, Dimmesdale personifies the Puritan community by not only standing on the scaffold, "Ye have both been here before, but I was not with you and we will stand all three together. " Dimmesdale concealed his fault, so did the Puritans when they settled America. The Puritans sins were not so evident but tome flies and they also stood on the scaffold like Dimmesdale. Hawthorne tells about one of Dimmesdale's speeches that was, "addressed to the multitude a discourse on sin, in all its branches. " In Dimmesdale's speeches, he was talking about the horror of the sin while at the same time he was a real sinner, like the Puritans who sinned.
Dimmesdale is an embodiment of the Puritan community in the way they considered religion. The Puritans went away from England to avoid religious bigotry, but having come to the colonies, they showed no religious indulgence for people with other religions. Dimmesdale condemns adultery but commits it; the Puritans look for religious condemns but dont show it in relation to others. By means of tone, allusions and diction that is applied to show how the town treated scaffold scenes the author conveys his reprehension of these steadfast moralists' life.
Hawthorne's tone showed his feelings concerning the Puritans. He describes Puritans as "being of the most intolerant brood" (Hawthorne 86) revealing the lack of humaneness they had. Having got to know about Hester's sin and Pearls birth people "scorned them in their hearts, and... reviled them with their tongues" (Hawthorne 86) expressing their attitude to those who deviated from their rules.
The tone that is deduced from the rude words let us see the real attitude that the author had to Protestants. The letter "A" also meant alienation and isolation for Hester. The first reason Hester was estranged was her denial to identify her lover. Loving his tempter, Hester preferred to stay in the city and wear the letter "A" instead of incriminating him. She wanted to defend her beloved and stay close to him.
Hester's "impulsive and passionate nature" (Hawthorne 54) had to go through humiliation alone, while her partner remained unpunished. It appeared that she was answering not only for her own sin, but also of her tempters. She became 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" (Hawthorne 73). Notwithstanding that Hester managed to gain peoples confidence, she never felt herself fully accepted by the society: "Every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those whom she came in contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished" (Hawthorne 78). After her sin became known to all, Hester's style changed. From young and beautiful lady she turned into very plain woman.
Hester wanted to be as unnoticeable as it was possible. The "ornament, - -the scarlet letter, -- which was her doom to wear" (Hawthorne 79) made her sin evident. The effect of the punishment was strong. "From first to last, in short, Hester Prynne had always this dreadful agony in feeling a human eye upon the token; the spot never grew callus; it seemed, on the contrary, to grow more sensitive with daily torture" (Hawthorne 79). Hester and Pearl lived far from other houses in the distant cottage. Little children had a great desire to look at the scarlet letter. But when they saw it they "scamper off with contagious fear" (75).
Hester could sew and that saved her and her child from starvation because she hadn't "a friend on earth who dared to show himself" (Hawthorne 75). And notwithstanding that she was considered to be the best needlewoman in Boston she could not make wedding dress for any bride. The white dress means chastity and the hands of Hester were not clean enough. Hester was living in the specific isolation, created by Puritans for people, who did not live in correspondence with their own believes.
The effect of Puritan religion, background and instructions played an important role in Nathaniel Hawthorne's works. The author also wrote much about his native town Salem, Massachusetts. Hawthorne himself could not avoid the effect of Puritan society, not only because of living in his father's religious Puritan family but also because of learning of his own family history. The first of his forefathers, William Hawthorne, is portrayed in Hawthorne's "The Custom House" as coming with the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 "with his Bible and his sword." John Hawthorne was the writers most puritanical ancestor, who embodied the level of ardor in Puritanism with his working as pursuer in the Salem Witch Trials. The deep study of his own family traditions from the organization of the Bay Colony to the Second Great Awakening found the reflection in his "Young Goodman Brown. " Studying the history his own town and particularly Puritan society Hawthorne could evaluate the value and cost of such ardor, particularly the ardor of the Half-Way Covenant of 1662, John Cottons Puritan Catechism, and the reflection of The Salem Witch trials. Symbolism shows the greatness of an author's ability to supply meaning to his work.
It also shows the pride an author takes in his work. Nathaniel Hawthorne's use of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter shows his greatness to produce a novel of the highest possible caliber. These are the reasons why Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is American Literature's most famous symbolic novel ever to be written. All Hawthorne's creation has rare solidity in a history of the literature, a fidelity to a theme and the chosen position. Spiritual life of America, its customs and dominant moral principles were considered by him as a projection of that internal reality which we call personal consciousness. In full conformity with ideas of romantic humanism Hawthorne saw in individual consciousness a source of public evil and simultaneously the tool of his overcoming.
The human soul was represented by him as a deep twisting cave filled alternately with malicious and kind thoughts, and only in its depth it is possible to find out runaways of pure good - true nature of the person which seldom manages to leave on a surface. Transformation of the validity should, on ideas of the writer begin with cleaning of hearts ." Hawthorne's position was rather close to transcendental to ideas of "revolution" of the individual consciousness. However in a number of the essential moments Hawthorne's views were not stacked in transcendental frameworks. He refused to accept the thesis about divinity of human consciousness and rejected idea of a full autonomy of the person.
Hawthorne did not have illusions concerning moral human nature. For him the mankind was a great brotherhood in a sin. He hoped for the future that brothers in sin " will help each other, but had no confidence. In his woks always there was a motive of fatality of human destiny, and in the implication the idea of the presence of a certain supreme force which the person is not imperious of. The central contradiction of Hawthorne's creation consist in that understanding social conditionality of human life, he offered to solve public problems in the non-social way.
Hawthorne's Philosophical and art views were developed rather early and had rare stability. The surprising integrity of his creativity is connected with it, but the source of the tragic element which marked the last stage of his work also consisted in it. Time changed, he remained former. The history put before America the new tasks demanded new ideas, sights, art principles. He was unable to get over himself though, probably, felt necessity for it. It does not surprise that he could not finish any of his last undertakings, understanding the creative powerlessness before the requirements of time.
Puritan dogma taught that all the people are completely nefarious and need stable introspection to see that they are reprobates, sinners and do not deserve God's Grace. As men had violated the agreement when Adam had eaten an apple from the Tree of Knowledge, God proposed a new agreement to Abraham's people in that the opportunity to appear in Heavens again must be deserved. Adherents of the Puritan religion obediently realized the negative moments of their existence rather than the positive. In our modern highly developed society, where there are so less prejudices left, one can also see many struggles and it is nice, because only through the struggle people come to changes for better. Bibliography 1. Hawthorne, Nathaniel.
The Scarlet Letter. Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. New York, 1987 2. Fogle, Richard Harter.
Hawthorne's Fiction: The Light and The Dark. Non: U of Oklahoma P, 1970
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