"Depravity Dressed up in a Fascinating Garb": Sentimental Motifs and the Seduced Hero(ine) in
The Scarlet Letter
Author(s): Erika M. Kreger
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Dec., 1999), pp. 308-335
Published by: University of California Press
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"Depravity
Dressed Up
in a FascinatingGarb":
SentimentalMotifsand
the Seduced Hero (ine)
in TheScarletLetter
ERIKA
M. KREGER
J HE mostmoralbook oftheage," Graham's
Magazine dubbed The ScarletLetter
(1 850) in a September 185!2reviewof TheBlithedale
Romance.
The reviewerwenton to assertthatthe earliernovelwas "especiallyvaluable as demonstrating
thesuperficiality
ofthatcode of
ethics .
.
. which teaches obedience to individual instinct and
impulse,regardlessofall moraltruthswhichcontainthegeneralized experience of the race."' In TheScarletLetterNathaniel
Hawthornehad givenreviewerswhattheywanted:a book that
and adherence to conventionalcomencouraged self-restraint
munityvalues and yetdid not directlyaddressreaderswithintrusive,didactic remarks.His ambiguouslynarratedromance
struckthe difficult
balance needed to please mid-nineteenthcenturycommentators
who,thoughtheyjudgeda novel'sworth
by itsmoral code, increasinglycondemned authorswho made
thatmoralexplicit.
of California
(C 1999 byThe Regentsof the University
I Rev. of TheBlithedale
Romance,by Nathaniel Hawthorne,Graham
' Magazine,41
(1852), 333-34. This review,along withmanyotherscited in thisessay,is quoted in
Nina Baym,Novels,Readers,and Reviewers:
Responsesto Fictionin Antebellum
America
(Ithaca: Cornell Univ.Press,1984).
308
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
309
When we place TheScarletLetter
in the contextof the literarydebates of the 1840s and 1850s, it becomes apparent that
Hawthorne'snovel inhabitsa conventionalmoralpositionthat
affiliatesit with,ratherthan distinguishesit from,the bestsellingdomesticnovels of the era. Such a reading-although
it clearlybreakswiththe long criticaltraditionof lauding the
"radical" characterizationof Hester Prynneand placing The
Scarlet
Letter
on a canonicalpedestalabove otherearly-American
works-builds upon recentcriticaldiscussionsthathave made
a convincingcase for the novel's conservativerelationshipto
nineteenth-century
social politics,and have demonstratedthe
value of positioningHawthorne'sworkalongside "popular"antebellumwriting.2
In The ScarletLetterHawthornecarefullyguides his audience to the "right"ethicalconclusion throughhis depictionboth physicaland emotional- of his centralcharacters.All of
these characterizations
underscorethe narrative'sconservative
lesson about the need forself-denialand social responsibility;
the portrayalof ReverendDimmesdale, however,would have
had particularforceas a cautionarytale forHawthorne'sconin relationto
temporaries.When we consider TheScarletLetter
antebellumdiscussionsof fictionthatcontrastedoutdated seduction storieswithworthy"new"novels,it becomes clear that
2 For an extensivebibliographyof feminist
work on The ScarletLetter,see Jamie
Barlowe,"RereadingWomen: Hester Prynne-ismand the ScarletMob of Scribblers,"
American
Literary
History,
9 (1997), 197-225. Barlowe notes thatmanyfemale critics
have argued for "Hawthorne'snonradical relationshipto [Hester Prynne]and to the
feministissuesof the time" (p. 21 1). I would add thatsome male criticshave offered
of "TheScarletLetter"
similarreadings,most notablySacvan Bercovitch(see The Office
to women
[Baltimore:JohnsHopkins Univ. Press, 1991]). On Hawthorne'ssimilarity
the ScribblingWomen,"Legacy,2 (1985), 11;
writersof his era, see Baym,"Rewriting
oftheWord
Modernism:
WomenWriters
and theRevolution
and Suzanne Clark,Sentimental
(Bloomingtonand Indianapolis:Indiana Univ.Press,1991), p. 26. For broaderdiscussions of Hawthorne'sconnections to popular literature,see Richard H. Brodhead,
America(Chicago:
in NineteenthCultures
ScenesofReadingand Writing
Century
ofLetters:
Univ.of Chicago Press, 1993); RobertK. Martin,"HesterPrynne,CestMoi: Nathaniel
Hawthorneand the Anxietiesof Gender," in Engendering
Men: The QuestionofMale
Feminist
ed. Joseph A. Boone and Michael Cadden (New York: Routledge,
Criticism,
1990), pp. 122-39; and Mona Scheuermann,"The AmericanNovel of Seduction:An
Explanation of the Omission of the Sex Act in The ScarletLetter,"in The Nathaniel
Hawthorne
Journal,1978, ed. C. E. Frazer Clark,Jr.,et. al. (Detroit: Gale Research,
1984), pp. 105-18.
310
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
Dimmesdale exemplifiesthe sociallyunacceptable qualitiesaswhileHester embodies the
sociatedwiththe earliernarratives,
culturalideal developed in thelaterones. The youngminister's
passivityand hypocrisylink him to the weak heroines and
novels repeatedly
deceptivevillainsof the eighteenth-century
condemned and ridiculedin pre-CivilWarpublic commentary.
Hawthorne's"fallenwoman,"however,possesses the strength,
selflessness,and positiveinfluenceattributedto the heroines
ofdomesticnovels (as wellas to theexemplaryhousekeepersof
conductbooks) in thenineteenthcentury.In thisessayI hope to
clarifythe contextin which this "sinful"pair was created and
received,by firstexaminingthe antebellumdiscourseon mobetweeneighralityand gender in fiction,then distinguishing
novel conventions,and finally
teenth-and nineteenth-century
positioningHawthorne'sdepictionofArthurDimmesdale and
HesterPrynnealongsidesimilarcharactersfromthe "sentimental"genresof seductionnarrativeand domesticfiction.
In order to place The ScarletLetterin its correctliterary
context,we should note thatHawthornederivedhis plot from
American adaptations of the novel of seduction. This genre
Britishnovelswhereinthe
originatedwitheighteenth-century
seduction either does not happen (as in Frances Burney's
Evelina[1778]) or is long delayed (as in Samuel Richardson's
American authors, however, shifted the
Clarissa [1747-48]).
narrativefocus by placing the seductionearlyin the tale and
then exploringitsconsequences. Numerouspopular novelsof
the early national period, such as William Hill Brown's The
Power of Sympathy(1789), Susanna Rowson's CharlotteTemple
(1794), and Hannah Foster's The Coquette(1797), all chart the
results,ratherthan the causes, of the heroine's fall.As Mona
Scheuermannsuggests,Hawthornehas takenTheScarletLetter's
"particularstructure-illicitsex earlyin the novel followedby
examination of the attendantpsychologicalimplicationsfor
the participants
(pp. 106-7).
.
.
.
from his own American forbears"
Yet Hawthorne is not simplytaking part in a continuing Americantradition;he is, rather,choosing to employselected elements of plot and characterfroma formthat had
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
311
fallenout of favor.FollowingHelen WaitePapashvily,
CathyN.
Davidson pointsout that"afterapproximately1818, the seductionplotvirtually
disappears"fromnovelswrittenin the United
States,"and,withthe graphicexceptionof TheScarlet
the
Letter,
'fallen woman' does not figureprominentlyin the design of
nineteenth-century
Americanfiction."3Readers,of course,remained familiarwitheighteenth-century
seductiontales;in the
mid 185os Charlotte
Templewas
"stilla popularclassicat thecheap
book-stallsand with travellingchapmen."4 Yet nineteenthcenturyreviewersand novelistsregularlyexpressed theirdisapproval of such melodramas, which portrayedwomen as
gullible victims.Certain conventionalimages associated with
eighteenth-century
novels,therefore,would be likelyto conjure up negativenotionsof selfishnessand moral laxityin the
mindsof readers.Hawthorne'suse in TheScarletLetter
of motifs
from the novel of seduction,whetherconscious or unconscious,encouragesreadersto condemnDimmesdale'shypocrisy
ratherthan sympathize'withhis sufferings,
therebyreinforcing the novel's conservativemoral. In both body and mind,
Hawthorne'shapless ministerfitsthe patternof the physically
drooping,ethicallyweak,seduced heroine whom mid-century
discussionsof fictiontaughtaudiences to disparage.
When examiningHawthorne'suse of iconographyassociated withthe seduced heroine,however,we should beware of
judging such a characterizationas just anothersymptomof his
d mob of scribblingwomen"writers
antipathyfor the "d
of his own era.5 Such a conclusion conflatesthe eighteenthdomescenturynovel of seductionand the nineteenth-century
ticnovel,twodistinctformsthatmoderncriticsoftengroup to3 Davidson,Revolution
and theWord:TheRiseoftheNovelinAmerica(NewYork:Oxford
Univ.Press,1986), p. 135.
4 EvertA. Duyckinckand George L. Duyckinck,Cyclopedia
ofAmericanLiterature,
Embracing
Personaland Critical
Notices
ofAuthors,
and Selections
fromTheirWritings,
fromthe
EarliestPeriodtothePresent
Day. . . , 2 vols. (New York:CharlesScribner,1856), I, 502.
5 On the problematicsof modern critics'relentlessquotation of thesewords,see
p. 4. Hawthorne'sphrase originallyappeared in a 19 January1855
Baym,"Rewriting,"
1 853-I856,
letterto his publisher,WilliamD. Ticknor(see Hawthorne,TheLetters,
ed.
Thomas Woodson, et al., vol. 17 of The Centenary
Editionof the Worksof Nathaniel
Hawthorne
[Columbus:Ohio StateUniv.Press,1987], p. 304).
312
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
getherin the single,ill-defined,yet much-malignedcategory
of "sentimental"fiction.6Twentieth-century
readers,taughtto
place Hawthorne'sworkin oppositionto thewritingofhis contemporaries,have not alwaysobserved that The ScarletLetter
sharesa commonmoralframework
and patternofimagerywith
manyworksbyantebellumfemalenovelists.Like thesewomen
writers,Hawthorneuses his charactersto emphasize the destructiveconsequences of allowingpersonal desire to overrule
communitylaw.
This ethical standpointreflectsthe social values most oftenadvocatedin the antebellumpublic discourseabout fiction.
As the 1852 Graham'sreviewerindicates,Hawthorne'scontemporarieswere likelyto view TheScarletLetteras a correctiveto
what the reviewercalls the damaging individualistic"code of
ethics"thatwas "predominantin theFrenchschool ofromance"
(p. 3 33). The Grahams reviewerjudged The ScarletLetter,with
itsunequivocalpunishmentofsexual transgression,
to be superior to the kindsof Frenchbooks thata Peterson's
Magazinereviewerhad earlierdenounced as "covertly
injuriousto morals."7
Reviewersrepeatedlycomplained of the cheap translationsof
European fictionthatdominatedtheUnitedStatesbook market
in the 1840s. VictorHugo was rankedamong theworstoffendReviewproclaimedin March 1846,
ers; his novels,theAmerican
show"thewhole foundationsof the social systemuprootedand
overturned."8In contrast,a March 1850 reviewin the Literary
voiced itsapprovalof TheScarlet
a book thatapparWorld
Letter,
"Then forthe
entlykeptsociety'sethicalstructure
right-side-up:
moral.Though severe,it is wholesome."9
see
On the ahistoricaluse and negativeconnotationsof the term"sentimental,"
Clark,p. 2o; and Nina Baym,Woman'Fiction:A GuidetoNovelsbyand aboutWomenin
America,
I 820-70, 2d ed. (Urbana and Chicago: Univ.of IllinoisPress,1993), p. xxix.
7 "Reviewof New Books,"Peterson'
Magazine,10 (1846), 179.
8 "RecentFrenchNovelists,"
American
3 (1846), 239.
Reviezv,
9 Rev. of The ScarletLetter:A Romance,by Nathaniel Hawthorne,LiteraryWorld,
garnergood reviews,but it also sold well.
6 (1850), 324. Not onlydid TheScarletLetter
Englishand
As Susan Gearypointsout, between 1849 and 1858, "ofthe twenty-three
Americannovels [thatTicknorand Fields] published .. ., only twomade it over the
Letter)
"; and in the 185os,editorsconsidered
10,000 mark(one ofwhichwas theScarlet
"a book thatsold bythetensof thousands"to be a bestseller ("The DomesticNovel as a
CommercialCommodity:Makinga Best Seller in the 1850s,"PapersoftheBibliographical
Letter
qualifiesas a
Society
ofAmerica,
70 [1976], 368, 370). Bythisdefinition,TheScarlet
6
THE
SCARLET
313
LETTER
Such severemoralsappealed toreviewers
who assumedthat
the main audience forfictionwas femaleand who deemed depictions of social rebellion particularlydangerous. These reviewersexpressed theiranxietiesin complaints-such as the
one made by a Knickerbocker
Magazine contributorin February 1839-that "depravity
dressedup in a fascinatinggarb ...
constitutesthe greatestobjection to books otherwisedelightful and useful."'10Similarly,a NorthAmericanReviewwriter's
rantuses imageryreflectingfearsthat"immoral"fictionmight
feminizemen and corruptwomen: "Afterreadingone of Bulwer's novels,we have a feelingthat mankindis composed of
scoundrelsand sentimentalists,11
and that the world is effete.
The atmosphere is that of a hot-house .
.
. in which adultery
and seduction are gracefullyadorned in alluringsentiments,
12
and saunter,witha mincinggait,to thepitthatis bottomless."
like
Accordingto thisreviewer,a novelist
who
Bulwer-Lytton
did not adequatelypunishcharactersengaged in sexuallyillicit
behavior revealed an inability"to conceive characterat all"
(p. 364). Such critiquesemployedrhetoricequatingboth novelistand novelwiththe "paintedwomen"whomantebellumreviewersfearedfemalenovel-readersmightbecome.
Yet even authorswho did not adorn "adulteryand seduction"with"alluringsentiments"
were not guaranteedfavorable
reviews.A book's ethical code mightdeterminethe way that
some reviewers
judged the work,but the proper moral stance
was not alwaysenough to wincritics'approval.A novelmustofferitslessonin therightway."Convenientmorality"
could easily
be dismissed,just as a Graham'sreviewerdiscountedone novelist guiltynot only of "writinga book decidedlyinjurious"but
also of unsuccessfully
attempting"to atone forall, bya page of
13 Even a book withconsistently
moralityat the finale."
"good"
commercialsuccess even if it did not match the astonishingsales of The Wide,Wide
Worldor UncleTom'sCabin.
10 Rev. of Rob oftheBowl:A LegendofSaintInigoes,[byJohn Pendleton Kennedy,]
KnickerbockerMagazine,
13 (1839), 162.
11When readingsuch comments,itis importantto rememberthatin themid nineteenthcenturytheword"sentimental"
was not alwaysused negatively:
reviewerspraised
"good" affecting
sentimentality
as oftenas theycritiqued"bad" mawkishsentimentality.
12 "Novelsof the Season,"North
American
Review,67 (1848), 365.
13 Rev. of TheFatalist,
Magazine,17 (1840), 144.
[byNicholas Michell,] Graham's
314
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
moralswas apt to be foundwantingif"themoralityof the story
is . . . too pertinaciously thrust into the reader's face."14 As
JamesL. Machor explainsin his discussionof public responses
toantebellumfiction,moralmessageswereexpectedto be "consistentand subtleratherthanovertand intermittent";
directinstructivecommentswere condemned.15As one NorthAmerican
Reviewessayistnoted,a seriousmoralcan "crushdown the narrativewithits weight,"and the "fleetof religiousnovels,oppressedwiththeirleaden cargo,have shownmarvelousalacrity
in sinkingwheretheywere neverheard of more."16
Clearly,antebellumnovelistswho wished theirworkto be
judged ethicallysound and artistically
superiorhad to negotiate a dense landscape of moral and aestheticjudgments.And
although these judgments were heavilygender-inflected,it
is importantto distinguishthe expectationsof Hawthorne's
era fromthe stereotypesput forwardin our own. Contraryto
what some of us have been taught,Hawthorne'saudience did
not automaticallydisapproveof the novel as a genre, and unlike manylate-twentieth-century
readers,theyneitherequated
popularitywith poor aesthetic qualitynor viewed American
literatureas a particularlymale-dominateddomain.17Antebellum reviewersdid believe in an essentialbiological difference betweenmen and women thatnecessarilyproduced distinctly"masculine"and "feminine"writing.'8Yet these same
14 Rev. of Insubordination:
An AmericanStoryofReal Life,by T. S. Arthur,Graham's
Magazine,18 (1841), 296.
15 James L. Machor, "HistoricalHermeneuticsand AntebellumFiction: Gender,
Response Theory,and InterpretiveContexts,"in Readersin History:Nineteenth-Century
American
Literature
and theContexts
ofResponse,
ed. Machor (Baltimore:JohnsHopkins
Univ.Press,1993), p. 71.
16 Rev. of Margaret;
a TaleoftileReal and Ideal,Blightand Bloom,[bySylvesterJudd,]
North
American
Review,62 (1846), 103.
17 On the acceptabilityof novel reading, see Baym, Novels,p. 14. On flexible
boundaries between elite and popular literature,see Baym,Novels,pp. 40-45; and
Susan Belasco Smithand KennethM. Price,"Introduction:PeriodicalLiteraturein Social and HistoricalContext,"in PeriodicalLiterature
in Nineteenth--Century
America,ed.
Price and Smith (Charlottesville:Univ. Press of Virginia,1995), p. 7. On public per"Inception of writingas a femaleoccupation,see Geary,p. 366; and JudithFetterley,
troduction,"in Provisions:
A Readerfrom
NineteenthCentury
American
Women,
ed. Fetterley
(Bloomington:Indiana Univ.Press,1985), p. 6.
18 The 1848 reviewin TheNorth
American
Reviewillustratesthe stereotypesof male
and female writingput forthat mid-century.
The reviewermistakenlythinksthat a
brotherhelped "CurrerBell" writeJane
Eyrebecause "theclear,distinct,decisivestyle...
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
315
reviewersmighthave approached women'swritingmoreopenmindedlythan a modern reader conditioned to expect any
female-authoredantebellumnovel to be unrealisticand overly
emotional. In fact,in the 1850s some of the domesticnovels
by women that we think of today as highlymelodramatic
were hailed fortheirrealism,whilejokes about sillyscribblers
oftengenderedthewritermale.19Even callsfor"manly"writing
privilegedqualities that mightseem "sentimental"by today's
standards.20
continuallysuggestsa male mind,"while the sister'sinputis revealedby"some unconwomanthateveraspiredafter
whichthestrongest-minded
sciousfemininepeculiarities,
manhood cannot suppress.These peculiaritiesrefernot onlyto elaboratedescriptions
of
but to varioussuperficialrefinements
ofdress,and theminutizeof thesick-chamber,
feeling.... thereare nicetiesof thoughtand emotionin a woman'smindwhichno man
can delineate" ("Novelsof the Season," pp. 356-57).
19 In January1853 a reviewpraisingthe realismof Susan Warner'sThe Wide,Wide
American
and AmyLothrop'sDollarsand Centsappeared in theNorth
Worldand Queechy
Review.Its author (oftenidentifiedas Caroline Kirkland)calls Warner'sfirstnovel "a
Review,76 [1853], 12 2). The essayalso saysthatthese
American
storyofreal life"(North
novelsreflectthefactthat"nowadays. .. thereis no truthbutliteraltruth;heroinesare
no longer 'mad in white satin'; troubles,to touch our hearts,must be every-day
troubles;heroes,who do not interestthemselvesin politicaleconomyand the condiof good fortune"(p. 105). Althoughthejudgmentof
tionof the masses,are unworthy
to see a reviewerpraise
it is interesting
succeedinggenerationswould be verydifferent,
the lack of melodramain novelsthatare todayconsideredexamplesof extreme"sentiIn a similarreversalof modern expectation,a joking "Epigramon a Poor
mentality."
But VeryProlificAuthor,"makingfun of the weak literaryproduct that twentiethgendersitsauthormale.The
associatewithfemale"sentimentalists,"
centurystereotypes
epigramlaments:"Amodernnovelist,compelled byneed, / Writeseightypages ere the
day is o'er; / Alas, poor man! I feel for him indeed, / But pityhis afflictedreaders
Magazine,33 [1849], 140).
more!" (Knickerbocker
20 An 1849 reviewof Dickens by E. P. Whipple is one example of a nineteenthcenturycall for masculinewritingthatactuallyprivilegestraitsthat modern readers
stereotypeas feminine.Whipple lamentsthatin the United States,"Novelistswe have
in perilous abundance, as Egypthad locusts;some of them unexcelled in the art of
preparinga dish of fictionbya liberaladmixtureof the horribleand sentimental;...
buta seriesofnationalnovels,. . . the productionof men penetratedwithan American
spirit.. ., we can hardlyplume ourselvesupon possessing"(rev.ofDealingswiththeFirm
Review,69 [1849], 405-6). The
American
and Son,byCharlesDickens,North
ofDombey
referenceto spiritedmen and the negativeuse of the term"sentimental"mightmake
us thinkthatWhippleis callingforunemotionalrealism,but in facthe wantsmoresenHe praisesthe "moralbeauty"of LittleNell and wantsthissort
sitivecharacterizations.
of characterto replace "libelled or caricatured"depictions of Americans (pp. 404,
406). The spirited"productionof men"he asks forrequiresthe very"sentimentality"
readermightassume he is critiquing:"Arethere,then,no mathata twentieth-century
terialshere for the romanticand heroic . . . nothingof sorrowforpathos to convert
no high thoughts,no
into beauty. .. no sweethousehold ties,no domesticaffections,
greatpassions,no sorrow,sin,and death?" (p. 406).
316
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
Nineteenth-century
readerswho recognized the diversity
of theirera's literatureprobablywould have been surprisedby
therangeofworksthatsucceedinggenerationshave lumped togetherunderthecategoryof "sentimental"
fiction.Hawthorne's
audience made distinctions-betweenupliftingsentimentand
mawkishemotion;betweenthe melodramatictales of the previous centuryand the domesticnovelsof theirown -that have
been obscuredbythe generalizationsoflaterhistorians.To understandHawthorne'srelationto both his literarypredecessors
and criticalcontemporaries,
we need to recoverthedistinctions
betweenthe seductionnovelspopular in the earlynationalperiod and the women'snovels thatreached theirheightin the
1850s withthe success of Susan Warner'sThe Wide,WideWorld
(1850) and Maria Susanna Cummins's The Lamplighter(1 854).
The eighteenth-century
seduction novel-both the English formcharacterizedby Clarissaand the Americanvariation
women as vulnerableand
typified
by Charlotte
Temple-portrays
in need of male protection.Rowson'snovel illustratesthe basic
plot of the Americanbooks, whereinan innocent heroine is
trickedbya cruelseducerand thenabandoned to suffer,
repent,
and die. Highlyemotional,these novelsacknowledgedfemale
passion, but despite the tragicconsequences, the authorsdid
not blame theirheroines forhavingand expressingemotion.
Rather,seductionnovelsoftenimplicitlycritiquedthe culture
thatconstrainedand suppressedpersonalfeelings.A novelsuch
as Charlotte
withthe
Temple
encouragesthereaderto sympathize
flawedand fallentitlecharacterand to condemn the unfeeling
natureof her seducer and the societythatempowershim.
Unlike these eighteenth-century
works,which emphasize
the heroine'spassion and suffering,
domesticnovelsreject"depictionsof overemotional,helpless heroines" (Baym,Woman's
Fiction,p. xxix). In antebellum "woman'sfiction"-the genre
thatBaymdefinesas "novelsof contemporarylifebyand about
American women published between 182o and 1870"-we
meet competentprotagonistswho "survivein a difficult
world"
(Woman'sFiction,
p. ix). These booksabandon theseductionplot
and insteadfollowtheprogressionofa youngwomanwho,without familialor financialresources,must educate herselfand
finda secure place in the world.Althoughonlya minorityof
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
317
antebellum novels employed this plot, it was particularlyinfluentialbecause at mid-century"one formulablockbusterafteranotherdominatedthe market,"ensuringthatthe reading
public would be veryfamiliarwiththe model of womanhood
Fiction,p. xi).
thatthesebooks depicted (Woman's
Woman's fiction-in its critique of weakness and hypocrisyand its praise of fortitudeand self-discipline-rejects
literarymodels and reinforcesthe moral
eighteenth-century
critics.The writersthat
values advocatedbynineteenth-century
Baymstudiesavoided "the spectacle of victimizedinnocence"
that "deniedjust whatwoman'sfictioninsistedon: thatinnocence was compatiblewithagency" (WomansFiction,p. xxix).
Antebellumreviewersoffereda similarcritiqueofweak female
Reviewessayist,forexample,comcharacters.A NorthAmerican
plained of the "utterlycharacterlessand insipid" women in
James Fenimore Cooper's novels, works that failed to show
woman's "real power,her influenceover the course and issue
of events."'" Similarly,the ChristianExaminerridiculed the
"common-placenovel-heroine"withher "useless sensibilities,
and unrestrainedenthusiasm,the creatureof circumstanceor
emotion."22
Hawthorne'sreaderswould have been veryfamiliarwith
such commentariescondemningoutmoded characterizations
typeofwomanand praising"new"novelsdepictinga different
hood. Severalmoderncriticshave pointed out thatHawthorne
took notice of these shiftsin public opinion. Stephen Railton
emphasizesthatHawthorne,hopingforfinancialsuccess,aimed
at "thesame kindofaudience thathad read his
TheScarlet
Letter
years in such 'middlebrow'
tales and sketchesfor twenty-five
'S."23Although itseemsobvious,we should
publicationsas Godey
not forgetthatunlike today'sreaders,thisaudience would not
have come to the book predisposedto admireHester,steeped
femaleprotagoin the traditionthat"she is the onlysignificant
Rather,theypicked up
literature."24
nistin nineteenth-century
21 Rev. of Gleanings
Review,
American
in Europe,[byJamesFenimoreCooper,] North
46 (1838), 8-9.
22 Rev.ofMonaldi:ATale,byWashingtonAllston,
31 (1842), 379.
ChristianExamine',
23 "The Addressof TheScarlet
p. 159, n. 3.
in Readersin History,
Letter,"
24 Barlowe,p. 208; see also Railton,p. 140.
318
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
the novel prepared to place her among the manyliteraryheroines of both theirown and previousgenerations.
When he addressed thisaudience of experienced novelreaders, Hawthorne chose to avoid reformfiction'sexplicit
moralizing;but he still managed to convey a "severe" yet
"wholesome"mainstreamVictorianmoral. Numerous critics
have remarked that Hawthorne achieves his effectthrough
tableaux,25visual images carryingclear connotationsfor his
audience, and I would add that these tableaux alternately
seductionnovel and nineteenthevoke the eighteenth-century
century woman's fiction. Hawthorne employs images that
middle-classculture had already taughthis readers to interpret. "The iconicityof these tableaux"not only"adds emblematicrichnesswhileassuringverbaleconomy,"as RitaGollinand
John Idol, Jr.,point out, but these tableaux also become "essentialto Hawthorne'smode ofdepictingthe human condition
in relation to the past" (p. 54). Evocativeimages associated
with earlier literaryformsdirect readers' moral judgments.
Hawthorne'speers would likelyhave considered the Puritan
townspeople,who take so long to recognizeDimmesdale'shypocrisyand Hester'svirtue,to be "a terribleaudience" thathas
misread the signsrevealed in the couple's bodies and actions
(Railton,p. 142). But Hawthorne'spatternofimagerymakesit
would make
unlikelythatthe real audience of TheScarletLetter
the fictionaltownspeople'smistakeof sympathizing
with the
sicklyminister.HawthornedescribesDimmesdalein terms,and
places him in scenes, associated withdisparaged eighteenthcenturycharacters.The minister'sbody and soul reflectthe
worstof the seductiongenre (as it wasjudged in the antebellum era): physically
he is as weak and droopingas the seduced
heroine,and morallyhe is as hypocriticaland deceptiveas the
seducingvillain.The strongnegativeassociationsof thesequalitieswould guide readersto definiteconclusionseven without
an overtauthorialintrusiontellingthemwhatto think.
From the moment he is introduced,Dimmesdale is depicted in feminineterms.The young ministeris "a person of
25 See Rita K. Gollin and John L. Idol, Jr.,Prophetic
Pictures:NathanielHawthorne's
and UsesoftheVisualArts(Westport,Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1991); and
Knowledge
Clark,pp. 26-27.
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
319
verystrikingaspect,witha white,lofty,and impendingbrow,
large,brown,melancholyeyes,and a mouthwhich,unlesswhen
he forciblycompressedit,was apt to be tremulous,expressing
both nervous sensibilityand a vast power of self-restraint."26
Dimmesdalelacks"theruddycheek,thefrank,manly,blue-eyed
gaze . . . [that] denoted intelligence and trustworthinessin
p. xxxvii).
Fiction,
the male" in Hawthorne'sera (Baym,Woman's
And thenarrativewillsoon make us questionthe townspeople's
A
perceptionthattheirministerpossesses great self-restraint.
"man of ethereal attributes" (ScarletLetter,p. 142), Dimmesdale
standards,whichsaw
is clearlyfeminizedbynineteenth-century
fixed... contrastbetweenwomen'smore graceful,
a "relatively
outlineand ... men'smore blockyshape"
yielding,tendril-like
(WomansFiction,p. xxxvii). For Hawthorne'scontemporaries
"the male body implie[d] volume or density,the woman'sairy
Fiction,
p. xxxvii).Dimmesdale,who quesethereality"( Woman's
tions whetherhe has any substance at all-"what was he?a substance?- or the dimmestof all shadows?"(ScarletLetter,
p. 143)- certainlylackssuch "manly"density.
Those schooled in the traditionofAnn Douglas's TheFeminization ofAmericanCulture (1977) might assume such an ef-
feminatedepictionis typicalof the disempoweredantebellum
ministerwho-having lost all "practicalfunction"in society"accommodates and imitates"middle-classwomen in hopes
Inof sharingtheir perceived "emotionalindispensability."27
Dimmesdale
that
possesses
T.
Herbert
Walker
argues
deed,
of the malignedantebellumclergymenwho
the characteristics
domain to
"attainedsocial power by exploitingthe womanlywhichtheyfoundthemselvesconsigned."28But,in fact,numerous scholarshave complicatedboth Douglas's claims and the
"separatespheres"ideologyupon which theyare based,29of26 NathanielHawthorne,TheScarlet
Letter,
ed. WilliamCharvatand FredsonBowers,
Edition(Columbus: Ohio State Univ.Press, 1962), p. 66.
et al., vol. 1 of TheCentenary
Furtherreferencesto thisworkappear in the text.
Culture(New York:AlfredA. Knopf,
27 Ann Douglas, TheFeminization
ofAmierican
1977),pp. 77, 117.
28 Dearest
and theMakingoftheMiddle-ClassFamily(Berkeley
Beloved:TheHawthornes
and Los Angeles:Univ.of CaliforniaPress,1993), p. 195.
29 On thelimitations
of "separatespheres"discourse,see Linda K. Kerber,"Separate
Journalof
Spheres,Female Worlds,Woman'sPlace: The Rhetoricof Women'sHistory,"
History,75 (1988), 9-39; and Laura McCall, "'The Reign of BruteForce Is
American
320
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
feringgood evidence to suggestthat effeminacy
was not the
primaryqualityassociated withnineteenth-century
ministers,
either in popular literatureor in daily life. In depictions of
ministersin Americanliteraturepriorto the publicationof The
ScarletLetter,
thereare fewclergymenwho share Dimmesdale's
AsJoan D. Hedrick pointsout, ministerswerejust
sensitivity.30
as likelyto be viewedas rigidand patriarchalas droopingand
disempowered.31 Hawthornehimself,in hisjournals and in his
other fiction,mostfrequentlydepictsscholarlychurchmenas
figureswho failto understandemotion.Dimmesdale'speers in
The ScarletLetter-viewed by Hester as "iron" men (p. 141)-
are such figures.The most frequentantebellum ministerial
stereotypesseem to be the cold intellectualor the bumbling
fool (the type that nineteenth-century
newspaper columnist
Fanny Fern was thinkingof when she wrote in "Notes upon
Preachersand Preaching":"I don'tbelievein a person'seyesbeing so fixed on heaven that he goes blunderingover everybody's corns on the way there.")32Although often severely
flawed,such literaryclergymendo not fitthe weak model of
Dimmesdale.33
While Dimmesdale lacks the rigid strengthattributedto
mostministersin early-American
literatureas well as the denmale physicalparadigm,his simsityof the nineteenth-century
novels
ilarityto the femaleprotagonistsof eighteenth-century
Now Over': A ContentAnalysisof Godey's
Lady'sBook,1830-1 86o,"
Journal oftheEarly
LitRepublic,
9 ( 1989), 220, 236. See also the September1998 special issue ofAmerican
Literature,
erature
edited byCathyN. Davidson,"No More Separate Spheres!" (American
70 [1998]).
30 See Donald WesleyCowart,"'A MinisterI Will Not Be': HistoricalMinistersin
theWorksofNathanielHawthorne"(Diss., Univ.of South Florida,1995); David Glenn
Davis, "The Image of the Ministerin AmericanFiction"(Diss., Univ. of Tulsa, 1978);
and RichardHugh Gamble,"The Figureof the ProtestantClergymanin AmericanFic1972).
tion"(Diss., Univ.of Pittsburgh,
31 See Harriet
Beecher
Stowe:A Life(New York:OxfordUniv.Press,1994), p. 278.
32 "Notesupon Preachersand Preaching,"in herFolly
As ItFlies;"HitAt" (NewYork:
G. W. Carleton,1868), p. 89.
33 For example, none of the ministersdepicted in the popular novels of James
FenimoreCooper,JamesKirkePaulding,WilliamGilmoreSimms,or HarrietBeecher
Stowe are markedby insubstantialphysiquesor overdevelopedsensibilities.The fictionalclergymenof theseauthorsare closer to the model of FatherMapple, the hardy
and masculineformersailorofHerman Melville'sMoby-Dick
(1 85 1), thanto thedrooping formof Dimmesdale.
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
321
is striking.His pale cheeks, drooping form,blearyeyes, and
melancholyaspect are not merely"feminine"qualitiesbut the
specificphysicalmarkingsof the seduced heroine,a formthat
commentatorssaw as degraded. When we
nineteenth-century
firstmeet Dimmesdale,a requestforhim to speak "drovethe
blood fromhis cheek, and made his lips tremulous"(Scarlet
Letter,
p. 67). Later,the narratordescribesthe minister's"large
dark eyes [that] had a world of pain in their troubled and
melancholydepth" (p. 113). As the novel progresseswe are repeatedlyremindedthat"his cheek [grows]paler and thinner,
and his voice more tremulous" (p. 122). This "tremulously
sweet,rich,deep, and broken"voice, which "broughtthe listenersinto one accord of sympathy"(p. 67), has exactlythe
same effectas the qualities thatRowsongivesthe prototypical
seduced heroine,CharlotteTemple,whose
eighteenth-century
"tremulousaccent, [and] tearfuleye, must have moved any
heartnot composed of adamant."34
Hawthornenot onlyemphasizes"thepaleness oftheyoung
minister's cheek" (ScarletLetter,p. 120), but he also describes
Dimmesdale'sphysicaldecline in the conventionaltermsused
to depict seduced heroines wastingaway aftertheyfall.35As
HerbertRoss Brownstates,"the'decline' became a fashionable
attributeof the daughtersof sensibility";eighteenth-century
conduct manualspraised "attractive
pallor" and "cautionedfemales that the possession of even an average share of vitality
34 Susanna Haswell Rowson,Charlotte
Temple,
ed. CathyN. Davidson (New York:OxfordUniv.Press,1986), p. 1o8. Furtherreferencesto thisworkappear in the text.
35 Dimmesdale also has what Susan Sontag describes as the "extremecontrasts:
whitepallor and red flush,"associatedwithtuberculosis(see Sontag,Illnessas Metalpor
[NewYork:Farrar,Strausand Giroux,1977], p. 11). Atone pointDimmesdaleexhibits
a flushand thena paleness,indicativeof pain" (ScarletLetter,
p. 120). These shift"first
ing skin tones also routinelycharacterizethe seduced heroine-such as SallyWood's
protagonistin Ferdinandand Elmima(1804), to whose "complexion dazzlinglyfair"
is frequently"added the brightestglow of carnation"(Sarah SaywardKeatingWood,
Ferdinandand Elmira:A RussianStory[Baltimore:Samuel Butler,1804], p. 21). Tubernovel's emphasis on passion. As Sontag excular qualities fitthe eighteenth-century
plains, "having[tuberculosis]was imaginedto be an aphrodisiac,and to conferextraordinarypowersof seduction"(p. 13). The consumptive's"fever. . . was a sign of an
inwardburning:the tubercularis someone 'consumed' byardor,thatardor leading to
the dissolutionof the body" (Sontag,p. 20). But forthe antebellumaudience such asand weak morality.
sociationswould onlyheightenthe sense of failed self-regulation
322
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
and animal spiritswas somethingless than fashionable and
more thanfeminine."36
Once CharlotteTemple beginsher decline, "hercheekswerepale fromwantof rest,and her eyes...
were sunk and heavy"(Charlotte
Temple,
p. 95). In the end, the
"unhappygirl"is left"to sinkunnoticedto the grave,a preyto
sickness,grief,and penury,"and the readerwitnessesher "high
fever,""fits,"and "pale, emaciated appearance" (p. 98). Similarly,Dimmesdale's "formgrewemaciated,"and like the heroine whose bearingreflectsknowledgeof her inevitabledoom,
"hisvoice,thoughstillrichand sweet,had a certainmelancholy
prophecyof decayin it" (ScarletLetter,p. 120).
Although the Puritan townspeopleview Dimmesdale as
virtuousand feel thathis suffering
enhances his powersofsympathy,the novel'sreaderswould likelyhave consideredthe sitAs AlisonEaston argues,in Hawthorne's
uation more critically.
in
time,as his novel,"thecapacityof humansto be receptiveto
others'emotions"wasnotjudged an absolutegood untoitselfevil "sympathy"
take Chillingworth's
forexample-"to be 'sensitive' (a word used nine timesabout Dimmesdale) is a twoDimmesdale's "sensibility
of nerve" and
edged instrument."37
"spiritualintuition"(ScarletLetter,p. 130) are not noble qualities unless theybenefitothers.If "his power of experiencing
and communicatingemotion,[are] keptin a stateofpreternatural activity"(p. 141) by self-absorbedemotional excess, and
he convinceshis parishionersof falsehood ratherthan truth,
seduced heroine.
thenhe is as contemptibleas theoverwrought
Such characters-like the protagonistof SallyWood'sJuliaand
theIlluminatedBaron [ 18oo] who admits,"I indulged myafflictions; I even nursed them"38-exemplifythe wasted emotion
thatmid-century
reviewerscriticized.Although,as Hester says,
which [other] men lack!" (Scarlet
Dimmesdale "hastsympathies
Letter,p. 113), he may still be open to what D. A. Miller calls
the "mortifying
charges" of "sentimentality,
self-indulgence,
narcissism.... [brought]againstanyonewho dwellsin subjec36
TheSentimental
Novelin America,I 789-I860
37
TheMakingoftheHawthorne
Subject(Columbia: Univ. of MissouriPress, 1996),
P. 231.
38
(Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press,
p. 125-
1940),
Baron (Portsmouth,N.H.: Charles Peirce, 18oo), p. 233.
Juliaand theIlluminated
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
323
tivity
longer or more intenselythan is necessaryto his proper
functioningas the agent of sociallyusefulwork."39Certainly
manyantebellumcommentariescomplained of those who indulged impracticalsensibility,
ridiculing-as the author of an
1849 Knickerbocker
Magazine essay titled "A Chapter on Women"
did-the "Delicate Ladies" whose "exquisitesensibilities"and
"keen sympathiesunfitthemforaction,"who "whileawaytheir
days and . . . pay worship to the god of Self, whose devotees
theyare."40
Like the self-absorbedheroine whose exaggeratedemotion leaves her vulnerable to a lustfulman's manipulations,
Dimmesdale,whose "thoughtand imaginationwere so active,
and sensibilityso intense" (ScarletLetter,p. 124), is leftopen to
evilinfluences.The minister'sintrospective
"orderofmindthat
impelled itselfpowerfully
along the trackof a creed, and wore
itspassage deliberatelydeeper withthelapse oftime,"eats away
at his strength(p. 123). He is reduced to a "poor,forlorncreature"(p. 141), castin therole ofthevictimizedgirlat themercy
of the conscienceless seducer played by Chillingworth.Like
CharlotteTemple,who "faintedinto the armsof her betrayer"
at the crucial moment and so was carried offunconscious to
her "fall" (CharlotteTemple,p. 48), so Dimmesdale is in "a deep,
deep slumber"when Chillingworth
"advanced directlyin front
of his patient,laid his hand upon his bosom, and thrustaside
the vestment" (ScarletLetter,p. 138). Here Chillingworthis the
betrayer,and his assaultof the sleepingministeris "a parodyof
the sexual act" (Easton, p. 209).
BythetimethatDimmesdaleemergesfromhisforestmeeting withHester,we mightread him as seduced several times
and
over-having begot Pearl,been violatedbyChillingworth,
yieldedto Hester'sradical ideas. So perhaps it is fittingthathe
should then sufferthe next stage of the seduced heroine's decline: madness. Eighteenth-century
heroines,such as Eliza in
TheCoquette,
almostalwaysbecome physically
weakand mentally
unstableaftertheirseductions.In the conclusionsof thesenov39 The Noveland thePolice (Berkeleyand Los Angeles: Univ. of CaliforniaPress,
1988), p. 193.40 "A
Chapteron Women,"Knickerbocker
Magazine,33 (1849), 294.
324
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
els the grief-stricken
protagonistis oftenboth ill and insane.
from
So too is Hawthorne's"minister
in themaze,"as he suffers
delusionsand temptationspromptinghim to ask, "am I mad?"
(p. 220). Like the seduced woman who, in the nineteenthcenturyreading,has broughther mental and physicalsufferingsupon herself,Dimmesdale makes poor choices thatbring
on his momentof madnessand exacerbatehis "decline."
Hawthornemakes clear to his audience thatDimmesdale
has made sociallyunacceptable decisions. He compounds his
initialsinwithrepeatederrorsinjudgment.As thenarratortells
us, Dimmesdale "felthimselfquite astrayand at a loss in the
pathwayofhuman existence,and could onlybe at ease in some
seclusionof his own. Therefore,so faras his dutieswould permit,he trode in the shadowyby-paths"(p. 66). Antebellum
culture read such retreatfromcommunityas suspect; seclusion encouraged the "exquisite sensibilities"of those "Delicate Ladies" mentionedin "A Chapter on Women"who were
"unfit.. . foraction."Such reclusivenesscould weakenbothmen
and women.As a NorthAmerican
Reviewessayistcommentedin
fora counJanuary1848, "therecan be no greatermisfortune
trythanforher men of lettersto live secluded fromthe active
scenes of life;forno civilizationcan be complete,where those
thatthinkmovenotin concertwiththosethatact."'41Those who
lead a strictly
contemplativeexistencebecome "enervated"and
lose "vigorofmindand soundnessof thought"(p. 23). According to this worldview,the thoughtfulscholar should not be
stumblingalone in thewildernessbut ratherwalkingalongside
the common citizenin the marketplace.
Nineteenth-century
essayistsoften praised the communitarianimpulses of the people who populated such a town
just
square. These discussionsprized fortitudeand industry,
whatDimmesdale lacks at severalmomentswhen he givesinto
despair:"Therewas a listlessnessin his gait;as ifhe sawno reason fortakingone stepfarther,
nor feltanydesire to do so, but
would have been glad, could he be glad of any thing,to fling
himselfdown at the root of the nearesttree,and lie therepas4"
Rev. of Delle SperanzedItalia, by Cesare Balbo, NorthAmericanReview,66
(i848)', 23.
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
325
sive for evermore" (ScarletLetter,p. 188). This image of a wilted
figurebeneath a treewould again have conjured up associations
with the seduced heroine, whose "drooping jointless body ...
[stood] for indolence or cowardice" to antebellum readers who
judged her as "an anachronism from an earlier time" (Woman's
Fiction,p. 28). The image of an emotional woman musing beneath a tree became so conventional in eighteenth-centuryfiction that numerous nineteenth-century writerssatirized such
scenes.42 Both the original and the parody of this image would
come to mind when Hawthorne's audience considered the "listless" Dimmesdale's desire to be "passive for evermore" beneath
his tree.
Beyond passivity and reclusiveness, of course, Dimmesdale's greatest crime in the eyes of middle-class readers was
his hypocrisy.As Karen Halttunen explains, Americans in the
decades preceding the Civil War prized honesty and feared deceit. Popular culture represented the dangers of shiftingeconomic and social standings in the image of the confidence man,
who deceived honest citizens by hiding his true character under
an attractive exterior.43Dimmesdale, with his vague confessions that furtherconvince his parishioners of his holiness, obscures the truthwith all the manipulative skill of a con man.
Hawthorne's minister,in fact, comes to embody the flaws that
antebellum culture attributed to the Richardsonian school of
fiction. One reviewer'scomplaint about "the conceit of virtue,"
the "deception [and] boasted morality [which] was practically
false" in Richardson's Pamela (1 740), could serve as an equally
accurate description of Dimmesdale.44 The reverend hiding his
secret "A" beneath his clothing is depicted in the same terms
with which nineteenth-centuryreviewers personified the novels that dressed up subversive characters in virtuous clothes.
42
These scenessatirizingtheimageofweak,overemotionalwomenhave oftenbeen
assumethattheantebellumauthorsintended
misreadbymoderncriticswho mistakenly
peers,whenin facttheimdomestic-fiction-writing
to critiquetheirnineteenth-century
texts.
ages parodyeighteenth-century
A StudyofMiddle-Class
Men and PaintedWomen:
43 See Karen Halttunen,Confidence
(New Haven: Yale Univ.Press,1982).
Culturein America,i830-i870
44 Rev. of The Works
by Thomas Roscoe,
ofHenryFielding,witha LifeoftheAuthor,
American
Review,68 (1 849), 59.
North
326
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
Dimmesdale is the embodimentof a corruptand corrupting
culturaltext.He does not possessa tendencyto be honest,and
Hawthorneemphasizeshis deceitfulnature rightup until the
end, makingDimmesdale reluctantto confesseven when he is
dying.The hypocritical,fearfulministermust fightback not
only "bodilyweakness"but "stillmore, the faintnessof heart"
thatwould keep him fromrevealing"his secret"withhis final
breath (ScarletLetter,p. 25 5) .
Throughoutthe novel, of course, the faint-heartedDimmesdale is contrastedwithhis strong-willed
partnerin crime.If
Dimmesdale figuresthe outmoded eighteenth-century
novel
form,then Hester-who openlywearsher "A"and in the end
freelychooses itsrestrictions-embodiesthe textof the "new"
age. She develops into the model ofwomanhood thatantebellum conduct books and woman's fictionput forth,an ideal
figurequite different-albeitequallyexaggeratedand unrealistic-from the heroine prizedin the earlynationalperiod.
In the decades betweenthe publicationof Charlotte
Temple
and The ScarletLetter,American culture altered its model of
womanhood: "no longerthe beautiful,useless,passive,delicate
clingingcreatureof the eighteenthcentury,[the ideal] woman
[became] a hardworking,
busy,tireless,resilient,ever-cheerful
helpmeet:kind,wise,consolatory,sympathetic"(Baym,Novels,
p. i02). Despite our twentieth-century
misperceptions,this
nineteenth-century
figurewas neither sicklynor hypersensiAntebellumdepictionsof the "angel of the house" have
tive.45
45 For further
discussionof the paradoxical waythatantebellumfictionand conduct books portraywomen as both hardworkinghousewivesand disembodiedangels,
see NancyArmstrong,
Desireand Domestic
Fiction:A PoliticalHistoryof theNovel(New
York:OxfordUniv.Press,1987), pp. 75-81; and GillianBrown,Domestic
Individualism:
Imagining
Selfin NineteenthAmerica(Berkeleyand Los Angeles:Univ.of CaliforCentury
nia Press, 1990), pp. 64.-66. It is also importantto distinguishbetween the literary
tropesof the domesticwomanand the saintlychild.The undeniable publicfascination
withangelic dyingchildrendoes not mean thatsuch figureswere the unquestioned
ideal foradultwomanhood.Althoughmanyhave followedAnn Douglas in considering
Stowe'sLittleEva the model of sentimentalfemininity,
such interpretations
mistakenly
conflatethe "angel of the house" and the "divinechild."Not onlyare the twofigures
not the same, but the latterneed not even be female.For furtherdiscussionof the antebelluminterestin child death, see Michael McEachern McDowell, "AmericanAttitudes TowardsDeath, 1825-1865" (Diss., Brandeis Univ., 1978); Ann-JanineMorey,
"In MemoryofCassie: Child Death and ReligiousVisionin AmericanWomen'sNovels,"
6 (1996), 87-104; and WendySimondsand BarbaraKatz
ReligionandAmerican
Culture,
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
327
more in common withthe hardworkinghousewifethan with
the emaciated emotionalist.The domesticangel did not wallow in self-indulgent
feeling;rather,she possessed a pragmatic
communalworldviewthaturged her to use her powersof sympathyin order to furtherbenevolentcauses.46
were
In Hawthorne'stime,as in ours,ideals of femininity
neitherfixed nor coherent.As the author of "A Chapter on
Women"complained, "fewwomen are born angels,"and the
"overflowing
abundance of 'Essays,' 'Sermons,' 'Helps,' 'Addresses,''Guides,' 'Aids' and 'Exhortations"'wasfarmorelikely
to annoywomen than to turnthem into "the perfectarticle"
(p. 291). The womanwho reads thesecommentaries"looksfirst
fora standardupon whichto model herself,"but "no twomen
have the same"; therefore,"she can suitnobodyunless she becomes a sortof universal-patent-medicine,
good forall things"
(p. 292). Althoughrealwomencould not hope to become such
a "universal-patent-medicine,"
the fictionalHester,by novel's
end, comes quite close.
Before attainingthe enviable stateof being "good forall
things,"however,Hester-like the protagonistof a domestic novel-must embark upon a journey during which she
will overcome adversityand isolation,subdue selfishnessand
passion, find faith and self-discipline,and learn obedience
readand usefulness.Understandably,late-twentieth-century
ers, exposed to inaccurate descriptionsof antebellum heroines, have rarelynoticed how much Hester has in common
withher nineteenth-century
fictionalcounterparts.Yetplacing
Hester's traitsand trialsalongside those of two prototypical
and
heroinesofwoman'sfiction-Ellen of TheWide,WideWorld
the similarmoralvalues
Gertyof TheLamplighter-underscores
and feminineideals of the respectiveauthors.
HawthorneendowsHester
At theoutsetof TheScarlet
Letter
the
same
and
with
places her in the same isoprivilegedtraits,
lated situation,that mark the typicalheroine at the opening
(PhiladelofMaternalGriefin PopularLiterature
ofSolace:Expressions
Rothman,Centuries
phia: Temple Univ.Press,1992).
46 Manycriticalmisreadings
of antebellumwomen'snovelsmightbe explained by
the factthat,as Baymnotes,"thesebooks connect a liberalindividualismwithconserin a waythatis typicalof the antebellumera but eccentricto
vativecommunitarianism
p. xxviii).
Fiction,
contemporaryanalysis"( Woman's
328
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
of an antebellumdomesticnovel.These heroinespossesscommendable strengthand virtue,but theyare stillflawed.Left
withoutprotectionor assistance,theymustturnto theirinner
resources as theyembark upon the difficultprocess of selfreform.When he firstintroducesHester, Hawthornetells us
thatshe and her fellowPuritanwomen are made up "morally,
as well as materially,"of "a coarser fibre . . . than . . . their
p. 50). The narratorcompares
fairdescendants"(ScarletLetter,
Hester's strengthto the weaknessof later generations:"every
to her child a fainterbloom,
successivemotherhas transmitted
a more delicate and brieferbeauty,and a slighterphysical
thanher own"
frame,ifnot a characteroflessforceand solidity,
(p. 50). He also emphasizes the contrastbetween this darkhaired woman who possesses "a certainstateand dignity"and
the pale, ladylikefigureswho possessed "the delicate,evanescent" bearingthatthe narratorsayshis misguidednineteenthcenturycontemporariespraise (p. 53). Thus Hawthornepreoffered
sents the same two contrastingmodels of femininity
by the authorsof woman'sfiction.Yet these authors,more optimisticthan Hawthorne,attributestrengthto the younger
generation by privilegingthe capable heroine over her insipid mother.So, forexample,we see in CatherineSedgwick's
Clarence( 1830) Gertrude's"active,decisive,practicalnature...
passivcontrastedto [her mother's]timidand self-destructive
Fiction,p. 59).
ity"(Baym,Woman's
Deprivedof a mother'sguidance,heroinesofwoman'sfiction have to learn on theirown to controlthe passionatetempers and individualisticimpulses thatendanger theirsecurity
and salvation.We oftenmeettheseheroineswhentheyare completelyalone and friendless.Hesterexistsin such isolation,her
crime "takingher out of the ordinaryrelationswithhumanity,
p. 54).
and inclosingher in a sphere byherself"(ScarletLetter,
She must "sustain"her strength"bythe ordinaryresourcesof
her nature,""withouta friendon earthwho dared to showhimself" (pp. 78, 81). So, too, earlyin The Wide,WideWorldEllen
mustleave her mother,and "in her loneliness"she knewthat
"nobody . . . cared in the least for her sorrow."47Even more
47 Susan Warner,TheWide,WideWorld
(NewYork:FeministPress,1987), p. 65. Furtherreferencesto thisworkappear in the text.
THE
SCARLET
329
LETTER
in the opening pages of TheLamplighter
dramatically,
Gertyis
literallythrownout onto the pavementand left"alone in the
cold, darknight"byher cruel guardian.48
These abandoned charactershave everyreason to be angry,and all threenarratorsemphasize the powerfulemotions
of their heroines. Hester exhibitsan abundance of "spirit,"
a "combativeenergyof ... character,"
"desperaterecklessness,"
and "lawlesspassion" (ScarletLetter,
pp. 53, 78, 165). Similarly,
in The Wide,WideWorld"Ellen'spassionswere alwaysextreme"
(p. 148). Attimes"shesobbed aloud, and even screamed"at injustices,but "thesefitsofviolence"mustbe overcome:"Strong
passion-strong pride,-both long unbroken"marktheyoung
Ellen'scharacter;and "muchhelp fromon high,mustbe hers
beforeshe could be thoroughly
dispossessedoftheseevilspirits"
(pp. 148, 181). In TheLamplighter
Gertyalso has a "fierce,untamed,impetuousnature"that "expresseditselfin angrypassion" (p. 7); her "violent temper, .
. .
when roused, knew no
restraint"(p. 43). Even when taken in by a kindlyguardian,
"thefireof her spiritwas not quenched, or itsevilpropensities
extinguished"(p. 43). Like Hawthorneand Warner,Cummins
indicatesthather heroine's temperis a dangerous and "dark
infirmity"-society
will not toleratefemale anger-but such
rage willnot be containedwithouta struggle(p. 63).
In domesticnovels,as in TheScarletLetter,
reformis gradual. In the midstof thisprocess the heroine'svirtuesare balanced by flaws,her attemptsat doing good onlypartiallysuccessful.Usuallyshe findsit much easier to regulateher actions
thanherideas,behavingobedientlyand submissively
evenwhile
her thoughtsremainrebelliousand independent.Yet the narratorsofwoman'sfictionemphasizethatproperbehavioris still
an importantfirststepon thepath to properemotion.Knowing
this,Ellen "prayedthatifshe could notyetfeel
right"she "might
be kept at least fromacting or speakingwrong" (WideWorld,
p. 157). She acts out the lesson thateveryheroine of woman's
fictionmust learn, strugglingto be "perfectly
mute and uncomplaining"in the face of trialand "submissiveand patient
under ... affliction"
(pp. 84, 25). Eventuallyshe winsoverher
48
Maria Susanna Cummins,TheLampulighlter,
ed. Nina Baym (New Brunswick,
N.J.:
RutgersUniv. Press, 1988), p. i . Furtherreferencesto thisworkappear in the text.
330
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
"unreasonableand unkind"auntwith"untiring
gentleness,obedience and meekness" (p. 241). Hester,in the middle of The
Scarlet
Letter,
appears to be in thissame position,able to act correctlyevenwhilehermindstillwandersin dangerousdirections:
"She neverbattledwiththe public,but submitteduncomplaininglyto itsworseusage" and earned respectwith"theblameless
purity"of her life afterimprisonment(p. 16o). The Salem
townspeopleare won over by her "genuine regardforvirtue"
(p. 16o), just as Ellen's aunt, Miss Fortune,"was softenedby
Ellen'sgentle,inoffensive
waysand obedient usefulness"(Wide
World,p. 334).
Such usefulnessbringscontentmentin theworldofthedomesticnovel.While earlyon in TheLamplighter
Gertyis "always
idle,-a fruitful
source of unhappinessand discontent"(p. 9),
she later findsthe equanimitythatwoman'sfictionassociates
withcontinual household employment.When workinghard,
"Ellen grewrosyand hardy... she was veryhappytoo. Her extremeand varied occupation made thispossible" (WideWorld,
pp. 335-36). So, too, Hester initiallyemploys"her nativeenergyofcharacter"withsewing,finding"readyand fairly
requited
employmentforas manyhoursas she sawfitto occupywithher
needle" (ScarletLetter,
pp. 84, 82). Yet she humbly"soughtnot
to acquire any thingbeyond a subsistence,of the plainestand
most ascetic description"and "bestowedall her superfluous
means in charity"(p. 83). Despite-or perhaps because ofher trials,Hester has at least developed the appearance of the
feminine ideal of total self-denial,altruisticsympathy,and
practicalactivity.
Hawthornemakes clear, however,thatHester's thoughts
and feelingshave yetto matchthe virtueof her actions: "persons who speculate the most boldly often conformwith the
most perfectquietude to the externalregulationsof society";
"so it seemed to be withHester" (pp. 164-65). Althoughshe is
"patient-a martyr,
indeed,"she cannot "prayforher enemies;
lest ... thewordsof the blessingshould stubbornly
twistthemselves into a curse" (p. 85). Hester,like the young Ellen, has
not yet learned "to feeljust as kindlydisposed toward[cruel
people] as iftheyhad neveroffendedyou-just as willingand
inclined to please themor do themgood" (WideWorld,
p. 8o).
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
331
This is not the onlyrule thatHester has yetto accept: "In her
lonesome cottage,by the sea-shore,"her "freedomof speculation"leads her to conclude falselythat"theworld'slaw was no
p. 164). "In thedarklabyrinth"
Letter,
lawforher mind" (Scarlet
with "a home and comfortnowhere" and "wild and ghastly
sceneryall around" (p. 166), Hesteris farfromthe restrictions
of the conventionaldomestic order that,in the nineteenthcenturyworldview,provide salvation. In this darkness her
thoughtstravelfromthe possibilityof gender equalityto suicide and infanticide-the novel linkingall of these ideas as
equally horrifying-and at this moment the narratorunderscores that"thescarletletterhad not done itsoffice"(p. 165).
Only when her thoughtsand feelingsconformto the selfless
willshe have learned her
ideals offemininecommunitarianism
lesson.UnlikethefeebleDimmesdale,however,Hesterhas the
instrucstrengthto leave the darkmaze and finishthedifficult,
tivejourney.
are
The toughlessonsof self-denialand social conformity
fiction
also
heroines
of
woman's
only learned over time.The
struggleand resistbefore accepting "the world'slaw."Justas
Hester ponders the inequitablepositionthat"long hereditary
habit"has forced"thewhole race of womanhood"into (Scarlet
Letter,
p. 165), so Ellen clingsto a beliefin equitable treatment
to speak to her harshly
and screamsthather aunt has "no right"
by throwing
p. 159). Hester expressesfrustration
(WideWorld,
offher letter and letting down her hair (ScarletLetter,p. 21 1),
while Gertyresponds to her tormentorsby throwingactual
pp. 1 1, 49). Antebellumreaders
sticksand stones (LamplVighter,
would be likelyto read thesechildishtantrums
and Hester'smeand
irresponsible
manner:
as
in
the
same
andering thoughts
uncontrolledmoments.No matterhowunderstandablethe reactionsgiventheprovocation,theywould stillbe judged as momentsofweaknessand sin.
But in each of thesethreenarratives,
theyoungwomanreprocesstoward
pentsher actionsand continuesthestep-by-step
femininevirtue(as definedat the time). Respectingthe diffireaders expected a protagocultyof achievingself-discipline,
nistsuch as Ellen to experience "alternatesurgingsof passion
p. 553).
and checks of prudence and conscience" (WideWorld,
332
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
Hawthorne's narrator,after noting that Hester still resents
Chillingworth,
sternlyconcludes thatshe "oughtlong ago to
have done withthisinjustice"and asks"had sevenlongyears...
wroughtout no repentance?"(ScarletLetter,
p. 177). This query
is left unanswered,but the response could be the same as
that to the Lamplighter
narrator'sinquirywhetherGerty,after
two years in a lovinghousehold, had "learned self-control?"
"learnedreligion?":"She had begun;and thoughher footsteps
oftenfalter,thoughshe sometimesquite turnsaside, and, impatientof the narrowway,givesthe rein to her old irritability
and ill-temper,. . . thereis the strongestfoundationforhopefulnessin thesincerity
ofher good intentions,and thedepthof
p. 72).
her contrition" (Lamplighter,
Onlya sincerelycontriteand humbleheroinewillbe able to
achieve the antebellumfeminineideal, buildinga house ofvirtueupon thefoundationofinnerstrength
Strong
and sympathy.
emotionalone is not enough. This feelingmustbe directedtowardothers;it is not a responseto one's ownsense of beinginjured. The antebellumdomesticangel marshalsher emotion
practicallyand altruistically.
Gertyhas yetto achievesuch emotionalcontrolwhen earlyin TheLamplighter
she feelspersonally
wrongedand is "easilyroused, her spiritsvariable,her whole
nature sensitiveto the last degree" (p. 69). Her role model,
thatGertymust
EmilyGraham,embodies the typeof sensitivity
develop. Emily"neverforgotthe sufferings,
the wants,the necessities, of others"; "her own great misfortunes. . . were borne
withoutrepining;but the misfortunes
and trialsof othersbecame her care, the alleviationof them her greatestdelight.
Emilywas neverwearyof doing good" (p. 57) .
In the finalstages of her developmentHester displaysa
similarly
admirablebalance ofaltruismand action: "Such helpfulnesswas foundin her,-so much powerto do, and powerto
sympathize,-thatmanypeople refusedto interpretthe scarlet
A byits originalsignification.
They said thatit meantAble; so
strongwas HesterPrynne,witha woman'sstrength"(ScarletLetter,p. 161). Hawthornemaynot elaborateon whatqualifiesas
"a woman'sstrength,"but his contemporariesfrequentlydid,
repeatedlyequatingitwithselflessness.
Cummins'snarrator,for
example,tellsus thatlove and "a higherlight"bringGertythe
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
333
qualitiesthatshe needs to survive:"a woman'sstrengthof heart
and self-denial"(Lamplighter,
p. 34).
In The ScarletLetter,as in TheLamplighterand The Wide,Wide
the heroine'smoralvictorydepends upon hervanquishWorld,
ingall individualistic
desire.Beforeshe accomplishesthis,Ellen
meetsMrs.Vawse,who providesan "example of contentment"
(Wide World,p. 194). A widow with "no money nor property,"
Mrs.Vawseremains"independent"and "does all sortsof things
to supportherself,""isn'tabove doing any thing,and yet she
never forgetsher own dignity,"and is always"cheerfuland
happy" (pp. 194-95). At the end of The ScarletLetterwe get the
pictureof the fullyreformedHester,who has also perfected
thissortofself-denialand usefulness.Whenwe meether in the
"Conclusion,"the letterhas at last "done itsoffice"-leavinga
"deep print"of itsmoral lesson (p. 259) . In her finalincarnation Hester has resumedwearingthe letter"of her own free
will";she has "no selfishends, nor livedin anymeasureforher
own profitand enjoyment,"but leads a "toilsome,thoughtful"
existence devoted to others (p. 263). She has achieved the
ideal state thatthe heroines of domesticfictionfinallyattain.
Near the end of The Wide, Wide Worldthe narrator can say of
Ellen thatthough "she had been a passionatechild in earlier
days;under religion'shappy reign thathad long ceased to be
true of her" (p. 553). Justlike Hester at the conclusion of
Hawthorne'snovel, the matureEllen embodies "thatsingular
mixtureof gravityand sweetnessthatis neverseen but where
religionand disciplinehave done theirworkwell" (WideWorld,
P 559).
Once theybecome fullyself-disciplined,
withtheirindividualisticimpulsesreined in, theseheroinesare able to perpetuate the cycleof religiousinfluenceprizedbythe authorsof domesticfiction.We see Ellen-who has modeled herselfon the
virtuousAlice,who in turnlearned fromthe saintlyMrs.Vawse
-continue the patternby bringingNancyand Mr. Van Brunt
to accept Christianity.
Hawthornedoes not fail to remindhis
readers thatHester, too, providespositiveinfluence:"people
broughtall theirsorrowsand perplexities"to her cottage,and
"Hester comfortedand counselled them, as best she might"
(ScarletLetter,
p. 263). Althoughshe was once guiltyof leading
334
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE
Dimmesdaleastraywith"radical"ideas, itseemslikelythatHesterat the conclusionoffersverydifferent
counsel,teachingthe
same lesson-of restrainingpassion and conformingto social
law-that she herselfhas learned, puttingoffthe hope for
"new truth"and an equitable "relation between man and
woman"to a distantfuture(p. 263). True to the conservative
feminineideal, she is humble,knowingthatshe is too "bowed
down with shame" to be the prophetessof this coming era
(p. 263). In thisfinalstage of her developmentHester illustratesTheLamplighter's
lesson that"thepowerof Christianhuof
mility,engraftedinto the heart,-the humilityof principle,
conscience"
is the "one power thatneverfailsto quell and subp. 73). In the end,
due earthlypride and passion"(Lamplighter,
Hester-like Ellen and Gerty-is devoid of all such pride and
passion and exemplifiesangelic humilityand self-denial.The
author of "A Chapter on Women"concludes her commentary
witha descriptionthatcould describethe "Able"Hester of the
novel'send, notingthatwhatsocietyshouldvalue in a womanis
"goodsense":such a woman's"highdestinyis not to achieve any
greator wonderfulwork,or to provethe perfectionof her sex,
but todo whatshecan; dailyfulfilling
dailyduties,dailyexperiencing daily pleasures; her home her kingdom;a fewloving
heartsthe objectsof her untiringcare; she moveson, and her
influence will be felt" ("A Chapter on Women," pp. 294-95).
Seeing how well Hester fits this antebellum ideal and
how closelyDimmesdale matches the disparaged eighteenthcentury alternative,it is hardly surprisingthat critics responded accordinglywhen Hawthorne's novel initiallyappeared. The NorthAmericanReviewclaimed thatwe feel most
forHawthorne'sheroinewhen "wesee her humble,meek,selfThis reviewerjudged
denying,charitable,and heart-wrung."49
Hester's maternaland domestic qualities to be "humanizing
traits,"but he thoughtthat her character "disappoints"the
readerwhen she expressesher rebellioussentiments(p. 140).
Similarly,he judges Dimmesdale harshlybecause the ministerfailsto live up to the culturalideals of usefulnessand selfrestraint.The essayistcritiquesthe reverend'swastedemotion,
49
Rev. of TheScarletLetter;
a Romance,byNathanielHawthorne,NorthAmerican
Re-
view, 71 (1850),
140.
THE
SCARLET
LETTER
335
complaining of Dimmesdale's "mere suffering,aimless and
without effect....
Every pang is wasted. A most obstinate and
unhuman [sic] passion, or a most unwearyingconscience it
mustbe, neitherbeing worn out, or made worse or better,by
such a prolonged application of the scourge" (p. 141). The
ministerfeelsstrongly,
but his emotionhas no purpose or impact and so elicitscontemptratherthan sympathyfromthe
nineteenth-century
reader.
Clearly,Hawthorne's connotativedepiction of his protagonistssucceeded in convincingmid-centuryaudiences of
Dimmesdale's contemptibility
and Hester'sworthiness.In accordancewiththisrole reversal,itis the "fallenman"who crumbles and dies at the end of the novel.As Hesterholds the dying
ministerin her arms-"Then, downhe sankupon the scaffold!
Hester partlyraised him, and supportedhis head againsther
bosom" (p. 255)-we see the new model forcapable womanhood watchingthe decline of the old model of eighteenthcenturyfictionalvalues.50
The portrayalsof ArthurDimmesdale and Hester Prynne
in TheScarlet
like the depictionsof charactersin woman's
Letter,
fiction,critiquetheeighteenth-century
seductionnoveland respond to nineteenth-century
literarycommentary.Withpowerful iconographyHawthorne constructsa conservativetale
that reinforcesthe "code of ethics" put forthin public discourse, teachingreaders to suppress "individualinstinctand
impulse" and uphold those "moral truths"that the Graham's
Magazinereviewerwrote of in 1852. Reviewersmightaccuse
Frenchnovelists-or even Dimmesdale-of dressing"depravity"up in a deceptively"fascinating
garb,"but Hawthornehimselfcould not be so charged.The "morals"of his storyconnect
him to-rather thandistancehimfrom-the values expressed
byboth his cultureand his femalecontemporaries.
University
ofCalifornia,Davis
50 Such death scenes oftenappear in eighteenth-century
novels.CharlotteTemple
is held in her lastmomentsbyher father(see Charlotte
p. 115), just as in Samuel
Temple,
Woodworth'sTheChampions
ofFreedom
(1 816) we see "Ameliaat thedeath-bedofHarriet
Palmer ... sustainingher head on her bosom, and wipingthe clammydews of death
fromher sunkencheeks" (The Champions
ofFreedom,
orTheMysterious
A Romanceof
Chief.
theNineteenth
2 vols. [NewYork:CharlesN. Baldwin,1818], II, ioo-ioi).
Century,