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Intro to Fiction
Mary Hays
17th March 2015
The Scarlet Letter: Evilness as a Theme
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, evilness is presented as a prominent theme
throughout the story. Hester commits adultery, and society considers her relationship with
Dimmesdale evil. Furthermore, Hawthorne also implies the evilness within the cruel callowness
of the Puritan fathers. However, Hawthorne elicits that the true evil is not the relationship
between Hester and Dimmesdale nor the ignorance of the Puritan fathers. Instead, true evil is
shown through Mistress Hibbins’s attempts to lure the good, such as Hester, into evil, Arthur
Dimmesdale’s fear and failure to publicly acknowledge his relationship with Hester and his own
child Pearl, and the carefully planned reveng of Roger Chillingworth, whose conception of love
has been corrupted and distorted as the story progresses.
Throughout the story, Hibbins serves as the constant temptation that tries to lure the
good, Hester, into evil. After Hester convinces the governors and reverend to allow her to keep
Pearl, Hibbins, whose “ill-omened physiognomy seemed to cast a shadow over the cheerful
newness of the house” (Hawthorne 110), tries to lure Hester to join the “merry company in the
forest” (Hawthorne 110). Luckily, the importance of Pearl to Hester “saved her from Satan’s
snare” (Hawthorne 110) and saved her from being a character of evil. Though Hibbins is
unsuccessful in her attempts to convert Hester into evil, Hibbins herself is certainly a form of
evil presented to tempt and challenge Hester.
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Although Hawthorne portrays Dimmesdale as good alongside Hester, there are moments
where Dimmesdale is implied as evil. After Dimmesdale refuses to “take [Pearl’s] hand, and
[Hester’s] hand” in public, the Sexton informs Dimmesdale that the scaffold is “where evil-doers
are set up to public shame…Satan dropped it there” (Hawthorne 148). Although this does
indicate the evil within Dimmesdale for his relationship with Hester, Dimmesdale’s cruel refusal
toward his child is what makes him an “evil doer.” Though a lesser evil, Dimmesdale’s cold
attitude earlier still makes Pearl doubtful, who even goes on further to question “doth he love us”
(Hawthorne 202)? Later, Pearl remarks, “In the nighttime he calls us to him…And in the deep
forest, where only the old trees can hear, and the strip of sky see it, he talks with thee, sitting on a
heap of moss…A strange, sad man is he, with his hand always over his heart” (Hawthorne 218),
which, to a certain extent, resembles a description of the Black Man. Hawthorne previously
describes Chillingworth, who has a gloomy appearance and a heart filled with darkness, as the
Black Man. In other words, Dimmesdale is being compared to Chillingworth, another significant
representation of evil which will be discussed later. Hawthorne indirectly relates Dimmesdale’s
mysterious and secretive handling of his relationship with Hester to an evil that Pearl distrusts.
However, after Dimmesdale calls on Hester and Pearl and reveals his relationship with them, he
claims, “with God’s help. I shall escape thee now…but let it be guided by the will which God
hath granted me” (Hawthorne 239)! It seems as if he has become good again through “God’s
help” after he confesses. The evil in him is purified when he “stretched forth his arms”
(Hawthorne 239) toward Hester and Pearl. Dimmesdale says,
God knows; and He is merciful! He hath proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions.
By giving this burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and
terrible old man, to keep the torture always at red-heat! By bringing me hither, to die this
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death of triumphant ignominy before the people! Have either of these agonies been
wanting, I had been lost for ever (Hawthorne 243)!
After suffering from his sin that caused him to demonstrate temporary evilness, he can rectify
himself and cherish God’s role in helping him overcome his sin and evilness that has once
blinded him.
On the other hand, Roger Chillingworth, the antagonist, demonstrates a transformation
from a profound doctor to a cruel avenger. Throughout the story, Chillingworth slowly embodies
evilness, one of the themes in The Scarlet Letter, and is portrayed as a living devil. Initially,
Chillingworth is introduced as a stranger who had “writhing horror twisted itself across its
features…like a snake gliding swiftly over them…with all its wreathed intervolutions in open
sight” (Hawthorne 54). Here, the description of a snake is very interesting. The relationship
between Dimmesdale and Hester are, according to Public Broadcasting Service, “much like
Adam and Eve…symbolically cast out of Paradise for their sin, forced to suffer, toil, and
confront their guilt at their transgression of society norms—as well as their own” (n.p.) In
Garden of Eden, the snake played a significant role in Eve’s sin. The snake acted as an evil that
tempted Eve. Similarly, Chillingworth, who is characterized by a snake, acts as an evil that
interferes with the relationship between Hester and Dimmesdale, although lawfully Dimmesdale
is interfering with Hester and Chillingworth’s marriage. Nevertheless, this analogy at the
beginning of the story implies Chillingworth’s later role in the story as an evil.
During Hester’s first formal encounter with Chillingworth in chapter four, Hester gives
another reference that substantiates Chillingworth’s role as an evil. Hester questions
Chillingworth, “Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us? Hast thou
enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul” (Hawthorne 73)? However,
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Chillingworth responds that it is “not [Hester’s] soul” (Hawthorne 73) that he is going for but
Dimmesdale’s. Hawthorne does not express evil in the relationship between Hester and
Dimmesdale, but rather on Chillingworth, who is going to “prove the ruin of [Dimmesdale’s]
soul” (Hawthorne 73).
In the custom house, the narrator introduces the story’s relation to the Puritan culture, in
which we are first exposed to the concept of sin and evil.
But the sentiment has likewise its moral quality. The figure of that first ancestor, invested
by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur, was presented…It still haunts me, and
induces a sort of home-feeling with the past, which I scarcely claim in reference to the
present phase of the town…he had all the Puritan traits, both good and evil…Doubtless,
however, either of these stern and black-browed Puritans would have thought it quite a
sufficient retribution for his sins (Hawthorne 11).
He makes a reference to Hawthorne’s ancestors and acknowledges the sins they committed,
which may be why Hawthorne does not emphasize Hester, who supposedly commit an
unforgivable sin, as an evil. Although Hester commits adultery, a sin that would commonly be
thought as evil today, Hawthorne depicts Hester’s transformation from a sinner that is isolated
from society to a more accepted woman due to her good deeds, thus avoiding the blame as an
evil deed. However, that would be a completely different essay that touches upon Hester’s
redemption and effort throughout the story. On the other hand, Hawthorne demonstrates true evil
in Mistress Hibbins’s malefic practices, Dimmesdale’s refusal to acknowledge his child in
public, and Chillingworth’s malignant desire for revenge.
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Works Cited
“1850, The Scarlet Letter.” PBS. Will-TV, n. d. Web. 3 Mar 2015.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.