Rebecca Edelblum
Mrs.Greer
English
Sin and Punishment:
The Expositors of Character in the Scarlet Letter
Just as sin is dependent on the personality of the transgressor, so to is
the extent of the punishment. It is the character’s reaction to sin which
unearths the internal mechanics of the human psyche. The reaction of,
Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmsdale and Pearl illustrate the effects of sin upon
character in Nathaniel Hawthorn’s “The Scarlet Letter”.
Hester Prynne's womanly attributes permeate her life experiences in
both sin and repentance. Even in her darkest hour as she faces the
humiliation of the scaffold: “never had Hester appeared more lady-like, in
the antique interpretation of the term, than as she issued from the
prison.”(p.39) The “A” imposed upon Hester as a punishment merely
confirms her strength:
“The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other
woman dared not tread/ Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had
been her teachers/ Stern and ones, and they made her
strong.”(136)
The acknowledgment of her sin protects Hester; “It imparted to the wearer a
kind of sacredness, which enabled her to walk securely amid all peril.”(111)
The experiences that were gained through the aid of her punishment further
develop her female intuitions and nobility. Her fate develops her feminine
attributes:
“Such is frequently the fate/ And such the stern development,
Of the feminine character and person/ When the woman has
encountered, and lived through an experience of peculiar
severity/ If she survives the tenderness will either be crushed
out of her, or- and the outward semblance is the same- crushed
so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself
anymore.”(112)
Undoubtedly, Hester’s punishment led her to misery. However, one may
question the sincerity of her repentance:
“Image of happiness, which they will have imposed upon her as
the warm reality/ But Hester ought long ago to have done with
this injustice/ What did it betoken? Had seven long years, under
the torture of the scarlet letter, inflicted so much of misery, and
wrought no repentance.” (120)
Just as “Hester’s strong, calm, steadfastly enduring spirit”(166),
accompanies her through her sin of passion, this same strength is displayed
as she tolerates her punishment:
“All the world had frowned upon her/ For seven long years they
had frowned upon this woman/ Still she bore it all, nor once
turned away her firm, sad eyes/ Heaven likewise had frowned
upon her and she had not died.” (133)
Arthur Dimmsdale hides from his punishment. He marvels at Hester,
for her sin is exposed, while he dwells on his sin, punishing himself in
secrecy:
“Of penance I have had enough! Of penance, there has been
none! …Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter
openly on your bosom! Mine burns in secret! Thou little know
what a relief it is to look into an eye that recognizes me?” (131)
His sin makes him more responsive and increases his sensitivity toward
moral issues: “As a man who had once sinned, but who kept his conscience
all alive and painfully sensitive by the fretting of an unhealed wound, he
might have been supposed safer within the line of virtue, than if he had
never sinned at all.” (136) It appears as though Dimmsdale never receives a
conventional punishment. However, his suffering served as a punishment far
superior to that of exposure:
“Arthur Dimmsdale! Were such a man once more to fall, what
plea could be urged in extenuation of his crime? …He was
broken down by long and exquisite suffering/ His mind was
darkened and confused by the very remorse which narrowed it;
that between fleeing as an avowed criminal and remaining a
hypocrite”. (136)
He is a hypocrite towards everything he preaches as a messenger of god. It is
Dimmsdale’s gift of spirituality that exacerbates the extent of the sin:
“Were I an atheist/ A man devoid of conscience, - a wretch with
coarse and brutal instincts, I might have found peace, long ere
now…whatever of good capacity there originally was in me, all
of the god’s gifts that were the choicest have become the
ministers of spiritual torment. Hester I am miserable!” (130)
Externally, Dimmsdale appears secure and spiritually stable. Internally he
fears spiritual banishment: “I have laughed in bitterness and agony of heart
at the contrast between what I seem and what I am! And Satan laughs
it!”(130) Only before Hester is his true character is revealed, “here seen only
by her eyes, Arthur Dimmsdale, false to god and man, might be, for one
moment, true!”(133) Hester provides strength for Dimmsdale and
encourages him to fight for his dignity: “Hester Prynne remained constant in
her resolve to make known to Mr. Dimmsdale, at whatever risk of present
pain or ulterior consequences, the true character of the man who crept into
his intimacy.”(124) Dimmsdale, the unpunished requires the strength and
fortitude of Hester: his victim: “Think for me Hester! Thou art strong/
Resolve for me!”(134) Dimmsdale perpetually dwells upon his sin and can
never get beyond it: “I must die here/ there is not the strength or courage left
in me to venture into the wide, strange, difficult world alone!”(135) Hester is
angered by his lack of faith as she advises him;
“Meddle no more with it! Begin anew! Hast thou exhausted
possibility in the failure of this one trial? Not so! The future is
yet full of trial and success/ There is happiness to be enjoyed!
There is good to be done! Exchange this false life of thine for a
true one”. (135)
Arthur Dimmsdale successfully hides behind his sin. Even Hester cannot
detect any external remorse: “To Hester’s eye Reverend Mr. Dimmsdale
exhibited no symptom of positive vivacious suffering, except that, as little
Pearl had remarked, he kept his hand over his heart”. (129)
Pearl, the outcome of a mutual sin between Dimmsdale and Hester, is
burdened since birth with the wrath of the sin. She reveals a unique
closeness to the ornate scarlet letter: “but that first object of which Pearl
seemed to become aware was-shall we say it? - the scarlet letter on Hester’s
bosom!”(67) The reader is made aware of Pearl’s distinct character traits
resulting from an awkward situation: “Pearl was born an outcast of the
infantile world”. (65) Her abnormal acts lead others to believe that she is
some sort of “demon child”: “The talk of the neighboring townspeople, who,
seeking vainly elsewhere from the child’s paternity, and observing some of
her odd attributes, had given out that poor little Pearl was a demon
offspring”. (69)
Pearl experiences many barriers that separate her from “normal” childhood.
These comments of her judgmental community, as well as the absence of her
father. Pearl serves as an emblem of the scarlet letter, “so magnificent was
the small figure, when thus arrayed, and such was the splendor of Pearl’
shown proper beauty, shining through the gorgeous robes which might have
extinguished a paler loveliness, that was an absolute circle of radiance
around her, on the darksome cottage floor.”(63) As an unintended result of
the public’s scorn Pearl develops superior qualities: “the spell of life went
forth from her ever creative spirits, and communicated itself to a thousand
objects, as a torch kindles a flame wherever it may be applied”. (66) Pearl
develops into a strong independent woman, as her mother had. It was the
situation that bore her, that was responsible for the product of a headstrong
woman. Pearl held her head high and walked with pride, as she handled the
situation with serenity.
Personality and specific character traits, exemplified by the reaction to
society’s condemnation of “sin,” determines the behavior of the protagonists
of Hawthorn’s novel. A persons’ nature is exposed under duress and
revealed by its vicissitudes. Hawthorn clearly favors nature over nurture in
his understanding of the human condition. Consequently, the single greatest
flaw in the novel is the failure of his characters to experience epiphany and
to grow over the course of the narrative.