Name:- Parmar
Milankumar
Semester-: Third
Batch Year:- 2014-16
Enrolment no.-:
14101026
Paper no.-: 10-
American Literature
Submitted to- Dr. Dilip Barad
Smt. S B
Gardi
Department of English
Introduction
‘The Scarlet
Letter’ is written by American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne
was born on 4th July 1804. The publication of this work earn him
place among the literary writer of great importance. He had a great ability of
character drawing, and his powerful way of unfolding a story and his
interesting though quaint style have all contributed to his greatness as a
novelist. One of the greatest quality of his is depiction of the effect of sin
on human psyche.
Hawthorne has contributed much to
the fiction of America he is remembered today as the author of ‘The Scarlet
Letter’. This work had great influence on later written literature in America
and it had described as the “greatest novel/book ever written in the
western Hampshire.”
In 1846 Hawthorne
was appointed as “surveyor” for the district of Salem and Beverly and inspector
of revenue for the port of Salem. His experience during that time provided him
some inspiration and material which he later used in the “Custom House” section
of The
Scarlet Letter.
Hawthorne’s
ancestors were puritan thus he had deep relation as well as influence over the
personality and mind of the author. This work has given balanced importance in
emphasizing the weakness as well as strength of his ancestors. Puritan’s were
marked for their rigid and oppressive attitude. The Scarlet Letter can be read
as Hawthorn’s attitude towards puritans of Briton. It is the society which
makes characters like Hester, Chillingworth and Dimesdale suffers.
The Scarlet
Letter takes us back to the early days of the puritan settlement at
Massachusetts. The book derives its title from the custom strictly practiced by
puritan settlers that a woman caught in act of adultery was wear to the letter
“A” embroidered in scarlet on her dress. So let’s discuss the Puritan society
and their way of living, their social systems as represented in “The Scarlet Letter.”
History of Puritans in New England:-
The early
puritans who came to America in 1620 founded a precarious colony in Playmouth,
and with that they established a society there.
They formed certain rules and regulations to keep society in order and to
stop and to control the attacks made by Indian were living there already. And
the novel set its place in this society.
A society is
constructed through many things in which some institutions like religion plays
vital role I the proper functioning of the society. Puritan society is full of beliefs and
misbelieves in their religion. Puritan society was purely based on religion and
God remain at the center of their everyday life.
Man God and Salvation
These early
puritans were following the writings of a French protestant reformer named John
Calvin whose teaching saw the world as a grim conflict between good and evil,
God and Satan. Thus puritans believed that there is a strong relation between
God and individual. They were very introspective and they constantly search for
the evidence of elect of god in their soul, those who have were chosen people
by god for salvation. According to them a merciful God had sent his son Jesus
Christ to to the earth to die for the sin of man, but only few would be saved.
Throughout the novel characters like
Dimesdale, Mr. Wilson is constantly trying to find that element within their soul.
Dimesdale constantly give sermons and speeches to young and middle age people
about the god. John Wilson who is a historical character and he was “The eldest
Clergyman of Boston” who following Hester’s refusal to name of Pearl’s Father,
he delivers a long sermon on the sin of adultery to the crowd that has gathered
to witness Hester’s trial.
Dimesdale with the belief of Element
and because of that he could not accept Hester. And for that he tries to
justify his decision to keep his guilt secret on the grounds that some men
retains “a zeal for God’s glory and
man’s welfare” and that further service to God and his
fellow creatures he and men like him must of necessity suffer “unbearable
torment”.
Church State Common man
In puritan
society only who were male and members of the church could vote. In addition
ministers guided the elected officials of the colony; consequently there was
close tie between church and state.
In The Scarlet
Letter those two branches of government are presented by Mr. Roger Wilson who
represents Church and Governor of Bellingham represents State.
The rules
governing the puritans came from The Bible a source of spiritual and ethical
standards. These rules were definite and the penalties or punishments were
public and severe.
These stern and
introspective puritans provided a rigid structure that was repressive to individual
but that enabled the society/colony to survive those early years when order and
faith needed.
Crime sin and punishment
The puritan society strongly
believed in the Bible and its way of living life, they had formed the legal
system based on that, with that they made clear rules for certain crimes and
these rules and crimes and sin to be avoided are preached in public sermons. As
it was just after the Hester’s punishment sermon summoned by John Wilson.
There was
different punishment for different crimes. It was made clear to the society
that what sin is. Every member of the society has to follow the commandments
which were written in the Bible and those who disregarded to the laws of the
society were banished, persecuted, and in some cases executed.
At very first
chapter of the novel we see the protagonist Hester Prynne standing on the
scaffold and facing the huge crowd. It signifies she had committed some kind of
crime, she has violated the law of the society and thus she had been brought
there for punishment. She faced public shame and further punishments were
decided by states man and religious people.
We come to know that she has
committed the crime of adultery, as one of the commandments written in Bible is
that “thou
shalt not commit adultery”. It is god’s seventh commandment. And those
who violet it are sinners, so the scarlet letter is a story of sin. And that is
why Hester and Dimesdale who commit this sin could not be forgiven.
Thus Hester given
punishment to wear letter “A” on her bosom/ bodice of her
dress and that is what the title of the novel symbolizes. Similarly if someone commits
crime like murder then he or she has to wear the letter “M” one ones bosom.
The practice of black magic believed
to be worst kind of the sins in puritan society as in novel these practices
were executed by character like Chillingworth. Hawthorne believed that the
greatest sin of all is “the violation of another soul, another
heart, simply for the purpose of finding out how it would react”. And that is what Chillingworth was trying to
do with Dimesdale, but he is not punished because it remained private till his
death.
One more belief about sin is those
who know witchcrafts and if puritan found anyone under the influence of that
then their name would be written in “Black man’s Diary”. Forest
was believed as place for practicing witchcraft. One of the minor character Miss
Hibbins sister of Governor found to be written her name in the “Black
man’s Diary” and in history she was executed as witch.
Individual vs Puritan society
Society is
constructed to keep individual together many individual makes a society.
Society is made from an individual but it is not from an individual’s
perspective. In the process of creating
and maintaining the society an individual has to go through acute pain, where
one has to continuously sacrifice his or her own desires and wish.
Each and every society has its own rules,
notion and regulation and ideology to keep society in good order. But when
these orders and laws violated- obviously it would be from an individual, thus
one has to be ready to pay for it. And it is Puritan society in the novel and
thus there is no scope for an individual.
Hester, Pearl, Dimesdale, and Chillingworth
suffers in this Puritan world because of the rigidity of the society, no doubt
individual too is responsible for the suffering. But in both the cased society
is more responsible.
Hester and Dimesdale Suffers because puritans have made rule that a religious man could not marry, this is forbidden to them. Thus Dimesdal could not accept Hester publically. He only could accept at the end of his life and even end of the novel too. If this types of rules were not in society then it would have end up differently.
The problems of Hester come from society she
has been living in Boston since two years, whose husband sent her there two
years before. It is clear from the beginning of the novel that she has nothing
to do with her husband and her marriage with Chillingworth was not less than a
disaster in her life.
In both the cases to keep order in
the society individuals were sacrificed. Even in Indian culture still we do
believe in marriage as a holy connection, and in must be kept till the death.
At present in India many Hesters are suffering the movie by Farhan Akhtar “Dil
Dhadakne do“ portrayed the condition of women in Indian society
very well.
Only some extra ordinary individuals
can raise voice and go against chains of the society Hester is one of them, she
had faith on herself, her strong individualism, her passion and desires helped
her to dismantle the chains. With all these things she is able to tackle every
obstacle that society throws at her. At the Scaffold scene when she was asked
to speak the name of the fellow sinner thus child would get the father. In an
answer of this she replied “my child must seek a heavenly father;
she shall never know any earthly one”. This shows her strong
individualism that she doesn’t need anybody now. She will live her life in her way, she can
nourish and cherish her child without help from anyone. And because of her
strong individualism the sign of “A” frequently changes its
meaning.
Conclusion:-
However the well
framed a society is but still it has some problems in its own. Here the puritan
society doing well in laws and social order but it had its own lacks like it
failed to keep each and every individual happy, even in the matter of laws
everybody/sinners didn’t punished. Some criminals were remained private like
Dimesdale and Chillingworth both had committed sin and crime but puritan laws
failed to do that as they both died before their crimes come to public. And
individual like Hester will suffer in that society.
Works Cited
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Scarlet Letter.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Scarlet Letter.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.
Dibble, Terry J.The Scarlet Letter. New Delhi: Kalyani, 199.
well organized assignment
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