For or Against? Hawthorne's View on the Duality of Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter（小说《红字》读后感）

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he scarlet letter, written by Hawthorne, is a typical work of American Romanticism. The novel, written in the 18th century, narrates a story happened in Boston in the 17th century when Puritans came to the new world after the persecution of England. Specifically, it depicts a story of the pain that Hester, a young woman bound by unreasonable marriage, has to bear when she betrays her marriage and belief. Through a Cyclical Systems of Cultural Archetypes indicated in the novel demonstrated in Research on the Humanized Puritanism of Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter, the story is divided into 5 parts, which not only shows the narrative order, but also ,from my perspective, reflects the writer’s view of the duality-respect and rebellion of the religion at that time. Furthermore, this report also discusseshow these two opposing attitudes towards puritanism are shown in the context through the plot order and how this feature makes the novel epic.

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 🙁SATIRE & REBELLION

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     Satire and Rebellion being the main melody of Hawthorne’s masterpiece, the rebellion towards Puritanism is, in particular, conspicuous.

     There is a cyclical system of cultural archetype expressed in this novel, while the theory was first introduced by Frye. Here I try to explicate it with a chart below. The story starts from the birth of the heroine to the end of her death, just like the plants of the four seasons, but death means not only the death par, se, but also the rebirth of new life forms. Five phases in the story, in one form or another, indicate author’s objection to puritanism.

     The Spring and Summer part, representing comedy factors, can be shown from the birth of Pearl, which can be taken as a repay or a celebration of the protagonist’s true love. The mythos of spring is successfully presented at the beginning of the story. But, in another aspect, we can also see it as a kind of escaping the ties of cruel society that derived from the puritans’ settlement. After all, under no circumstance can you deny the substantial role of puritanism in developing the overture of the whole story.

     For tragedy part (Autumn) in the novel, the “fall” or demise of the protagonist see the sorrowful composition as autumn is the dying stage of the seasonal calendar. Dimmesdale, one of the most outstanding leaders of the Puritan, committed adultery and thus falls down from Eden, just as what Adam had experienced in the Bible.

     In the same light for satire (Winter), Hester and Dimmesdale should live a happy life elsewhere as they had planned in the forest. But the insistence of the priest to finish his sermons on the Election Day turned their dream into the opposite. As a priest, Dimmesdale had an affair with Hester. It was just the rebel satire to the social system and rules at that time-the most admired minister was the adulterer that everyone looked for.

     From the negative impact of puritanism directly conveyed in the context, Hawthorne drew an intact and quite real picture of the society under the canopy of puritanism.

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😊RESPECT

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     However, the respect towards Puritanism does exists, which is hidden between the lines.

     Crime is a part of the Puritan redemption theory, but more importantly, atonement and salvation. In the novel, all the three sinners find a way back to their souls by publicly punishing them.

     Hester redeemed her past wrongdoings with inner confession and external action. She lived a life of atonement away from the public, endured everything without complaint, and did not ask for compensation or expect sympathy from people because of her suffering. Hence, she gradually gained a kind of spiritual peace, and won the sympathy and good impression of people around her.

     Though Dimmesdale didn't have a scarlet letter on his chest, the scarlet letter in his heart was secretly burning. He had to be denounced by his heart and kept away from the prying eyes of the outside world. Under these two kinds of torture of himself and the enemies around him, his spirit and body were on the verge of collapse. He was still struggling, and finally told his inner secret in public with amazing courage. What's precious is that he took the initiative to expose himself. He completed the moral purification.

     The ending of Chillingworth proves Hawthorne's moral concept again. His revenge is the culprit to stop his atonement, but at the end of the novel, there is a turning point. After Chillingworth's death, according to his will, he left a large amount of his property to little pearl. There is no doubt that this move contains a certain degree of repentance.

     Through his works, the author seems to tell people that human beings need to forgive each other and there are no incurable sinners in the world. As long as you want, you can always get salvation. And this maxim, in some ways, just expressed Hawthorne’s identification, or respect, of the deep substance of puritanism-atonement to the god.

     It is this kind of contradiction that makes The Scarlet Letter a classic, which is constantly worthy analyzing by all the critics hereafter. The negative reflection, or maybe an ode of puritanism, merely can’t absolutely give us a kaleidoscopic panorama of his current society, as his novel finally achieved.

     In summary, to be an epic, on the one hand a novel has to reveal what people in the flesh are really suffering in some particular generation, on the other hand, the opposition and integration of a binary object must be implicated as an expression of literariness. Just like Hawthorne, while holding a respectful attitude towards the Puritan Ethics, and thought that sin was the nature of human beings, which needed to be redeemed by taking actions, at the same time he revealed the harm caused by some unreasonable Puritan Ethics. It is, absolutely, a wonderful cogitation on the relationship between faith and life.

References:

[1].   Wang, Y. Research on the Humanized Puritanism of Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter. in Research on the Humanized Puritanism of Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter. 2018. 中国陕西西安.

[2].   徐曦, 从霍桑的《红字》看清教徒主义. 贵阳学院学报(社会科学版), 2017. 12(03): 第57-60页.

[3].   李华, 尊崇和反叛——从《红字》看霍桑清教观的二元性. 郑州经济管理干部学院学报, 2007(02): 第67-69页.

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