The Puritan Society of The Scarlet Letter

The Puritan era during which the action of Hawthorne's (1961) The Scarlet Letter takes place embodied a society in which the individual and his or her actions were often pitted against a social order determined to stamp out behaviors it considered immoral. Hester Prynne is pilloried by the town fathers for having committed adultery. She is led forth from prison, with an embroidered scarlet "A" on her bosom and her love child in her arms, to a pillory where she is forced to endure three hours of humiliation. While waiting in Boston for the arrival of her husband, Roger Prynne, Hester has committed adultery with an unknown male (Arthur Dimmesdale). While being pilloried, Hester spies her much older husband in the crowd. Now Roger "Chillingworth", her husband convinces Hester to refrain from identifying him.

Hester will endure seven long years of ignominy and shame, wearing her scarlet "A" and surviving by doing needlework and helping the poor and needy. Roger Chillingworth passes himself off as a physician and vows vengeance upon the man that is her daughter Pearl's father. Even when told she can remove her scarlet letter, Hester refuses as she is not repentant and has only the identity of her love to conceal. Her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, is a minister who cannot confess his culpability. Chillingworth comes to suspect Dimmesdale is Hester's lover, moving in with him in the guise of a physician to poison and torture Dimmsdale. To prot

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rought himself nearer to her level, or perhaps below it, by the revenge which he had stooped for" (Hawthorne 1961, 183). This is why Dimmesdale will inform Hester that the old man's evil is a blacker sin than the one they committed together. Chillingworth is so consumed with revenge that he cannot accept any responsibility for his actions. His circumstances force him to act without regard for social mores or morality. He admits to Hester that it was unnatural for such an old, decaying man to wed a young and lovely woman. The loveless match ends in the estrangement of husband and wife. Chillingworth then abandons his wife, presumed dead at sea, and out of loneliness she reaches out to love Dimmesdale. Chillingworth, upon his return, jealously avenges what he considers the actions of evildoers. He lays total blame for the scandal upon the one who cheated him out of his marriage. There are no social or moral constraints placed upon his desire to see retribution. He diabolically and without conscience sets out to destroy the man who took his place and won Hester's heart. When Hester pleas with him, "Hast thou not tortured him enough?...Has he not paid thee all?", Chillingworth responds, "No! no! He has but increased the deb

Category: Literature - T