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PURITANISM, , AND REASON AS REFLECTED IN THREE MAIN CHARACTERS OF ’S THE SCARLET LETTER (Puritanisme, Romantisme dan Alasan Yang Tercermin Dalam Tiga Karakter Utama “The Scarlet Letter Karya Nathaniel Hawthorne”)

Nasrum Marjuni Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar [email protected]

Abstract Tulisan inibertujuan untukmengetahui gambarandanbentukPuritanisme, Romantisme danAlasan pada novel The Scarlet Letter karya NathanielHawthorne.Metode yang digunakandalam tulisan ini adalah metode deskriptif kualitatif melalui studi kepustakaandengan teoristrukturalisme dinamik.Selain itu, hasil yang diharapkanadalah untukmengetahui gambaranPuritanisme, RomantismedanAlasanpada tigakarakter utama dalamThe Scarlet Letter.Puritanismedalam TheScarlet Letterditunjukkan dengankondisimasyarakat yang memilikihubungantransendentalmurni kepada Tuhan.Romantisme diungkapkan lewathubungan cinta, kebebasan individu, kegairahan dankebahagiaan yangberkaitan denganperasaan yang luar biasa.Alasan yang muncul di novel ini digambarkanolehperjuangantiga karakter utama dalam menggapai kebahagiaanmelaluitindakan beralasan yang menurut mereka sudah tepat dilakukan meskipun masyarakat belum mampu menerimanya.

Kata kunci: Puritanisme, Romantisisme, Alasan, Huruf Merah Marun

Abstract This writing is to identify the description and form of Puritanism, Romanticism and Reason found in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Method used in this research is descriptive qualitative through library research with dynamic structuralism. Furthermore, the result expected is to find out description through Puritanism, Romanticism and Reason analysis on the three characters in The Scarlet Letter. Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter is showed by the society condition where people have pure transcendental relationship to the God. Romanticism is revealed by love relationship, individual freedom, passionate and happiness that related to overwhelming feeling. Reason in The Scarlet Letter is depicted by the three characters’ struggle in pursuing happiness with their reasonable actions even thoughthe societyhas not beenable toaccept it.

Keywords: Puritanism, Romanticism, Reason, Scarlet Letter

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A. Introduction philosophies: Puritanism, Romanticism, and Reason seen from The Scarlet Letter attained an three main characters of The Scarlet immediate and lasting success because Letter focusing more on finding it addressed spiritual and moral issues freedom of human nature in terms of from a uniquely American standpoint. woman’s instincts underlying love In 1850, adultery was an extremely relationship between a man and a risqué subject, but because Hawthorne woman. In addition, for the scope of the had the support of the study, this paper focuses merely on the literary establishment, it passed easily suggestive meanings of the three main into the realm of appropriate reading. characters in order to put across those The Scarlet Letter represents the height ideas in relation to Puritan society and of Hawthorne's literary genius; dense ideas of exposed instincts as a form of with terse descriptions. freedom in human nature. Therefore, However, it is obvious that The this writing is aimed at identifying the Scarlet Letter is in depth a story for kinds of Puritanism, Romanticism and adults because of the suggestion of Reason represented by the three main . It is a form of imaginative characters in The Scarlet Letter. literature or spoken utterance The approach applied here is constructed in such a way that its dynamic structuralism as proposed by readers or listeners are encouraged to Mukarovsky that placed great emphasis look for meanings hidden beneath the on the dynamic tension between literal of fiction (The New literature and society in the artistic Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974:132). product (Selden, 1986). Structuralism The Scarlet Letter presents three main also views literature as a dynamic characters representing three different system that changes and shifts from philosophies throughout the moral time to time. Therefore, this approach declining era of the seventeenth century can include biographical sketch of the New England as the background of the author and social setting as background story giving an idea of human tragedy. of knowledge. Library research is Hawthorne reveals his concern to this employed in this paper using the novel moral decline with a somber and The Scarlet Letter as a main book to ironical tone. discuss. Since The Scarlet Letter is an allegory which delivers meanings beneath the novel, the paper is then going to prove that this story suggests B. Biographical Sketch of Nathaniel treatment of guilt and the complexities Hawthorne of moral choices.

Since the publication of The C. Social Background of The Story Scarlet Letter in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne has been recognized as one One reason of Hawthorne’s of America’s most important writers, choosing the seventeenth century New both a “romancer” who probed inner England as the background of the story mysteries and a “realist” who assessed The Scarlet Letteris that this is an era of the American character and experience. moral decline which can be a suitable Born in Massachusetts on the Fourth of one for his masterpiece of a human July, 1804, he was the descendant of tragedy. Hawthorne reveals his concern Puritan worthies and the son of a ship’s to this moral decline in The Scarlet captain. Letter with a somber and ironic tone.

From 1821 to 1825, Hawthorne While portraying the declining was a student at Bowdoin College, Puritan New England as the graduating in the middle of his class of background of The Scarlet Letter, thirty-eight. From the Scottish Hawthorne relieves the adultery of philosophers, he absorbed the concepts Hester and and of faculty psychology which would shows his sympathy to them by recur in his fiction. rebuking the ill-conceived marriage and the severe persecution of the Like his heroine Hester, Puritan society. Hawthorne emerges from confrontation with a self-righteous society as an The Scarlet Letteris set in the individual of integrity, passion, and mid-1600s in , which had been moral superiority. Hawthorne passed founded only about two decades earlier. away on May 19, 1864 in Plymouth, In 1630 hundreds of newly arrived New Hampshire after a long period of established a number of illness in which he suffered severe settlements in Massachusetts. The bouts of dementia. Emerson described Puritan movement began in the 1500s his life with the words "painful among people who believed that the solitude." Hawthorne maintained a Church of England was too much strong friendship with Franklin Pierce, influenced by the Crown and the but otherwise had few intimates and Catholic Church. As Protestants, the little engagement with any sort of social Puritans rejected the belief that divine life. His works remain notable for their authority is channeled through any one particular person, such as a pope.

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Puritans believed that people had the Letter is an allegory, readers should power to receive spiritual therefore find meanings hidden enlightenment directly from the within the novel through those three teachings of the Bible. The kings and main characters that are as follows: queens of England did not always agree  : the main with the Puritans. When Charles I character of The Scarlet closed Parliament in 1629 and Letter. Hester is the mother of pressured Puritan members to conform, Pearl, and is the woman who some Puritans traveled to the American must wear the scarlet letter. She colonies to gain religious freedom and is the wife of Roger establish new lives. Chillingworth, but Arthur Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father. These residents of Boston in the Hester suffers the public mid-1600s were much as Hawthorne humiliation of having to wear depicts them—hard-working and the letter "A" on her chest. She devoted to their way of life. Their lives in Boston until her death. society had been carved out for them by  Arthur Dimmesdale: an , the first governor of eminent minister in Boston and Massachusetts and a resident of Boston. also the father of Pearl. He is a As a leader of the first residents of the tortured man who constantly colony, he established a government places his hand over his heart based on a combination of religious and when agitated. His health is civil ideals. The colony was intended to quite bad, and it thanks to Roger be an ideal Christian community. Chillingworth's potions that he D. Puritanism, Romanticism, and is able to stay alive. Reason As Reflected in Three Dimmesdale admits to being Main Characters of The Scarlet Pearl’s father at the very end of Letter the novel, and reveals that he has a scarlet letter branded into Before analyzing of what his flesh (this is a symbolic philosophies discussed in The Scarlet moment; there is no proof that Letter, three main characters of The he actually has a scarlet letter Scarlet Letter are worth introducing branded onto his flesh). He dies as an important matter to give a upon the scaffold while holding better understanding toward what Hester's hand. actually each character stands for.  : Hester's For the reason that The Scarlet husband from the Netherlands.

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Chillingworth arrives in Boston that Hester Prynne clasped her hands the day that Hester is publicly over her heart, dreading lest he should shamed and forced to wear the read the secret there at once”(SL, scarlet letter. He vows revenge 1990: 80). on the father of Pearl, and soon thereafter moves in with Arthur Shedid the same thing Dimmesdale. His revenge is againwhenthe eldersintend totakeher stifled at the end when childPearl, spontaneously. “Hester Dimmesdale reveals that he is caught hold of Pearl, and drew forcibly Pearl’s father before dying. into her arms, confronting the old Chillingworth, having lost the Puritan magistrate with almost a fierce object of his hatred, dies soon expression” (SL, 1990: 112). thereafter. The Romantics sought Nature’s glorious diversity of detail -- especially its moral and emotional relation to E. Hester Prynne and Her Instinct mankind. In The Scarlet Letter, the as a Form of Individual Freedom emotional relation to mankind is in Terms of American represented by a love affair done by Romanticism Focusing on Love Prynne to seek for true warmth in the Relationship heart. For the Romantics, warmth of Instinct is the inherent heart was found and indeed enhanced disposition of a livingorganism toward by a communion with Nature. The heart a particular behavior. Instincts are has reasons that Reason is not equipped unlearned, inherited fixed action to understand. The heart was a source patterns of responses or reactions to of knowledge -- the location of ideas certain kinds of stimuli "felt" as sensations rather than (www.wikipedia.org). Instinctis a thoughts. Intuition was equated with manifestationof thementalworldand that which men feel strongly. Men thesubjectiveexperiencealtogetherdetac could learn by experiment or by logical hedfromreality. process—but men could learn more in Instinctconsistsoftwoprocesses, namely intuitive flashes and feelings, by thereflexactionandthe actionof learning to trust their ‘instincts’. The imagination (Kusharyanto, 2008:49). Romantics distrusted calculation and stressed the limitations of scientific Reflex action as seen by Hester knowledge. The rationality of science Prynne when “ the eyes of the wrinkled fails to apprehend the variety and scholar gloved so intensely upon her, fullness of reality. Rational analysis

83 destroys the naïve experience of the Hawthorne parallels the stream of sensations and in this hypocrisy of Dimmesdale to that of violation, leads men into error. Thus, it Puritan society. Hawthorne describes is vividly proven in The Scarlet Letter Dimmesdale as, "a viler companion of that, though Prynne is bound tightly by the vilest, the worst of sinners," even the marital law, she falls into an error though Dimmesdale is seen as the most deed – a wrong doing – by committing holy man in the Puritan community. adultery although it is somehow a form Puritan society was supposed to be a of her love freedom to express her utopian society and do away with their instinct. English traditions, but instead was very strict and highly religious. Similarly, as In another view of Hester, she Dimmesdale was supposed to be holy, believed that love given to Dimmesdale yet they --- Puritans and Dimmesdale as is not blind love that indulges their figured out in the story--- both were feeling as she said to Dimmesdale “ hypocritical. Dimmesdale also portrays What we did had a consecration of its the hypocrisy of Puritan society by not own. We felt it so! We said to each initially taking his place on the scaffold. other! Hast you forgotten it?” (SL, 1990: 186) "Ye have both been here before, but I was not with you… and we F. Arthur Dimmesdale as Symbol will stand all three together."While of Puritan Dimmesdale hid his sin at the first Puritanism was the religion scaffold scene, so did the Puritans when practiced by the people of colonial they colonize. Boston, the setting for Hawthorne’s The Puritans left England to flee The Scarlet Letter. The author, from religious intolerance, but when Nathaniel Hawthorne, utilizes imagery they settled in the colonies, they had no to convey that Arthur Dimmesdale, a religious tolerance for people with Puritan minister of the town, does different religious beliefs, which led to indeed represent the Puritan society and religious persecution of those other not only the round character that can be than Puritans. Hawthorne also implies viewed on the surface level. This is seen that Puritanism was an evil concept that through the imagery and symbolism of mistakenly combined religion and law hypocrisy, Dimmesdale as a reverend, a in its society, which eventually led to its supposedly trusted person in failure ---- this becomes one of community. important reasons of why Hawthorne set The Scarlet Letter in the 17th century

84 as a portrait of failure of religion and heart," to being, "burdened with the government union in the nation. As a black secret of his soul. matter of fact, Hawthorne saw evidence that Jefferson and Madison in the 19th Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The century somehow made the state Scarlet Letter in 1850 in the area which become the church. And for this reason, was considered a highly religious area idea of separation between the of New England. When it was written, separation between religion and state many people judged the novel solely on affairs came up ----. From the time its story telling, whereas ignoring the Dimmesdale hides his sin of The loads of hidden themes that Hawthorne Scarlet Letter on his chest, it develops placed in the novel. “The Scarlet and its affects are not stopped until he Letter” has many different themes confesses his sin. Through the symbols contained in the novel, but the themes of hypocrisy, Christ, and The Scarlet of Puritanism vs. Romanticism and the Letter we can see that Hawthorne uses theme of reflection are the most Dimmesdale as a symbolic character of prevalent. The Scarlet Letter is chock Puritan society. full of symbolism. Hawthorne uses people and objects and makes them The character of Dimmesdale symbolic of events and thoughts. represents the rise and fall of Puritan Throughout the course of the book, society, through the imagery of The Hawthorne uses Hester, Arthur Scarlet Letter on his chest. Similarly, Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth Dimmesdale cannot truly live until he to signify and contrast both the confesses his sin, but when he finally Puritanical and Romantic philosophies confesses he dies. Dimmesdale's death ---- Richards characterizes the symbolically marks the beginning of Romantic conception of life as marked American History and the end of by a view of nature as organic and “colonial history”, just as Christ's death dynamic, by an aesthetic appreciation marked the beginning of the Christian of nature, by the inclusion of a moral church. Dimmesdale speaks out against component in the understanding of adultery and commits it, the Puritans nature, by finding in the study of nature demand religious tolerance, but do not a resource for personal development, give it. Also, Dimmesdale mirrored and, finally, by a distinctive Romantic Jesus Christ in His teaching that to save personality that fused intellectual your life you must lose it. Dimmesdale Endeavour with emotional and goes from having, "his hand upon his imaginative impulses (Richards, 2002) ----. Hester Prynne, as seen by

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Puritanism is an extreme sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life, G. Puritanism, Romanticism, and committing adultery since it is included Reason As Reflected in Three in the seven deadly sins ----- Listed in Main Characters of ‘The Scarlet the same order used by both Pope Letter’ Gregory the Great in the 6th century, The novel is again about the and later by Dante Alighieri in his epic struggle of three people to find poem The Divine Comedy, the seven happiness in a Puritan society. The deadly sins are as follows: luxuria three main characters - Hester, (extravagance, later lust), gula Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth – were (gluttony), avaritia (greed), acedia engaged in a triangle relationship that (sloth), ira (wrath), invidia (envy), and Hester married Chillingworth without superbia (pride). Each of the seven any basis of love but was eventually deadly sins has an opposite among the attracted by a town’s priest, Arthur corresponding seven holy virtues Dimmesdale, and this act of adultery – (sometimes also referred to as the since it was done beyond the wedlock - contrary virtues). In parallel order to produced a baby girl named Pearl; the sins they oppose, the seven holy though, only Hester knew that virtues are chastity, temperance, Dimmesdale is the father. She had charity, diligence, patience, kindness, promised Dimmesdale not to reveal his and humility (www.wikipedia.org) ---- identity. However, when public finally -. For this harsh sin, she must wear a prevailed the result of their committing symbol of for the rest of her life. adultery, Hester was the one the blame However, the Romantic philosophies of was put on. She had to wear a letter ‘A’ Hawthorne contrast the Puritanical standing for ‘Adultery’ to wherever she beliefs ---- The Romantics liberates the went. free play of the emotions and creativity Philosophy is the study of the ----. In this case, the free play of the nature of existence, knowledge, truth, emotions is poured into Hester beauty, justice, validity, mind, and Prynne’s forbidden love to language (www.wikipedia.com). This Dimmesdale, but, Hester is illustrated paper presents each character in the to be successful in freeing her instinct novel that represents one or more and emotions in the name of love she philosophies including Puritanism, feels. Here, she is characterized as a Romanticism, Reason and that one beautiful, young woman who has could adhere to in life: sinned, but forgiven in the eyes of most.

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 Romanticism focuses on the society's Puritan influence also plays individual and preaches finding into her decision process. Puritanism truth. has taught her that the most important  Reason involves the belief that part of life is her personal relationship one can use logic to solve with God. Hester deeply believes that anything and a perfect society because she has sinned, she must will create perfect men. remain in Boston and undergo penance  Puritanism is where all that for her sin. Hester has always had some matters to anyone is God. Romantic qualities ---- as Hawthorne describes the characteristic of Hester as an "instinct" that impels an individual In The Scarlet Letter, to return after periods of absence. In Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Hester addition, he poses about individual Prynne's uncontrolledadherence to identity for each of the characters in several philosophies, Roger The Scarlet Letter struggles with Chillingworth's strict adherence to questions of identity, both in terms of logic and reason, and Arthur self- and public perception, but her sin Dimmesdale's unwavering devotion to alienates her from society such that she Puritanism to prove that true and decides to live in a small thatched complete happiness can never be cottage on the outskirts of town. Hester attained by strictly following one followed her instincts, fell in love with philosophy. Dimmesdale, and had Pearl. Now, her alienation forces her to follow her 1. Hester Prynne instincts much more. On the outskirts Hester Prynne represents a of town, virtually alone, she is free from number of philosophies: Reason, the influences of the townspeople and is Puritanism, and Romanticism. Early in able to make her own decisions without the novel, after Hester's term of any biased opinions. These qualities imprisonment is completed, she is free act together to make Hester a good and to go anywhere in the world, but she happy person. She never fully makes chose to stay in Boston. Her decision her way back into society, though, she to take the time to examine her state of gradually becomes accepted more and affairs and produce what a logical more by the townspeople, and as time rationale is for remaining in Boston is goes on, she finds happiness. Even proof of Hester's use of logic and Hester Prynne refuses to reveal the real reason. While Hester's decision to stay father of Pearl by saying “ And my child is largely a product of her using Reason, must seek a Heavenly Father, she shall

87 never know an earthly one!”(SL, 1990: willingness to use physical force to 74). Ultimately, the happiness Hester coerce individuals to conform their finds is achieved only by following behavior and their thinking to the more than one philosophy; even though standards of the community. By it may not be her planned beginning with this image of enclosure choosing. Roger Chillingworth, on the and punishment, Hawthorne other hand, is used by Hawthorne to emphasizes the oppressive restriction show the negative consequences that of the world his characters inhabit. come by following only one Each of the public settings he uses—the philosophy. jail, the marketplace, and the scaffold— are infused with meaning by the culture Individualism is the moral that has constructed them, particularly stance, political philosophy, or social the scaffold, which is seen as an outlook that stresses independence and instrument conducive to good self-reliance. Individualists promote citizenship. Against this darkness and the exercise of one's goals and desires, gloom, Hawthorne contrasts the wild while opposing most external rosebush that grows alongside the interference upon one's choices, prison door, a thing of beauty that he whether by society, the state, or any claims "has been kept alive in history" other group or institution. (SL, 1990: 159). Hester Prynne's story Individualism is opposed to unfolds with the opening of the prison collectivism or statism, which stresses door, but her entrance into the narrative that communal, community, group, is not a step into freedom but a societal, or national goals should take movement initially toward further priority over individual goals. punishment. Individualism is also opposed to Hester Prynne re-enters the tradition, religion, or any other form of public world from which she has been external moral standard being used to secluded until after the birth of her limit an individual's choice of actions child. The marketplace is peopled by (www.wikipedia.org). various members of the community: Individual freedom was clearly government officials, members of the a foreign idea to the colony (puritanical clergy, and local townsfolk, who view setting), for Hawthorne opens the Hester as a criminal, and source of narrative proper with a chapter entitled scandal, a scandal that affects not only "The Prison-Door." This door, "studded her personally but the community as a with iron spikes" (p. 158), asserts the whole. In this Puritan culture, marriage power of the civil authority and its is viewed as one of the foundations of

88 social order, and a crime that violates refuses to name her partner in adultery, the bonds of marriage threatens order even though she recognizes him among itself. The demand for punishment of the dignitaries before her. In doing so, Hester's crimes is evident in the words Hester takes the responsibility for what of some of the female spectators, who has happened upon herself, intensifying feel she has not suffered enough, that her isolation and loneliness. By the civil authorities "should have put positioning her as he does in this scene, the brand of a hot iron on Hester Hawthorne calls attention to Hester's Prynne's forehead" (SL,1990:162). oppositional role against the patriarchal This desire to see Hester physically authorities of Puritan church and state. marked for her crime reflects what the He uses her silence in ironic ways; modern French theorist Michel Hester's culture expects women to keep Foucault has identified as the law's silent, yet her silence here functions as need to display its triumph visibly on an act of resistance against an authority the body of the transgressor; it also she does not accept. As punishment for reflects the Puritan distrust of the flesh, her choices, Hester faces exile to the which is perceived as a source of edge of the settlement, emphasizing her temptation. Initially this scene suggests position as an outcast, but for Hester a uniformity of vision among the this marginalization allows her to community, but Sacvan Bercovitch engage in further resistance to authority calls attention to the multiple as she speculates on the possibilities of viewpoints actually present in the freedom and self-realization crowd; he sees this as evidence of unhampered by the close scrutiny of "pliancy" within the Puritan neighbors. community, creating the possibility for evolving views of Hester Prynne and, The Garden of Eden for eating on a larger scale, an evolving culture from the tree of knowledge of good and that will eventually lead to the evil. As a result of their knowledge, successful American Revolution. Adam and Eve are made aware of their When Hester emerges from humanness, that which separates them the prison carrying Pearl, the evidence from the divine and from other of Hester's guilt, she cannot escape the creatures. Once expelled from the charge of adultery. As she climbs to the Garden of Eden, they are forced to toil scaffold, Hester is placed in a position and to procreate—two “labors” that that emphasizes her isolation from seem to define the human condition. those around her. Questioned by the The experience of Hester and civil and religious authorities, Hester Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam

89 and Eve because, in both cases, sin begins with the story of Adam and Eve, results in expulsion and suffering. But who were expelled from the Garden of it also results in knowledge— Eden for eating from the tree of specifically, in knowledge of what it knowledge of good and evil. As a result means to be human. For Hester, the of their knowledge, Adam and Eve are scarlet letter functions as “her passport made aware of their humanness, that into regions where other women dared which separates them from the divine not tread,” leading her to “speculate” and from other creatures. Once about her society and herself more expelled from the Garden of Eden, they “boldly” than anyone else in New are forced to toil and to procreate—two England. As for Dimmesdale, the “labors” that seem to define the human “burden” of his sin gives him condition. The experience of Hester “sympathies so intimate with the sinful and Dimmesdale recalls the story of brotherhood of mankind, so that his Adam and Eve because, in both cases, heart vibrate[s] in unison with theirs.” sin results in expulsion and suffering. His eloquent and powerful sermons Hester leaves the town as a symbol of a derive from this sense of empathy. divine place for divine people to the Hester and Dimmesdale contemplate forest when she can pay off her sin. For their own sinfulness on a daily basis Hester, the scarlet letter functions as and try to reconcile it with their lived “her passport into regions where other experiences. The Puritan elders, on the women dared not tread. Shame, other hand, insist on seeing earthly despair, solitude! These had been her experience as merely an obstacle on the teachers – stern and wild one – and they path to heaven. Thus, they view sin as a had made her strong, but taught her threat to the community that should be much amiss” (SL, 1990: 190).Leading punished and suppressed. Their answer her to “speculate” about her society and to Hester's sin is to ostracize her. Yet, herself more “boldly” than anyone else Puritan society is stagnant, while in New England. The Puritan elders, on Hester and Dimmesdale's experience the other hand, insist on seeing earthly shows that a state of sinfulness can lead experience as merely an obstacle on the to personal growth, sympathy, and path to heaven. Thus, they view sin as a understanding of others. Paradoxically, threat to the community that should be these qualities are shown to be punished and suppressed. Their answer incompatible with a state of purity. to Hester's sin is to ostracize her. Yet, Puritan society is stagnant, while Sin and knowledge are linked in Hester's experience shows that a state the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Bible of sinfulness can lead to personal

90 growth, sympathy, and understanding beneath the burden of guilt he has laid of others. Paradoxically, these qualities upon himself. This passage reveals are shown to be incompatible with a what Chillingworth has been and what state of purity. he will become.

2. Roger Chillingworth After several years, Chillingworth's adherence to logic and Roger Chillingworth reason lead him to Dimmesdale where represents Reason. His entire life has he takes great joy in mentally been based on gaining knowledge and tormenting him. Chillingworth often using logic and reason to solve any raises discussions of sin and guilt, to problem. Chillingworth follows this both confirm and bother the philosophy in hopes that it will reverend. These discussions make eventually lead him to Dimmesdale. In Dimmesdale very uncomfortable. In chapter four of the novel, Chillingworth chapter ten, the doctor asks the meets with Hester while she is still in reverend why people do not confess jail. The two sit and talk intimately as their sins openly. He responds, "'They Chillingworth tries to discover the mostly do.'" Chillingworth then urges name of Pearl's father. Chillingworth harder and asks why one would not begins by saying that he places no confess his sin. Dimmesdale becomes a blame on Hester. He just wants to bit uncomfortable and attempts to know the man who has offended him, justify the actions of a sinner to soothe and he vows not to reveal her lover's his own guilty conscience. This burden identity to the public, nor cause him any of guilt ultimately leads to bodily harm. Hester refuses and Dimmesdale's demise. Once Chillingworth becomes much more Dimmesdale dies, Chillingworth forceful. Again, Hester withers away and dies within one refuses. Chillingworth then unfurls his year. "All his strength and energy - all plan for discovering Dimmesdale and his vital and intellectual force - seemed getting his revenge. He will use his at once to desert him; insomuch that he knowledge of medicine and simple positively withered up, shriveled away, remedies to pose as a doctor and live in and almost vanished from mortal sight, the town until he discovers the man like an uprooted weed that lies wilting whom he seeks. "'He bears no letter of in the sun." Chillingworth's happiness infamy wrought into his garment, as was only temporary because he had thou dost; but I shall read it on his made the mistake of focusing his skills heart." Once Chillingworth finds him, on one problem - finding and he will watch as the man is crushed

91 tormenting the reverend. Eventually, changed, but his guilt weakens him and this debilitates him and he can only thrusts him into a downward spiral of focus on that one problem. Then, misery, ending in death. His guilt eats Dimmesdale dies and Chillingworth at him and he is often seen clutching at himself becomes weaker and weaker his heart, as if it pains him. Whenever until, finally, he dies. Reverend Arthur the topic of sin or Hester was brought Dimmesdale, however, suffers more up, Dimmesdale would clutch at his dearly than anyone as a result of chest. His guilt is like a knife being sticking to only one philosophy. thrust into his heart. In an attempt to free himself of his guilt, Dimmesdale 3. Arthur Dimmesdale resorts to physically harming Dimmesdale is an intransigent himself. "In Mr. Dimmesdale's secret Puritan and nothing can make him closet, under lock and key, there was a change - not even death. Arthur bloody scourge." He would also starve Dimmesdale, the local reverend and himself, "until his knees trembled Hester's lover, made Hester swear that beneath him, as an act of she would not tell anyone that he is the penance." Dimmesdale's guilt weakens father of her child. The reverend, being him to the point that the townspeople the embodiment of Puritanism, follows fear he may soon die, and as a more closely than anyone the physician, Chillingworth, agrees to stay philosophy that his relationship with with Dimmesdale at his house to care God matters ---- as a town reverend, he for him. All the while, Chillingworth, is obliged to be a perfect example in while pretending to care for community that worshiping and Dimmesdale, is mentally tormenting glorifying God without committing him, adding to Dimmesdale's burden of sinful deeds are a must for him ---- guilt. At one point in his tormented life, more than anything else and that he while in the woods, Dimmesdale must only answer to God. Hawthorne reveals his true feelings to uses Dimmesdale as a symbol of Hester. "'Hester, I am most miserable!' Puritanism. He picks out and [Dimmesdale]" Dimmesdale resents exaggerates the flaws in Puritanism and Hester for her ability to "wear the makes them Dimmesdale's scarlet letter (a symbol of her sin) characteristics. Dimmesdale feels that openly" while he suffers with his God will punish him for his sin and that overwhelming guilt. Dimmesdale is he needs only answer to God for his sin, rapidly nearing the end. Only when so he keeps it a secret. Dimmesdale Dimmesdale knows he is doomed does tries to go about life as if nothing has he acknowledge and confess his sin. He

92 travels to the same place where Hester relationship until he realizes he is was put on display and reveals his sin dying. to the public. Immediately, Dimmesdale sinks to the ground, says Nevertheless, the last effort to "farewell," and dies. Dimmesdale clear his conscience results in his death. stayed true to his beliefs, and, as a True happiness escapes all three result, found nothing but characters except one and that is unhappiness. Dimmesdale would not Hester. Hester blended the allow himself to stray and for nearly philosophies of Puritanism, eight years he wallowed in misery and Romanticism and Reason was able to pain, achieving nothing. live life comfortably. Philosophies, a person cannot have just one. Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale struggle throughout the H. Conclusion novel to find happiness while staying The Scarlet Letter is a within their beliefs. Hester ultimately monumental masterpiece which finds happiness by venturing beyond represents a portrait of puritan period in the confines of pure Puritanism though New England – new life in America. it is her Puritan faith that causes her life The puritan illustrated in this novel to stay in Boston and wear the scarlet represented by Arthur Dimmesdale letter. Chillingworth is unable to stray does give tangible evidence to the from his strict adherence to logic and readers about self-conflicts within a reason. He is doomed by needing to religion figure’s conscience that brings know who has committed the sinful act about two opposite wills – to admit of adultery with his wife. His logic and publicly with a risk of destroying reason guide him to his answer but his society trust toward church power and drive to know eventually weakens and divine or to keep the secret by letting kills him. Reverend Dimmesdale someone he loves be tortured, strayed from his Puritan beliefs when tormented, as humiliated. he committed adultery. His struggle is not with Reason or Romanticism but Three main characters of The with his steadfast adherence to the Scarlet Letter pose different Puritan beliefs. Dimmesdale does not philosophies as the allegorical find reason within himself for his meanings suggest. Puritanism, relationship with Hester nor does he Romanticism, and Reason were central reveal the truth about his sinful issues adhered to those three characters as symbols of conflicts between Puritanism and Romanticism.

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Committing a sin – in this Jogjakarta: Bagaskara Press. case adultery – must be paid with 2008 society condemn. However, behind the sin two main characters have Lauter, Paul: The heath anthology of committed, there comes happiness . Fifth when a person does not only hold one Edition. 1992 single philosophy in his/her life as Loring,George Bailey.The Scarlet proposed by Nathaniel Hawthorne in Letter and The Scarlet Letter. Transcendentalism, 1987.

Minderop, Albertine. Psikologi Sastra (Karya Sastra, Metode, Teori dan Contoh Kasus). Jakarta: Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia. 2010

Poe, Edgar Allan. "Reviews of Bibliography American Authors and American Literature: Carrez, Stephanie. Symbol and Nathaniel, 1985 Interpretation in Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. 1990 Robert J. Richards. The Romantic Conception of Life: Science Duyckinck, Evert. Study Guide for The and Philosophy in the Age of Scarlet Letter. 1989 Goethe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Hawthorne. Poe: Essays and Reviews. Ed. G. R. Thompson. (New Selden, Raman. A Reader’s Guide to York: The Library of Contemporary Literary America,1984) . Theory. The Harvester Press Publishing Group, 1985 Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Periston The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Press, 1990. Volume 11. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. London. Kusharyanto, Juliasih. Aliran Sastra di 1974 Amerika dan Kajiannya,

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Woodlief, Ann. American identity. Hester is put on display in Romanticism (or the front of the entire town to punish her, American Renaissance) and to also serve as an example in hopes 2000. that it will deter others from sinning. She is then put in jail with her young child for a few months and is ZHAO Zhao-xia1: Dimension of forever made to wear a scarlet letter marriage and adultery in The "A," which stands for Scarlet Letter. 2003 "Adultery." Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth, who had been captured by Native American Indians on his way to New England and held in captivity for two years, escapes and enters the

town of Boston. After learning of what Hester had done, Chillingworth poses as a doctor and vows to discover the identity of Hester's partner in sin. Hester agrees to keep his true

identity a secret, too. Finally APPENDIX Chillingworth knows that the father of Pearl is Dimmesdale. But because of SUMMARY OF THE NOVEL Dimmesdale’s bad condition he finally The novel, The Scarlet Letter, is about dies. Chillingworth, having lost the the struggle that three people face while object of his hatred, dies soon trying to live their lives and find thereafter. happiness in a Puritan society. In the early 1640s, Hester has come to the small town of Boston, Massachusetts, from Great Britain, while her husband, Chillingworth, ties up all of the loose ends back in Great Britain. Hester and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the town's priest, engage in the act of adultery and produce a baby girl named Pearl; though, only Hester knows that Dimmesdale is the father. She has promised Dimmesdale not to reveal his

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