Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter as a Reflection of Moral Guilt and Sin, Purwarno. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE’S THE SCARLET LETTER AS A REFLECTION OF MORAL GUILT AND SIN Purwarno Faculty of Literature Islamic University of North Sumatra, Medan email: [email protected] Abstract The Scarlet Letter which appeared in 1850 deals with a moral theme. It is first of all concerned with moral guilt and sin. Hawthorne is not so concerned with the causes of sin as with the consequences of sin. A man usually feels a sense of guilt when he feels that he has sinned against God, natural law, the moral code of society, or one’s own moral standards. In this article, the reflection of moral guilt and sin is vividly found in the characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. In this article, it is shown that Hester Prynne regards her sin as merely a respond to a natural urge in her. She thinks that no law of society can take precedence over law between a man and a woman and convinces that through an Inner Light her way is not a violation of God’s law. She also thinks that she has not sinned against society, against her husband or God. She suffers the sense of guilt merely in case of feeling sin Arthur Dimmesdale as she thinks that she has been the instrument of Dimmesdale’s having committed a horrible sin against God. On the contrary Dimmesdale is wholly conscious that he has sinned against God, against social morality, and against his own integrity as an individual and as a priest. He also realizes that he is doubly a sinner in so far as he continues to conceal his sin; therefore, his sense of sin not only weighs, but preys upon his mind ceaselessly. Keywords: moral guilt, sin, puritan, tongue of flame, Deuteronomy, social morality I. INTRODUCTION Hawthorne was unquestionably a Puritan. Although he was very critical of the bigotry, intolerance, and cruelty of the old Puritans, yet his stories usually seem to take the Puritan Side. It can be seen in The Scarlet Letter that the adulterous lovers are 1 JULISA, Volume 9 Number 2, October 2009, Page 1-15 not allowed to escape some other lands and are thus not permitted to attain any kind of happiness. In The Scarlet Letter we find a tension or conflict between the Puritan and the romantic tendencies. Hawthorne is certainly responsive to the romantic temper, according to which the individual has the right to be happy, even if the individual in the pursuit of happiness violates the conventional moral code; yet Hawthorne leans heavily in the Puritan direction. Here Hester is the spokesman for the romantic view, and her argument carries weight with most readers. But surely Hawthorne does not fully approve of this view because it carries individualism a bit too far, and it seeks to make the individual a law unto himself. Thus, The Scarlet Letter is a criticism of romanticism as well as of Puritanism. Austin Warren says that Hawthorne was a Puritan that he believed in sin and pre-destination and did not find these concepts incompatible. Sin, he writes, may be forgiven by God; softened by penitence; still its stains persist; and its permanent effect is not educative but warping. Hawthorne, he says rejects Hester’s romantic assertion that “what we did had a consecration of its own” by describing the moral wilderness in which she had wandered, taught much amiss by shame, despair and solitude. Whether the sin be of passion sets the mind apart and adrift, whereas the sin of pride dries up the well of brotherhood. Hawthorne is a moralist and the story of The Scarlet Letter is an exploration of human morality. But he is a good deal more than simply a moralist. He is also a student of human psychology, a romantic of some kind, a septic, and a determinist to some extent. The Scarlet Letter is a remarkable blend of these various interests and outlooks. II. DISCUSSION 2.1 Moral Guilt From the puritanical view prevalent those days in New England Hester’s guilt is absolute, it is total and unquestionable—morality is absolute. Hester’s guilt is complete and unredeemable. She is an adulteress. According to the Puritan ethic, this is the correct position in Hester’s case. 2 Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter as a Reflection of Moral Guilt and Sin, Purwarno. She has sinned against the seventh of the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy, 5, 18)—Neither shall thou commit adultery. Hester has sinned against the commandment of God and lost His favour forever. Since she has violated the commandment of the Bible; since she has committed a heinous sin and has betrayed her husband and violated her chastity, therefore, she must suffer. In the eyes of a rigid Puritan, Hester has sinned unredeemably. She can be made to do penance by making her wear badge of shame (the scarlet letter), which will remind her of her guilt. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter “A”. (Hawthorne, 1959:60) Hester’s punishment is double, as it is not only the scarlet letter but also Pearl’s presence that continually reminds her of her sin. The Puritan society asserts its authority over the individual conscience by forcing Hester to accept her punishment. Of course, Hester could avoid this punishment by running away alone. What she compelled herself to believe—what, finally, she reasoned upon as her motive for continuing a resident of New England—was half a truth, and half a self-delusion. Here she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul and work out another purity that that which she had lost; more saintlike, because the result of martyrdom. Hester Prynne, therefore, did not flee. (Hawthorne, 1959:84) or with Dimmesdale: “Then there is the broad pathway of the seal” continued Hester. “It brought thee hither. If thou so choose, it will bear thee back again. In our native land, whether in some remote rural village or in vast London-or surely, in Germany, in France, in pleasant Italy—thou wouldst be beyond his power and knowledge! And what hast thou to do with all these iron men, and their opinions? They have kept thy better part in bondage too long already!” 3 JULISA, Volume 9 Number 2, October 2009, Page 1-15 “It cannot be!” answered the minister, listening as if he were called upon to realize a dream. “I am powerless to go! (Hawthorne, 1959: 188) “Thou wilt go!” said Hester, calmly, as he met her glance. The decision once made, a glow of strange enjoyment threw its flickering brightness over the trouble of his breast. It was the exhilarating effect—upon a prisoner just escaped from the dungeon of his own heart—of breathing the wild, free atmosphere of an unredeemed, unchristianized, lawless region. His spirit rose, as it were, with a bound, and attained a nearer prospect of the sky than throughout all the misery which had kept him grovelling on the earth. Of a deeply religious temperament, there was inevitably a tinge of the devotional in his mood. “Do I feel joy again!” cried he, wondering at himself. “Methought the germ of it was dead in me! O Hester, thou art, my better angel! I seem to have flung myself—sick, sin-stained, and sorrow-blackened—down upon these forest leaves, and to have risen up all made anew, and with new powers to glorify Him that hat been merciful! This is already the better life! Why did we not find it sooner?” (Hawthorne, 1959: 191-192) Neither Hester nor Dimmesdale manages to run away because their own minds will not allow them to run away. Actually, Hester triumphs over her circumstance by her vocation (needle work) and her implicit acceptance of her punishment: Dimmesdale by his confession and public acknowledgement of sin. Yet, the dust of Hester and Dimmesdale is not allowed to mingle even after the death of these two. Society may have forgiven them, but their ultimate redemption lies in the hands of God. Therefore, society can only separate them even in death. The puritan ethic is perfectly carried out in the book in this respect. In The Scarlet Letter, it is shown that Dimmesdale is a hypocrite and a coward, and a secret sinner in the early part of the book. Chillingworth is guilty of probing improperly into the depths of the human heart. As Dimmesdale puts it, Chillingworth has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of human heart. We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse that even the polluted priest! That old man’s 4 Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter as a Reflection of Moral Guilt and Sin, Purwarno. revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!” (Hawthorne, 1959: 185-186). Governor Bellingham wears rich dresses and is proud of the house and estate, while his sister, Mistress Hibbins, is a witch. Hester’s private morality is correct and the social morality is wrong, or it is no more in the right than Hester’s morality. Hester may have offended a social code; but also have others, like Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Bellingham and other unnamed people.