Ambiguity In The Scarlet Letter

Every event, no matter how seemingly insignificant, has a mood related to it. These moods can be found hammered into a scaffold where a corpse listlessly swings, or, hidden in the shy smile of an infant. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne paints a dreary scene of a small New World community; attempting to uncover secrets that the new community already harbors. An overall melancholy mood taints the rose bush and soaks the prison door trailing, like a shadow, behind the story. This somber tone prompts readers to analyze their own mortality and acknowledge their flaws, rather than passively accepting them.

As Sacvan Bercovitch notes in his essay “Ambiguities in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter,” “A crime pertains to externals… A sin pertains to the spiritual and internal, to an act of will. It depends on the inner cause, the motive” (Bercovitch 585). Furthermore, sin can be classified as putting oneself above others, and doing so with hubris or excessive pride.

Hawthorne’s work takes America’s Puritan past as its subject, but The Scarlet Letter uses the material to the greatest effect. The Puritans were

Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the most contemporary American writers of all time, was the great nephew of Judge Hathorne. Who was one of the prime judges of the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts. Although Nathaniel hated his uncle for his efforts during the horrific trials, he became obsessed with his ideals of puritanism. Through these ideals he became a anti-transcendentalist; someone who believes that naturally we are born evil and society is the only thing that keeps us from provoking chaos. Therefore, Hawthorne’s novels, The Minister’s Black Veil and The Scarlet Letter were both set in puritan towns in the 1600’s, even though he was alive in the 18th century. The Scarlet Letter, which Hawthorne is best known for, is a fictional story

The Scarlet Letter is a novel that illustrates the moral ambiguity of people during the 1800s. During this time period in North America, protestants controlled certain colonial areas such as Massachusetts Bay and had an enormous influence over the people in shaping what they felt was morally right This moral code evolved into moral law, and acts such as adultery became criminal acts. The author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, provides the reader with a character named Arthur Dimmesdale who is an adulterer, yet also a minister which creates an ironic twist to his personality. Dimmesdale allows pride to control him, convincing himself that maintaining his secret would have been for the greater good.

A Symbol of Ambiguity Although the 20th century is far from a perfect world, it is difficult for people to comprehend and understand the harsh ways of the Puritan society in the 17th century. In his classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne effectively utilizes symbolism to display the evolution of several characters throughout the book, particularly the character of Hester Prynne. Within the novel, Hawthorne develops the significant symbol of the scarlet letter A to portray the strict culture of the 17th century New England society and to further demonstrate the Puritan’s reaction to sin. Hawthorne portrays the scarlet letter A as a complex and ambiguous symbol which interpretation continuously alters as the book progresses.

Hawthorne displays many events where ambiguity is portrayed such as the rosebush or why Hester remains in Boston. By using this element, it gives the reading a mysterious feeling and interacts with the audience as they have to draw their own conclusions. One example is the rose bush outside the prison door. The readers have to decide “whether the bush survived the wilderness” or it “sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson” (42). This rose offered a softer more fragile beauty in contrast to the strict black and white world of the Puritans.

During the 1850’s, in the New England colonies, Puritanism was the way of life. It was a religion that was based around God, and everything that people did was to please and respect him. Commiting a sin was the worst thing a person could do during this time. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, a young woman commits a sin and has to deal with the consequences of the harsh puritans. Hawthorne is able to incorporate many symbols throughout Chapter 7, The Governor's Hall, that allow the reader to understand the true nature of the Puritans.

Society is made of many different types of people. Some people commit their lives to the church, others commit their lives to helping others. No matter how different and noble members of society may appear, they all have something in common: sin. Members of Puritan society all have this in common, and therefore should be less critical of each other. The effect of the judgemental nature of Puritans in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is demonstrated by recurring dark and light themes, representing restriction and freedom from judgement. Hawthorne’s use of the archetypal symbols of darkness and light suggests his view that the Puritan society was excessively judgemental of their members and that all societies should be less critical.

Nathaniel Hawthorne allows his ambiguity to provoke a deeper analysis into his intentions and motives behind his narrative, The Scarlet Letter, similarly outlined in the essay “Arts of Deception: Hawthorne, ‘Romance,’ and The Scarlet Letter” by Michael Davitt Bell. Providing solid evidence for Hawthorne’s hidden deception, the essay confirms his subversion in order to socially succeed in writing a romance, when the practice was academically unwarranted. Herman Melville, an admirer of Hawthorne, insisted his writings seemed “directly calculated to deceive – egregiously deceive – the superficial skimmer of pages” (qtd. in Bell 29). After examining Bell’s essay, one can make the supposition that Hawthorne utilized ambiguity and deception with the intention to mislead the “superficial skimmer of pages”, yet allow his unconventional romance to socially flourish in a realistic society.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, The Scarlet Letter, society is a big influence on the plot and the development of its characters. Society’s view and reaction toward sin greatly affects characters and the plot.

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the story revolves around the Puritan society. The Puritan society is a religion that doesn’t believe in having pleasure on Earth. The Puritan society also revolves around punishment. Nathaniel Hawthorne hates the Puritan society but is fascinated by how it works. His great uncle Hathorne was the only judge during the Salem witch trials who wouldn’t apologize for what he did.

In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne is very critical of the Puritans. There are many villains that come into the picture throughout the story, but the Puritans are focused on the most. Hawthorne reveals the Puritans evil through their hypocrisy, judgment, and irrationality. The Puritans are by far the most hypocritical people in the novel. We see this early in the novel with their strong religious views; "The magistrates are God-fearing gentlemen, but merciful overmuch,—that is a truth," (44).

In Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the deceptive Roger Chillingworth could most certainly be considered a morally ambiguous character. Throughout the novel, Roger Chillingworth everlastingly remains misleading as to whether he lies on the side of good or evil. Even at the end of The Scarlet Letter, the knowledge of Roger Chillingworth is extremely nebulous. The mysterious Roger Chillingworth, although ultimately emanating to be evil, attests to be a challenge when determining his morality. Roger Chillingworth attempts to beguile us by enacting the role of a physician, and ensconces his relationship with Hester Prynne. He lives with Arthur Dimmesdale, vindicating that he is serving Arthur Dimmesdale a helpful medicine, while

   Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne repeatedly portrays the Puritanical views of sin and evil.  The Puritans are constantly displayed as believing that evil comes from an unyielding bond being formed between love and hate.  For such reasons they looked towards Hester's commitment of adultery as an action of pure, condemned evil.  However, through the use of light and dark imagery, Hawthorne displays who truly holds evil in their hearts.  The one who is the embodiment of evil creates hypocrisy of Puritanical views towards sin and evil.  Hawthorne displays that those who expose sin to the public and the daylight are the most pure and those who conceal their sin under a