Hawthorne, the Artist of Relativism

Ana Cardoso ana.cardoso@unine.ch Hawthorne and Melville: The Dark Side of American Idealism Patrick Vincent 03.05.05 Hawthorne, the Artist of Relativism In his preface to The House of Gables, Hawthorne defines romance as based on the principle of the truth of the human heart (351). However, this truth is not to be given plainly to the reader, since he says that A high truth, indeed, fairly, finely, and skilfully wrought out, brightening at every step, and crowning the final development of a work of fiction, may add an artistic glory, but it is never any truer, and seldom any more evident, at the last page than at the first (352). In other words, it means that Hawthorne s work implies many truths or interpretations: it is made of relativism. This essay will demonstrate this relativity by concentrating on the themes of guilt and innocence, society and the individual, focusing on the main characters and setting of Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter, and two of his short stories, The Minister s Black Veil and The Birth-mark. Guilt and innocence are malleable concepts which depend on the evolution of society and individuals. First of all we must define what guilt is, or more precisely how it was understood by Puritans. By differentiating the notion of crime from the notion of sin, the critic Sacvan Bercovitch defines it as follows: A crime pertains to externals, and as a rule, it involves others, as in the case of murder or adultery. A sin pertains to the spiritual and internal, to an act of will. It may or may not involve crime, just as crime (murder, for example, or adultery) may not involve sin. It depends on the inner cause, the motive. The issue, that is, is guilt, not shame: not the deceiving of others, but the skewing of one s point of view (585). 1

It is even more complicated in The Scarlet Letter because adultery is considered both a crime and a sin: a crime because it is punished by law (Hester stays some time in prison) and a sin because it goes against God s law. As Bercovitch says, guilt usually results from crime. However, in Puritan society religion and law were almost identical (47), which amounts to say that committing a crime implies committing a sin and vice versa. As a consequence, the notion of guilt itself becomes ambiguous: it is both an inner guilt, which goes with sin (as in Dimmesdale case), and an external guilt, which derives from breaking a law. In Hawthorne s work, the setting can also be said to account for this relativism of guilt. For example in The Scarlet Letter, the scaffold plays a central role in the novel: it is the place where guilty people must stand and endure public shame. Three main moments of the plot take place there; first when Hester must stand there after going out from prison, then when she meets Dimmesdale and finally when Dimmesdale admits publicly that he is the one who has sinned with Hester. Therefore, the scaffold can be said to be a symbol for guilt. However, Hawthorne endows it with some relativity: In fact, this scaffold constituted a portion of a penal machine, which now, for two or three generations past, has been merely historical, and traditionary among us, but was held, in the old time, to be as effectual an agent in the promotion of good citizenship, as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists of France By noticing that the scaffold no longer plays the same role as in Puritan times, the author wants to show that the notion of guilt may evolve with time. The past is a way of putting this notion into perspective: we inherit the errors of the past but we can also learn from them and take them as a motive for changing society. Evidently, we cannot talk about guilt without talking about its opposite, that is, innocence. In The Minister s Black Veil, innocence seems to be defined by appearances. Indeed, the mere fact of the minister covering his face with a black veil suffices to make people doubt about his integrity: But that piece of crape, to their imagination, seemed to Cardoso 2

hang down before his heart, the symbol of a fearful secret between him and them (192). Moreover, in The Birth-mark, we see that a physical defect is taken as a token of something evil in the human heart. Therefore, it can be deduced that Puritans often based innocence on (physical) appearance. This kind of reasoning is also encountered in The Scarlet Letter in the scene where Hester comes out of prison to be lead to the scaffold. In this passage the author draws our attention to the fact that innocence is based on an appearance dictated by religion: Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans, he might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent; something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world (53). However, what Hawthorne wants to demonstrate is that to believe blindly in something may lead people to become radical in their actions and thoughts, thus forgetting that another religion (or society) might judge such a woman otherwise. As we have already seen, the setting plays an important role in Hawthorne s writing: wilderness is a recurring one. It is the place that Puritans associated with the Devil, witches, and evil in general. In fact, the wilderness represents the inner self of the individual, or more precisely all the passionate feelings that a Puritan had to repress in order to remain a good member of society. As Nina Baym says in her introduction to The Scarlet Letter, The very existence of Puritan society calls for the suppression (or, conversely, the exposure as a means of co-optation) of the private self. At times the Puritans seem to have no notion that an inner life exists. [ ] At other times they seem to be obsessively aware of the secret self, and to be convinced that it is thoroughly evil, only to be cleansed by ceasing to be secret (xx-xxi). Cardoso 3

Therefore, the forest (or the wilderness) becomes the only possible escape from this oppressing society; a location where the individual can express his or her hidden self. Hence, the encounter between Hester and Dimmesdale could only take place in the forest: it is this setting that enables them to rekindle their passion and to take the decision of fleeing. This decision has an enlivening effect both on the minister and Hester. For the minister, it has 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 (176). In Hester s case, it even leads her to take off the letter from her bosom, which permits her to recover her femininity so long hidden. But there is a crucial difference between her and Dimmesdale: his sense of guilt has lead him to become even more obsessed with morals, whereas Hester s cutting from society has only increased her need of freedom: She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of which they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate. Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods (174). Thereby, the author wants to show that to ostracize the individual from society is not the solution: if the individual has a strong character, his or her craving for liberty and individualism will only be intensified. The wilderness is also a way of putting into perspective the relationship between the individual and society. For example, in Puritan society Pearl is seen as a demon offspring, a wild child who cannot socialize with other children. However, when she is in the forest, she is described otherwise: The truth seems to be, however, that the mother-forest, and these wild things it nourished, all recognised a kindred wildness in the human child. And she was gentler here than in the grassy- margined streets of the settlement, or in her mother s cottage (178-179). Thus, if Pearl was not shunned by society, maybe she would act as a normal child: the Cardoso 4

moment she feels accepted, she shows her kinder side. Moreover, this thesis is confirmed at the end of the novel when we assist to the public revelation of her father s identity: Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father s cheek, they were the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor for ever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it (222). What Pearl lacked was a part of her identity as a whole individual: by making a symbol of her, society had prevented her from becoming fully human. Nonetheless, it cannot be said that Hawthorne is totally negative about Puritan society, because, as it is the case with individuals, society can change too. In The Scarlet Letter, the evolution of society is observable in the shift of meaning of the letter A. At the beginning, everybody in the settlement knows that it means adulteress, even if it is never stated in the novel. But this meaning gradually disappears from the mind of Hester s fellow-citizens: Such helpfulness was found in her, - so much power to do, and power to sympathize, - that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original meaning. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman s strength (141). In the last chapter, when Hester willingly comes back, it has even [ ] ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too (227). Therefore, society is not a fixed structure; it evolves with time and history: after all, it is the individuals who make society. So it lies with them to build a tolerant society or not. The danger of an oppressive society is to enclose the mind of individuals, turning them into extremists, into isolated human beings incapable of socializing with persons who are not like themselves. In Hawthorne s work, the type figure who most symbolizes this living out of Cardoso 5

the world is the scientist. But it could also be applied to the Reverend Mr. Hooper in The Minister s Black Veil: he is so obsessed with sin that he has cut himself willingly out of the world by putting a barrier (the veil) between himself and the others. A parallel can be drawn between him and the minister in The Scarlet Letter, Mr. Dimmesdale: In no state of society would he have been what is called a man of liberal views; it would always be essential to his peace to feel the pressure of a faith about him, supporting, while it confined him within its iron framework (108). Thus, for Dimmesdale, religion and society are necessary for his wellbeing. However, this framework is not as good as it seems: when it comes to sin, the restricted mindset where he is enclosed only makes him feel guiltier than he ought to. Indeed, the weight of his guilt will only be relieved by death, just as Hooper will keep his veil beyond the grave. Hester s case is more complex. She suffers from isolation because of the letter society has imposed upon her: It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself (51). Actually, the letter has modified not only her appearance (she wears a stern, grey dress), but also her mind, turning it into something as austere as her garb: All the light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline, which might have been repulsive, had she possessed friends or companions to be repelled by it (142). Not only has she has repressed all her feelings, but she has replaced them by thought: She assumed a freedom of speculation, then common enough on the other side of the Atlantic, but which our forefathers, had they known of it, would have held to be a deadlier crime than that stigmatized by the scarlet letter (144). This seems not to be the best solution either because by withdrawing herself in her thoughts Hester misses what could help her recovering some happiness, namely human contact. In fact, thereby she isolates herself even more instead of breaking the spell that surrounds her: in a way, maybe she wanted to Cardoso 6

be too radical in her individualism, which (according to the author) could have lead her to become as fundamentalist as Ann Hutchinson, had Pearl not been there. To conclude we must take a look at the ending of the novel and consider how such an independent spirit as Hester s decided to come back to the place where her inner-self could not express itself. A possible interpretation lies in relativism: maybe through her experience she has learnt that symbols only convey the meanings we choose to attribute them. Therefore, she is able to put the letter A upon her bosom again: she does not feel the burning anymore. Moreover, it shows that she has accepted her past; she has accepted that this experience has transformed her and society too, even if it has not been a radical revolution. Still, this does not prevent her from being hopeful for the future: She assured them, too, of her firm belief, that, at some brighter period, when the world should have grown ripe for it, in Heaven s own time, a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness (227). Works cited: Bercovitch, Sacvan. The A-Politics of Ambiguity in The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings. Ed. Leland S. Pearson. London: Norton, 2005, 576-96. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Preface to The House of Seven Gables. The Collected Novels. New York: Library of America, 1983, 351-3. ---. The Scarlet Letter. London: Penguin Classics, 2003. ---. Selected Tales and Sketches. London: Penguin Classics, 1987. Cardoso 7

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