According to Abel “[Hester's] role in the story is to demonstrate that persons who engage our moral compassion may nevertheless merit moral censure.” In other words, while a reader may feel sympathy toward Hester, he or she must not forget that she too sinned. “We sympathize with Hester at first because of her personal attraction, and our sympathy deepens throughout the story because we see that she is more sinned against than sinning.” Because the novel is named for what Hester wears on her bosom, it is often thought that her sin is the primary focus of the novel. The book is not about the sin, but rather about how the sin affects Hester and others.

“The prime offender against her [Hester] is Roger Chillingworth. . .” (Abel). Chillingworth holds three major sins toward Hester. First, he married her before she could fathom the consequences of this action. Chillingworth admits “Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay” (Hawthorne, 69). His second, lesser sin was leaving her alone in the colony while he finished business in England. This was common at the time, but Chillingworth sees it as a sin because he believes he should have foreseen her betrayal. “. . . I might have foreseen all this. I might have known that, as I came out of the vast and dismal forest, and entered this settlement of Christian men, the very first object to meet my eyes would be thyself, Hester Prynne, standing up, a statue of ignominy, before the people” (Hawthorne, 69). This second sin is more an extension of the first; Chillingworth believes he shouldn't have married her because she is too much his younger and she was bound to be unfaithful.

According to Abel, Chillingworth's final sin against Hester was “lack of charity toward her after her disgrace.” Chillingworth has a right to be upset that she betrayed him for another man, and does not need to offer charity to her, though he should not ruin the life of a man she does love once he accepts that he knew she would betray him. “He was motivated not by love, but by self-love; in his marriage and in his vengeance he cherished and pursued his private objects, to the exclusion of the claims of others, whose lives were involved with his own” (Abel). Chillingworth did not think of how his revenge on Dimmesdale would affect Hester, and this is his final sin against her.

Dimmesdale also sinned against Hester. He made Hester carry both her burden and his own. He tried to take his sin by fasting, performing vigils, and scourging himself, but the only way she could be without it was for him to confess to the townspeople. “[Dimmesdale] had moral defenses and moral duties that [Hester] did not have. He had a pastoral duty toward her and a professional duty to lead an exemplary life” (Abel). Even though Dimmesdale should have not committed his fornication in the first place, “his perilous pride in his reputation for sanctity was dearer to him than truth. Like Chillingworth, he wronged Hester and left her to bear the punishment alone” (Abel).

Hester had many reasons for not exposing the two men sinning against her. First, simply, she gave her word to Chillingworth that she would not reveal that he was her husband. When she asks why Chillingworth does not announce himself and cast her off, Chillingworth gives his reasons, saying that it will be to the world as if her husband is dead. Chillingworth continues, “Breathe not the secret, above all, to the man thou wottest of. Shouldst thou fail me in this, beware! His fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands. Beware!” (Hawthorne, 71). It is only after Hester realizes that Chillingworth does have absolute control over Dimmesdale that she reveals the secret and breaks her oath.

Hester chooses not to reveal that Dimmesdale is the father of her child because she would rather carry his sin with hers than make him accept his sin. She wants him to confess himself, and join her because he wants to. She will not do it for him. In his words to her while she is standing on the scaffold, Dimmesdale begs her to condemn him. “Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life” (Hawthorne, 63). Dimmesdale does not want to take responsibility himself and confess, but he realizes that by not confessing he will be forced to add hypocrisy to his sin. For this reason he wants Hester to confess for him.

Hester lived with her daughter Pearl in a small abandoned cottage. This further emphasizes her individualism. Abel writes that “[t]he ostracism called too lenient a punishment by the perhaps envious matrons of the town was almost fatal to Hester's sanity and moral sense.” Though Hester lived on the outskirts of town, she still saw and spoke to many people because of her extraordinary embroidery skills. “Lonely as was Hester's situation, and without a friend on earth who dared to show himself, she, however, incurred no risk of want. She possessed an art that sufficed . . . to supply food for her thriving infant and herself” (Hawthorne, 75). Hester also took it upon herself to teach Pearl about the scriptures, thus proving she did not lose her moral sense. “. . . Hester Prynne, the daughter of a pious home, very soon after her talk with the child about her Heavenly Father, had begun to inform her of those truths which the human spirit, at whatever stage of immaturity, imbibes with such eager interest” (Hawthorne, 102). While living apart from the community, Hester continued to live a life based on Puritanism.

The scarlet letter manifests itself in many ways throughout the novel; on Hester's bosom; through Pearl; and finally, on Dimmesdale. The appearance of the letter on Dimmesdale confirms that the novel is not solely about Hester's sin, but also other's sins. Hester's sin is important, but more important is how she resists sin afterwards. Hester shoulders her sin and another's all the while keeping her promises and educating Pearl about sin. Hester's strength is what eventually prompts Dimmesdale to confess. He refuses to run away while she still carries that burden. Hester's strength also keeps Chillingworth from achieving satisfaction in his revenge on Dimmesdale. Because Hester believes that Dimmesdale will eventually tell the truth, Chillingworth receives no fulfillment from his revenge. Hester's individualism makes her strength all the more impressive.

The central plot episode occurs when Hester visits Governor Bellingham's mansion to plead for the right to retain custody of her daughter, Pearl. She is a young woman entering the lavish residence of a powerful man, and she does not know whether her sojourn will be for good or ill. In the same way, Esther enters the palace of King Ahasuerus uncertain if her visit will bring tragedy or fortune. Her visit brings fortune; she is named queen, and, later in the story, she pleads with the king for the safety of her people, the Jews, just as Hester pleads for Pearl. “Esther receives the clemency of the king, who promises to grant any request she makes…Hester, appealing to Bellingham as to a king…also has her request granted” (Gartner). Adding imagery to the plotline, Bellingham's mansion is described as “Aladdin's palace” (Hawthorne), and lends a Middle Eastern semblance to the vision of the mansion; in the imagination it resembles the palace of a Middle Eastern ruler such as King Ahasuerus who ruled “from India to Ethiopia” (Esther 1:1). This scene of Hester visiting the governor's mansion demonstrates one of the connections between the two books.

Striking similarities between Esther and Hester also serve to link The Scarlet Letter and the Book of Esther. Perhaps the most obvious connection is the similarity in name. Hester is Esther with the “H” relocated to the beginning of the appellation. Gartner also emphasizes the similarities between the marital relationships of both women. Hester is married to Chillingworth, whom she does not love. In the prison, Chillingworth says to Hester, “I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay” (Hawthorne). In this passage, Chillingworth indicates that he is a great deal older than Hester. “Esther too has been brought into a "false and unnatural relation" with the much older Ahasuerus; she is first brought into his harem and then made his wife” (Gartner). While Hester clearly shows the greatest resemblance to Queen Esther, her public disgrace at the beginning of The Scarlet Letter reveals a parallelism to Esther's predecessor, Queen Vashti:

[L]et an irrevocable decree be issued by [King Ahasuerus] and inscribed among the laws of the Persians and Medes, forbidding Vashti to come into the presence of King Ahasuerus and authorizing the king to give her royal dignity to one more worthy than she….[T]he decree which the king will issue [will be] published throughout the land. (Esther 1:19-20).

In this way, Vashti is publicly humiliated and deposed; all peoples in the land learn of her disgrace. Hester stands on the scaffold for three hours and endures the malevolent gaze of the townspeople as a collective whole; everyone knows her disgrace as well.

Mordecai is Esther's cousin; he is reincarnated as Mr. Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter. Gartner depicts Mordecai as “the timid man of God.” Dimmesdale, as a minister, is also a “man of God”; he is also frail and weak, traits Hawthorne ascribes to Dimmesdale in several places: “[T]he health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail…with every successive Sabbath, his cheek was paler and thinner, and his voice more tremulous than before…thus suffering under bodily disease and tortured by some black trouble of the soul….” Insofar as Mordecai is represented by Dimmesdale, “Hawthorne seems to imagine Mordecai as a weak figure who looks helplessly on as the woman he cares for is made to endure a long ordeal of shame, solitude, and isolation” (Gartner). Mordecai observes Esther in Ahasuelus's harem, but is unable to intervene on her behalf. In contrast, Dimmesdale has the ability to join Hester and alleviate some of her suffering by offering companionship, but out of cowardice is unable to do so for seven years. Gartner's comparison of Mordecai and Dimmesdale is solid except for one discrepancy: Gartner maintains that Esther and Mordecai are lovers. This would match the relationship between Hester and Dimmesdale; however, the Bible states that Mordecai takes Esther as his daughter and has no sexual relationship with her. Considering the Bible as an historical text, it is safe to say that Gartner is wrong in this area.

In The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth strives to avenge the wrong Dimmesdale inadvertently does to him. To Hester, Chillingworth says, “I shall see him tremble….Sooner or later he must needs be mine!” (Hawthorne). The Book of Esther also casts a character bent on revenge. Haman a man revered by the king, seeks revenge on Mordecai: “Haman…sought to harm Mordecai and his people…” (Esther A:17). The difference between Haman and Chillingworth is their modus operandi. In fact, their methods of executing their revenge are the exact opposite of each other. Haman seeks to kill Mordecai while Chillingworth seeks to keep Dimmesdale alive in order to prolong his suffering. In the end, however, both men are foiled, and “[t]he mechanics of vengeance…break down” (Gartner). Dimmesdale's secret is revealed; Chillingworth no longer has any leverage over him with which to extract revenge. As for Haman, King Ahasuelus finds fault with him and hangs him on the gallows he had constructed for Mordecai. Both men meet their undoing on a scaffold.

One of the major themes in both the Book of Esther and The Scarlet Letter is secrecy. “Queen Esther and Hester Prynn must both keep, and must finally disclose, a secret” (Gartner). Hester hides the identity of her daughter's father. Esther conceals her own identity as a Jew. Both secrets cause harm to the men closest to the women; Chillingworth is able to slowly torture Dimmesdale, and Haman begins a systematic killing of the Jews to hurt Mordecai. Had the secrets been revealed, Haman and Chillingworth would have had no hold over Dimmesdale and Mordecai. “The turning point of both texts may thus be the heroine's revelation of her secret…” (Gartner).

Gartner brings up one more interesting phenomenon included in both books: “The Book of Esther is the only book in the Hebrew Bible not to include the word God; The Scarlet Letter also has at its center…the absence of the word "adultery," for which the letter A patently stands.” This lack of direct reference to an integral part of the story adds one more tiny filament to a shining web of connections.

The Book of Esther and The Scarlet Letter have so much in common that it is astonishing that they should not be analyzed together more thoroughly; an entirely separate book could be written about their similarities. The basic plot line of each story is nearly identical, as are the main characters. Both stories demonstrate the triumph of good over evil with the defeat of Haman and Chillingworth. Both stories place a woman in an adverse situation. Both stories see her turn that situation to her advantage. And both stories end on a scaffold; a symbol of pain and death transformed into a symbol of triumph and love.

Beatrice is a prime example of a woman who is exploited by the men in the story. She is exploited by Giovanni for love and mere curiosity, Baglioni for revenge on her father, and by Dr. Rappaccini for scientific purposes. Giovanni felt he had a destructive need to dominate and possess Beatrice and as critic Richard Brenzo writes, "[this need for domination] is precisely the quality Giovanni finds most threatening in his idea of [Beatrice] (Brenzo 163)." Dr. Baglioni used Beatrice to gain revenge on her father and because he felt intellectually threatened by her. Brenzo explains, "If Baglioni feels threatened by Doctor Rappaccini, then the thought of a woman being his intellectual superior and displacing him from his position must be doubly frightening (Brenzo 161)." Beatrice does not purposefully harm these men mentally or physically, Brenzo asserts, "All of the men profess a desire to help her, while secretly fearing her ‘embrace of death'. Consequently, they have offered her help in their own selfish, vengeful, scientific ways, and for her, their embrace has meant death (Brenzo 164)."

In contrast to the male dominance concept of Richard Brenzo, critic Kent Bales analyzes Beatrice through historical criticism. Bales explains how Beatrice is based on a woman named Beatrice Cenci who was raped by her father and subsequently killed him. He attests that Dr. Rappaccini did not rape Beatrice, but impregnated her with poison, "The pervading sexual innuendo derives largely from his role as Adam and the curious circumstance that his helpmate is his daughter rather than his wife (Bales 136)." The poison in the story comes from, "the constricting conventionality of male consciousness and manifests itself in sexual and political victimization (Bales 134)."

According to critic Thomas St. John, Nathaniel Hawthorne based this story on a personal, but similar, event that happened earlier in his life. Hawthorne's father-in-law, Dr. Nathaniel Peabody, overdosed Hawthorne's wife, Sophie, using opium, laudanum, mercury, arsenic, and henbane (St. John 3). In Hawthorne's story, Sophie became Beatrice, and Dr. Peabody became Dr. Rappaccini. "By writing ‘Rappaccini's Daughter,' Hawthorne finally exorcised his terror of what it might have been like, had he failed to cure his beloved wife (St. John 3)." Dr. Peabody also had the same purple flowers from the garden in Rappaccini's daughter in his own garden (St. John 3). Another event in Hawthorne's life that St. John said further inspired Rappaccini's Daughter was "Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes created the scandal of the Boston social season in 1942 by attacking popular Dr. Robert Wesselhoeft as a quack, and driving him away to Brattleboro, Vermont (St. John 1)." In Hawthorne's story, Holmes becomes Dr. Baglioni and Wesselhoeft becomes Dr. Rappaccini. They have an intellectual fight, which Baglioni wins in the end by giving Giovanni an antidote which he uses on Beatrice, killing her and Dr. Rappaccini's experiment at the same time.

Besides being viewed as historical writing based on actual events, Rappaccini's Daughter has been interpreted by other critics as based on circumstances of the time period. During his life Hawthorne was an avid anti-transcendentalist. Throughout his stories he constantly mocks transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. In Rappaccini's Daughter, Dr. Rappaccini has all of the characteristics of a typical transcendentalist, "...to learn from nature rather than authority, to rely on observational evidence, and to attempt experiments. And his regard for the ‘creative essence' of his plants appears to correspond to the neoplatonic hermetic mysticism of the Paracelsians (Bensick 60)." Dr. Rappaccini displays these transcendentalist qualities and is the antagonist in the story because Hawthorne disbelieves transcendentalism. Dr. Baglioni, in contrast, is portrayed by Hawthorne as a traditional academic, who bases his decisions on fact and reason, an anti-transcendentalist who Hawthorne agrees with.

Another critic, Michael T. Gilmore, viewed Rappaccini's Daughter as Hawthorne's tribute to his lack of a popular audience for his stories (Gilmore 62-63). He interpreted it as an allegory, where each character represented an aspect of Hawthorne's life at that time. "Giovanni is specified as a reader from the moment he appears in the text (Gilmore 63)," while Beatrice, "The most dazzling creation in the garden...is intended as an allegorical representation of Hawthorne's writing (Gilmore 64)." In fact, Gilmore believes that Hawthorne, "emphasizes his identification with Beatrice by translating his name into French and so making even more evident its meaning as a shrub or plant - aubépine being the French word for hawthorn tree (Gilman 64)."

"If Giovanni corresponds to Hawthorne's reader, and Beatrice to his art, the rival physicians in the story evoke the two kinds of writers whom he characterizes in the preface as monopolizing current taste. Rappaccini is Hawthorne's fictional Transcendentalist, a remote and shadowy creator likened at the action's climax to ‘an artist who should spend his life in achieving a picture or a group of statuary' (Gilmore 64)."

Baglioni, on the other hand, "is Hawthorne's ‘pen-and-ink man'... a native of the sunny south of Italy; his genial manner suggests the hypothetical ‘brighter man' (Gilmore 65)." Ultimately, Baglioni conspires with Giovanni (the reader) to destroy Hawthorne's art and stories (Beatrice). Thus, ironically, "Hawthorne presents himself as its innocent victim, a writer deprived of an audience because the public persists in mistaking his grim exterior for his inner character (Gilmore 68)."

Hawthorne's ironic voice is also apparent, at least to the critic Lois A. Cuddy, in the correlation between Rappaccini's Daughter and Dante's Divine Comedy. Cuddy writes about these similarities, "Thus, examination of Hawthorne's ironic strategies for using Dante and the related setting, narrator, point of view, characters, and religious diction offers us access to an unique garden and a rather gloomy philosophical statement (Cuddy 39)." By writing Rappaccini's Daughter, Hawthorne makes the point that "Man's nature dictates that if he were offered a woman as virtuous as Beatrice - who is the symbol of Divine Truth, Light and Beauty - modern man would not recognize that Truth, appreciate that beauty, or understand the revelation (Stallman 10 citing Cuddy 42)." Cuddy says that, "Hawthorne has offered us an ironic, bleak and unambiguous vision of existence in this tale, and what he says with the help of a medieval garden world and a Dantean vision reversed to make a modern skeptical statement about life and human relations is consistent with the philosophy in his major fiction as well as with life as he observed it (Cuddy 52)." His observations, although bleak to some, are still pertinent to the world today.

The fact that he is leaving his “Faith” in more ways than one is symbolic and foreshadows what happens later in the story. Goodman Brown's traveling partner is a mysterious figure who leads him deep into the woods. This figure represents the Devil, leading Brown to his demise. As their journey continues, Brown is wavering and expresses reluctance, but the pair continues on to an unspecified but obviously unholy ritual. On the way there, Brown discovers that others are going to the meeting as well-many of them his townsfolk whom he had considered exemplary Christians, including his minister. He is astonished and disheartened, but then he hears the voice of his wife and realizes that she is one of those to be initiated at the ceremony.

Recognizing that he has lost his Faith (in both senses), he resolves to carry out his intention and joins the procession. When the new converts are called to come forth, he and Faith approach the altar, but at the last moment Goodman Brown calls out to his wife to look to Heaven and resist. The next instant, he finds himself alone in the forest, next to a rock. When he arrives back in Salem the next morning, he is uncertain whether his experience was real or merely a dream, and he is shaken. His view of his neighbors is distorted by his memories of that night, and spends the rest of his days a suspicious cynic, wary of everyone, especially his wife, Faith. The story ends with the depressing statement: “And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave… they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom”.

I believe one of the morals of the story is that once you lose your faith, no matter what it is, you have nothing to believe in and thus have a dismal, embittered life, just as Goodman Brown did. Another moral the story tells us is that anyone, even those held in the highest moral or religious regard, can succumb to Evil. However, while no one is immune, we always have a choice. Where there is Evil there is also Good-and I happen to think that Good prevails over Evil most of the time.

The Scarlet Letter shows interest in the psychology of emotions. There are a couple of instances where the interest in the psychology of emotions is shown. One character to focus on is Minister Dimmesdale. The psychology of emotions is shown most evidently in this character. As you progress in the story, you notice Dimmesdale's character slowly change. His health was steadily weakening. "About this period, however, the health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail." (Hawthorne 107) It may seem ordinary for a person's health to weaken as time passes by, but that isn't the case.

"His form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy prophecy of decay in it; he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain." (Hawthorne 107) The clenching of his heart shows that he is in pain, and not in the physical sense, but in the emotional and mental sense. Because he was hiding his sin, the guilt and shame began to eat at him and take away his strength and health. This all affected the way he thought and viewed society and things.

The Scarlet Letter also shows the criticism of the norm. This novel criticizes the norm by exaggerating something that does not happen on a normal basis. They take one small thing that is different and blow it up to another level. When in reality, it really should not be that big of a deal. "At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead. Madam Hester would have winced at that, I warrant me. But she-the naughty baggage-little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown!

Why, look you, she may cover it with a brooch, or suchlike heathenish adornment, and so walk the streets as brave as ever!" (Hawthorne 45) The women of the town gossiped much about Hester Prynne's sin and exaggerated so much about it. They caused drama just because they believed her punishment should have been worse. It is not like Hester killed somebody, but still everyone acted as though she committed the worst crime possible. This shows that the norm for this town was so strict. The people were so ludicrously set on their rules and laws. So that one little thing that stood out was exaggerated and put up for show.

The Scarlet Letter also portrays the individual as the center of literature. Wherever in the book you read or turn to, you will notice it is always keeping in focus at one person and from their view or what is going on with them. In most parts of the novel, Hester Prynne is the center of attraction. She is the center of everything going on. The whole story itself revolves around her. "...all the townspeople assembled and leveling their stern regards at Hester Prynne-yes, at herself-who stood on the scaffold of the pillory, an infant on her arm, and the letter "A" in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom!" (Hawthorne 52) Everyone looked towards her and talked about her. Everything that went on and occurred involved or revolved around her. Hester Prynne, the individual of this book, is the center of everything.

The psychology of emotions, the criticism of the norm, and the individual as the center of literature shown in The Scarlet Letter affirms that it is indeed a romance novel. Although The Scarlet Letter may not include all the elements of romanticism, it does contain some. And those elements show that The Scarlet Letter is a romance novel because these elements are evident throughout the entire book.

Pearl is described as good in many ways including being an angel. Pearl is described as an angel throughout the whole book including this passage, " In this child there were many children, comprehending the full scope between the wild-flower prettiness of a peasant-baby, and the pomp, in little, of an infant princess." (Hawthorne 62). She has a very complex thought about Hester even though she is only 7. Pearl also knows that Dimmesdale is her father even though nobody tells her.

Pearl loves Hester in the Scarlet Letter even though not many other people like Hester. The main reason that Pearl loves Hester is because Hester is Pearl's mother. Pearl also loves Hester because she defended Pearl when she still was a little baby and held Pearl in Hester's arms. Another reason that Pearl loves Hester is told in this quote from the book, " All this enmity and passion had Pearl inherited, by inalienable right, out of Hester's heart." (Hawthorne 65). Pearl loves Hester in many ways including the Scarlet A. Pearl does not think that the Scarlet A is a bad thing on Hester but a good thing. Pearl also thinks about many things good about Hester including being born good, and free from sin. Pearl also loves Hester in this line of the book, " And then what a happiness would it have been, could HesterPrynne have heard her clear, bird-like voice mingling with the uproar of other childish voices, and have distinguished and unraveled her own darling's tones, amid all the entangled outcry of a group of sportive children!" (Hawthorne 64).

Even though the Scarlet A does not have a lot of meaning about Pearl it still describes how Pearl is good. Pearl thinks of the Scarlet A in many ways other than evil. Pearl does not judge Hester about the Scarlet A like the towns people who think the Scarlet A is the worst thing ever. Pearl also does not think the Scarlet A is bad but thinks it is Hester's identity. This passage describes how Pearl is the only person who loves the Scarlet A, "They mother is yonder woman with the scarlet letter, said the seaman. Wilt thou carry her a message from me? If the message pleases me I will, answered Pearl." (Hawthorne 168). Pearl also loves the Scarlet A very much and will not go back to Hester without the Scarlet A. This quote tells how Pearl loves the A, " Pearl took some eel-grass, and imitated, as best she could, on her own bosom, the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother's chest." (Hawthorne 122).

Pearl was a good character in the Scarlet Letter. Pearl did everything a regular loving child does with her mother and she does not think of her mother as a bad person. Pearl was described as evil in the Scarlet Letter but she was never described in depth about how she could have been a demon child.

Pearl was more of an angel than anything else, with angel like qualities. After all that was said, it should be convincing that Pearl was a good character and not a demon child or a bad character.

Hawthorne uses omniscience because it allows him the scope to do several things:

1. To comment on the story, and sometimes to judge the events and characters (e.g., to tell us that Hester Prynne is strong; that Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale is, in effect, neurotic, that Roger Chillingworth has become satanic and fiend-like; that several of Hawthorne's characters are grim and mistrustful).
2. To explore the interior worlds of more than one main character (especially Hester, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter). To show what other people besides the main characters are doing, and to describe what the townspeople in general are saying, thinking, and feeling (especially about ministers, and, also, Hester Prynne).
3. To promote a detached viewpoint in the readers, so that we can study the events of the story and learn from them (but the lessons are open-ended; Hawthorne doesn't tell us what they are).
4. To relate the deaths of his main, viewpoint characters (Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter, Minister Hooper in "The Minister's Black Veil," young Goodman Brown in the story of the same name).

Edgar Allan Poe uses first-person narration in his stories to make us identify with his characters, to let us experience their mental states from the inside. (He may also use it because it is, perhaps, a Gothic convention.) The use of the first person may also be to make his stories scarier. And it allows Poe's stories to have more ambiguity, uncertainty, subjectivity than Hawthorne's, and for those qualities to work.

Hawthorne's use of ambiguity about why various things happen works, but sometimes his use of ambiguity about what happened can be clumsy and awkward: Poe's first-person narrators can plausibly be uncertain about important facts, especially his disturbed and/or drug-addicted narrators (as in "Ligeia"); but often it doesn't really work for Hawthorne's omniscient narrators to suddenly, briefly stop being omniscient (e.g., in The Scarlet Letter, the usually-omniscient narrator tells us that Mistress Higgins might or might not be a witch.

Poe gives us, not study, or a search for understanding, as Hawthorne does, but an intense experience of his characters' mental states from the inside.

Hawthorne seems to seek to bring wisdom and rational understanding to himself and his readers, out of the events in his story and his omniscient narrator's analysis of them.

Hawthorne's effect is more meditative, while Poe's is more disturbing. Hawthorne can be disturbing, but not as much as Poe, because his commenting on his characters from outside their consciousness prevents full reader-identification with them.

Hawthorne's narrative "voice" is somewhat like that of a minister, but the sermons that he preaches are open-ended, with unclear and ambiguous morals.

Poe's stories (except for "The Purloined Letter") gain their power and intensity by letting us experience his characters' mental states from the inside; in "Ligeia" and "The Black Cat" we experience the protagonists' emotional intensity, their disturbance and possible madness, and the stories would be much less powerful if told in Hawthorne's omniscient and analytical manner.

The difference between Hawthorne's effects and Poe's is more subtle in "The Fall of the House of Usher," but it is still significant: the narrator of that story is a peripheral narrator, but he is vulnerable as an omniscient narrator (and one writing long after the events of the story have taken place, as in most of Hawthorne's stories) cannot be. The peripheral narrator helps Roderick Usher as best he can, but he has no real power to change or even influence the course of events; nor is his fate in the balance; he is not at risk; the story does not tell us if he is psychologically altered in any way by the events of the story; but by reading the story from his point of view, we experience his vulnerability to both the events and, especially, the nightmarishly gloomy atmosphere and appearance of the mansion, estate, and surrounding countryside.

In Ligeia" and "The Black Cat," Poe's protagonists tell their stories, talk about their disturbance, madness, sins, in the form of utterly candid confessions. These stories gain much of their power from their narrators' speaking to us from the depths of their personal hells, their telling us everything as clearly as they can, their honesty and precision at expressing their disturbed subjective experiences, their attempts--skewed as they are--at rational analysis and self-analysis.

The narrator of "The Black Cat" is particularly self-analytical (at least, as well as the seemingly disturbed or insane narrator can be), even seemingly autobiographical; he speaks to us as clearly as he can (although his rejection of the idea that he could be mad, under these circumstances, suggests that he is disturbed or insane). Although he is going to be executed for the murder of his wife, probably the next day ("... to-morrow I die ..."), he makes no attempt to excuse himself, but writes with great contrition, out of the depths of his wretchedness: "But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen [sic] my soul" (p. 1495). This lack of trying to excuse himself makes his confession more powerful.

Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil," on the other hand, depends on the fact that we have no insight into Rev. Hooper's mind or psyche; the mystery of Hooper's behavior is the center of the story.

Hawthorne's characters are often so guilt-ridden, so aware of their secret sins, that they are unable to tell anyone; this is one of the chief features of many of his characters, and even one of Hawthorne's hallmarks. By letting his characters keep their privacy and secrecy, he shows the often tortured inner world and secret sins and guilt of seemingly decent people, even virtuous ones (as opposed to Poe's extraordinary, Gothic characters, who are often finally seen by the world in all their bizarreness and wickedness, and confess everything to the reader). This lets Hawthorne deal with the outside as well as the inside of ordinary people, as opposed to Poe, who only deals with the inside.

By interpreting the dream as both Goodman Brown's conscious and unconscious mind (each of which come into play within the dream) it is possible to assert a number of conclusions this allegorical tale alluded to. Among these, one could say that the Puritan Culture caused an unavoidable hypocracy both personally and communally. It is no secret that human's have the capacity of great good, and also great evil, and throughout our lives we struggle figuratively and between these two forces.

By constructing a society in which each person is expected, without leniency, to conduct themselves in perfect concordance with the spiritual doctrines of the time, you come to the inevitable dilemma due to humanity's "sinful" nature. Without the opportunity for redemption, socially and spiritually, it is small wonder that Goodman Brown, a man of most probably exemplary humanity, is driven to near agoraphobia.

Consciously, throughout the story, Goodman Brown verbally and mentally enters into a state of denial against the images of pure evil that he is exposed to. When told of his father and grandfather's sins, he unshakably denies them, "We are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness" (56). Consciously, he continues to hold steadfast in his beliefs, and in his faith, even with the revealing that both the Minister and his Deacon were participating in this Black Mass (61).

However, if one looks at the symbolism of the events that occur inside of the dream, a different picture beings to make itself visible. Freud stated, "It is ... necessary to observe tht our doctrine is not based upon the estimates of the obvious dream- content, but relates to the thought-content, which, in the course of interpretation, is found to lie behind the dream. Dreams do not directly allow themselves open to interpretation, rather, are subject to condensation (compression, conflation and omission of dream elements) and displacement (shifting, emphasis).

Freud even went as far as to say that our conscious mind attempts to reject messages put forth in our dreams, we repress this knowledge. In Goodman Brown's case, the Witch Festival was merely a symbol, in which he himself was thrust face first into the knowledge that on some level all men are inherently capable of evil deeds, and no man can be called sinless. Even his very wife, whom he holds in such high regards, was villanized in this dream. "...they [were] partakers of the mystery of sin, more conscious of the secret guilt of others, both in deed and in thought, then they could now be of their own" (67).

This subconscious realization, relayed through the dream, was (even as Freud said would be), completely denied by the conscious self of Goodman Brown. The guilt of others hung so heavily in his subconscious mind, even greater than his own. As his subconscious self continued to reveal his own knowledge that the entire human race was sinful by nature, "Ye have found thus young your nature and your destiny," (65) Goodman Brown continued to push deeper into denial, ignoring the obvious implication that he was equally as filthy as those around him.

The scene of dire importance lay with the moment Goodman Brown discovered the pink ribbon which belonged to his wife. In his moment of despair he too is brought to a "...a vent[ing] of horrid blasphemy..." (62). But this slip, this dark moment of complete and total hopelessness, and the significance of such, is lost on the conscious Goodman Brown, but perhaps not in his subconscious.

Though continuing his life of denial as "[a] stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man..." (68) shows a psychological break down in the screen that Goodman Brown's mind had placed in front of him. It revealed to him the natural sinfulness of man, but in a very Puritan way, denied him the ability to see the hypocracy of such unsound judgment upon his fellow man. And while outwardly he chose to ostracize his community, inwardly the message that his subconscious attempted to deliver was still festering.

Hawthorne begins The Scarlet Letter with this long introductory essay that served as a preface. This preface though was aimed to accomplish four important tasks: 1). outlines information pertaining to the author's autobiography, 2). describes the contradiction between the artistic inclination and the commercial setting, 3). defines the romance novel (which Hawthorne is credited for his efforts in refining and mastering the craft), and 4). confirms the basis of the novel by explaining that he had discovered in the Salem Custom House the faded scarlet A and the parchment sheets that contained the historical manuscript on which the novel is based.

Despite its claim, there is no existing serious, scholarly work that supports the idea that Hawthorne ever actually had in his possession such letter or manuscript. This narrative technique, typical of the narrative traditions of his time, serves as a way of giving his story an air of historic authenticity.

Of the American writers from the mid-nineteenth century whose names are still recognized today, the majority are writers of prose narrative, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter is one the products of prose narrative genre.

The kind of narration employed in The Scarlet Letter is that of an omniscient narrator. Editorial omniscience pertains to an interruption by the narrator to be able to describe a character for a reader, such as the part of the story where the narrator of The Scarlet Letter describes Hester's relationship to the Puritan community. Narration that enables the characters' actions and thoughts to speak for themselves is termed neutral omniscience. A number of modern writers use neutral omniscience to enable readers to arrive at their own conclusions. Limited omniscience happens when an author confines the role of the narrator to the single viewpoint of either a major or minor character. The way people, places, and events are seen by the character is the way they are seen by the reader. Sometimes a limited omniscient narrator can be use in more than one character, specifically in a work that dwells on two characters interchangeably from one chapter to the next. Short stories, however, are often limited to a single character's point of view.

Hawthorne organizes the story of Hester and Minister Dimmesdale around three vital scenes, each of these scenes occur on the scaffold outside the prison in Boston. Each is used to reveal some important information about his hero and heroine. All throughout the novel, the author balances his narrative among scenes describing the career of Hester among the villagers, the growing agony felt by Dimmesdale over his secret sin, and the subtle efforts of Chillingworth to uncover his wife's lover.

Brief History of Narratives

Literary narratives appeared in the 1850's. It seemed to be the means authors used to counter the pressing issues of the day - a political crisis over slavery, which threatened the nation's existence and produced a compromise meant to suppress the controversy. At this moment, Hawthorne emphasized certain elements present in their own earlier writings and in those of Poe and set their work apart from national narrative. The “Custom-House” introduction to Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter shows an attempt by author to detach himself from national concerns. It presented a startling contrast not only to national narrative but also to local and personal narratives, both of which addressed and reflected the concerns of everyday public life, the literary narrative of The Scarlet Letter deviates from the conventional narratives to be able to cultivate a freely imaginative space.

Through the irony of Hawthorne works of literary narrative, it does not only differ from but also appears to rise above and, indirectly, to criticize the common life. Yet their critical authority was based on the fact that it was limited to influential audiences, mysterious topics, and indirect methods. The potential triumph of creating a “different world” through writing was often viewed by the authors themselves as boringly recurring, lonely labor. The moment in which the “literary” writer was transformed into an “artist” marks a crisis in the relation of narrative to its readers, for the work of the artist was understood to draw its main worth from its personal relation to the writer's self.

Narrative technique: Romance versus Novel

Jonathan Arac (714) in his “Narrative Forms” stated: “Hawthorne, in his longer works, maintains an extremely high proportion of narration to dialogue, while at the same time abandoning most of the materials-that is, the actions- of traditional narration…. Hawthorne defined the special "medium" of the romance writer as "moonlight, in a familiar room" …. The key figure in Hawthorne's long narratives, in keeping with his theatricality, is the "sensitive spectator" … another of the bridging devices by which Hawthorne's romances function…. In an Emersonian movement of compensation, the sensitive spectator responds to the absent and contrary features of a face or context, feeling the pain in bravery and the triumph in humility that together make Hester a reconciliation of opposites, embodying the power Coleridge had attributed to the imagination.”

Narrative persona: “The Custom-House”

What is the purpose of the Introductory section? This question is effectively addressed by Jonathan Arac (711):

“ This interdependence of romance and everyday marks the relation of “The Custom-House to “The Scarlet Letter”, that is, of the introductory sketch of modern life to the long tale of seventeenth century with which it shares a book.… it offers to prove the "authenticity" of the narrative, but it does so by invoking "literary propriety", an appeal to convention rather than a warrant of authenticity. By taking possession through “The Custom-House” of the (physical) scarlet letter as his property, the author of “The Custom-House” personalizes the narrative.

There are many correspondences between the authorial figure of “The Custom-House” and the characters of “The Scarlet Letter”. Both Hester in the tale's opening and Hawthorne in the sketch are subjected to disapproval by an imagined crowd of Puritan authorities. Both Dimmesdale in the tale and Hawthorne in the sketch are split by a passionate inner life that is wholly at odds with their "official" public position. Both Chillingworth in the tale and Hawthorne in the sketch display prowess as critical analysts of character….A recurrent mood of “The Custom-House” … is harried dejection…. Consider a major rhetorical motif in “The Custom-House”, the insistence that the gloom of “The Scarlet Letter” stems in part from an act of revolutionary victimization…. The sketches of "official" character that occupy Hawthorne in the avowedly antipolitical literary practice of “The Custom-House” correspond to his occupation during his maximal political involvement…”

Hawthorne's long line of Puritans forefathers (one of his forefathers was a judge during the Salem witch trials) left a marked influenced in a number of his books. Puritan beliefs on the subjects of guilt, repression, original sin, and discipline laced his books. This observation is particularly significant in his work The Scarlet Letter.

The story of The Scarlet Letter revolves around a woman named Hester Prynne. The tale took place in New World particularly in Massachusetts Bay in the late 17th century. Hester Prynne, against the teachings of her Puritan community, committed adultery with someone whose name she did not disclose at the start of the story. The Puritan society believed that the Bible is the ultimate source of law, punishment was meted on Hester. Hester is made to wear a scarlet "A" (for adultery) on her attire at all times, as a sign to everyone that she has sinned deeply. And so she must carry out the rest of her life this way.

It turned out that Hester Prynne had an affair with a man esteemed by all, the local Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Roger Chillingworth is Hester's husband while the affair takes place. Because of the affair, Hester and Arthur have a daughter named Pearl. Towards the end of the story while Dimmesdale was dying, he stepped forward and admitted his sin against Hester, against their daughter Pearl and to the community. The people of course were taken aback and did not know how to respond. But as the realization dawned, acceptance came with it.

The story touches very delicate matters - sin and adultery. This topic is highly unpopular yet Hawthorne manages to get away with its obvious flaws. The conclusion of the story thought does not enlighten the readers if Hawthorne approves or disapproves the Puritan society. Even his views on adultery or how he finds it do not register. The moral of the story is subject to the reader's interpretation.

SYMBOLISMS

Hawthorne uses symbolism in the The Scarlet Letter to make it more significant. The Scarlet Letter showcases Nathaniel Hawthorne's ability to depict the Puritan's way of life. Hawthorne's story is in agreement with the various historical accounts on life of a Puritan from historians. There are a few differences though. For instance, many of the women had a desire to kill Hester. This is not a Puritan way of thinking. Killing people merely for the desire to do so is not acceptable in Puritan teachings. The community then decided to punish Hester by a less severe punishment. They humiliated her by forcing her to wear the scarlet letter “A” on her chest.

A striking similarity between Puritans and their counterparts in Scarlet Letter is having their lives centered on God. This coincides with “The Puritan Way” in that just as they obey Gods laws and abide by them, they also have an enforcer and a leader of these laws: the minister.

The seventeenth century does not tolerate adultery as shown by their laws. In 1641, Boston law provides that death should be meted for those who commit adultery. In 1644, John Winthrop reported that a certain Mary Latham and her partner James Britton were put to death due to adultery. English law was more lenient as they demanded only a small crime from adulterous couples. But the usual order of the day to address adultery was public whipping as imposed by Puritan Massachusetts.

One of Hawthorne's ancestor Major John Hathorne was the magistrate in Salem in 1688. He ordered whipping for Hester Craford when she was found giving birth to an illegitimate child. In 1964 Plymouth law required that adulteress should wear the letter A on the dress. This is probably where Hawthorne found his inspiration for The Scarlet Letter story.

The sin that Hester commits in the story is adultery. Hester Prynne as a punishment is made to wear the embroidered scarlet letter "A... in fine red cloth, surrounded with elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread..." (58). Hester Prynne, is looked on by many Puritans in her place as a sinner.

Hawthorne uses several symbols throughout The Scarlet Letter. Even the scarlet letter "A" which was worn by Hester symbolizes several things and not just adultery. Puritan community regarded letter "A" as a sign of punishment. The red "A" is put on the chest of the offender's clothing. The "A" may mean adultery, Angel and Able.

Hester Prynne had a relatively light punishment as compared to others. The main objective of Hester's humiliation was to force her to name the father of the child so he could share in the responsibilities of rearing the child. They believed that women and children should not be exploited by men.

When the townsfolk required Hester to show her scarlet letter, the symbol of this action is that the punishment would be helpful if the shame caused by public appearance with the letter worn on her chest would enable Hester to repent and name the father of her illegitimate child. As the story unfolded however, they found it was more difficult to do that than to punish her. The letter “A” on Hester's chest no longer bears the same weight as it had the first time she wore it. Hawthorne mentioned that Hester had fancy embroidery of the letter. But the purpose of such act was not explained. It could symbolize two diverse things, one is to conceal the letter “A” the other is to make it more plain to see as a sign of defiance on Hester's part.

As the story progressed, we see Hester slowly but surely gained the people's trust once again. After years of rendering valuable service to the townsfolk, she earned their respect as exemplified by the fact that people no longer see the “A” on her chest as to mean “adultery” but this time it means “Able”; "so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength" (186). "Such helpfulness was found in her, -so much... that many people refused to interpret the scarlet "A" by its original signification" (186).

“A' for Puritans could also symbolize “Angel”. "A great red letter in the sky, Ñthe letter A..." showed up at Governor Winthrop's death in the sky" (182). "For, as our good Governor Winthrop was made an angel this past night..." (182).

"A" is subject to various interpretations to the different characters in the story. For Helen, it serves as constant reminds of the sin she committed and the ensuing humiliation it caused. Dimmesdale, being a party to the crime of adultery, "A" represents his own guilt, and his inability to forgive his own shortcomings.

Hester opted not name Dimmesdale as Pearl's father. She did not want to wreck his reputation since the Puritans see him as holy, not capable of committing sin. The Puritans even instructed their children to bury them next to Dimmesdale's grave because "he would go to heavenward before them..." (164). Knowing this only compounded the guilt Dimmesdale felt. He even "questioned...whether the grass would ever grow on it, because an accursed thing must there be buried" (164) on his final resting place.

For Pearl, "A" means something that is an object of curiosity. Because of youth, Pearl has no idea what the "A" that her mother wears on her chest means. Somehow her innocence spared her from the stigma attached to her mother's sin. "In the afternoon of a certain summer's day, after Pearl grew big enough to run about, she amused herself with gathering handfuls of wild-flowers...flinging them, one by one, at her mother's bosom..." (110).

Hawthorne's Romantic philosophies when Hester gained redemption through forgiveness for her sins. Hawthorne portrays Hester as "divine maternity," and she can do nothing wrong. "The image of Divine Maternity" which was mentioned in Chapter 2 of the book symbolizes Mary, mother of Jesus. It should be noted that Puritans do not believe in the Virgin Mary. As a matter of fact, the Puritan's subjected the icon to violent attacks. In the same way, Hester was subjected to intense disliked when she was first found out to have sinned. Hawthorne

The townsfolk soon forget Hester's sin and the meaning of the “A” she wore. Hester works overcome the humiliation of wearing the "A." Many Puritans forgot about the "A" Hester wears.

Other symbols apparent in the story include:

The Northern Lights mentioned in Chapter Six of the book pertains to the aurora borealis. These are colors that lit up the night sky and often visible in Polar Regions sometimes in New England. Northern Lights often connote mystery and something supernatural. The symbol pertains to the scaffold scene that is about to occur.

The elixir of life as mentioned in Chapter 9 is a mythical substance that is believed to give the person eternal life. Alchemists during his time sought this substance vigorously. Hawthorne used this Elixir of Life symbol in several of his writings. Hawthorne always opposed this alchemy effort because it puts science over human life and go against the limits God put on life.

Priestly celibacy mentioned in Chapter 9 could refer to Puritan minister. "Priestly chastity" might have been admired by a segment of parishioners, but was not mainstream Puritanism. Neither Puritan nor Church of England ministers were required by church doctrine to be celibate (abstain from married sex). The author only states that Dimmesdale's actual life was "as if priestly celibacy were one of the articles of church-discipline," not that it actually was. It is never stated just why Dimmesdale did not accept the offer of the hand of one of these comely parishioners. We see no evidence he was in love with Hester. We can only suppose that he was depressed and did not feel worthy.

The "gift that descended...at Pentecost, in tongues of flame" is mentioned in Chapter 11. Pentecost was the traditional holy day, fifty days after the first day of the Jewish Passover, for Christians the seventh Sunday after Easter. The Puritans did not actually celebrate such holidays of the Episcopal Church of England. The origin is found in Acts 2:1-6. Pentecost symbolizes the eloquence with which Dimmesdale delivered the Election Day sermon. Election Day was fixed at fifty days after Easter. The paradox in the Tongues of Flame at Pentecost is that the gift of tongue was given to people who sinned, and the accompanying flame (or baptism by the Holy Ghost) was meant to cleanse them--although here Hawthorne says the gift was for "chosen disciples," it was really for all humans.

'A light gleamed...one of those meteors' this was mentioned in Chapter 12. Meteors and comets and other celestial phenomena symbolize the direct word from God on the state of people's lives, good or bad (usually it's a bad omen). For instance, when Reverend John Cotton died in 1652 a meteor was seen at night and the residents of Boston were alarmed at the strange sight, which they connected with Cotton's death. They believed that it meant he was on his way to heaven, but it could be an omen for something bad to happen. Hawthorne was probably describing a comet not a meteor - one lasts too long while the other flashes too quickly.