The Scarlet Letter 1900-1950
From 1850s
Contents |
[edit] “The Scarlet Letter” – One Hundred Years After
-John E. Hart
The New England Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 3. (Sep., 1950), pp. 381-395.
The article explains that different characters throughout the novel represented Hawthorne’s different personalities.
It explains how Hawthorne felt that solitude was a necessary evil to becoming a great writer.
The article comments on the use of metaphor specifically shadow, citing the scene when we first meet Hester as she emerges from the shadows of her jail cell.
“To show how words have been linked together, we can make the following listings: Black flower rosebush Shadows Scarlet A Dungeon artistry, fertility, fancy Forest moral blossom
“If the above lists show what goes with what, the symbols, at the same time, carry implicit dichotomous attitudes, which we will explore later. It is clear that the sides are in conflict, And that Hester's actions have embodied attitudes representative of both. Actually, as "shadows" connote imprisonment and solitude, so the scarlet letter implies a way out.”
The article compares Hester’s solitude and her profession to Hawthorne’s. They both need solitude to work well…
“From the metaphors used to describe Pearl, we see that through her Hawthorne defines an attitude which accepts the creative spirit as a necessary part of man's life. Cut off from the roots of the Past, Pearl can judge action (precocious child that she is) not according to previous moral standards, but according to the amount of truth demonstrated to her. She acts always as her skeptical and innocent nature dictates. But, having inherited the "enmity and passion . . . of Hester's heart," the born outcast appears to the little Puritans as an unearthly child in league with witchcraft. Obviously, the society in which she lives has no capacity for understanding her.”
The theme of ones past keeps coming up…in the novel and also in Hawthorne’s life, he wants to rid himself of it, as many of the characters in the novel do as well.
[edit] Hawthorne's Hester and Feminism
Neal Frank Doubleday PMLA, Vol. 54, No. 3. (Sep., 1939), pp. 825-828.
This article deals with the speculation that Hawthorne compared Hester to modern women of his time and their feminist struggle and the outcast from society that those actions brought about, a passage quoted from the novel likening her thoughts to those of Hawthorne’s time is as follows:
“She discerns, it may be, such a hopeless task before her. As a first step, the whole system of society is to be torn down, and built up anew. Then, the very nature of the opposite sex, or its long hereditary habit, which has become like nature, is to be essentially modified, before woman can be allowed to assume what seems a fair and suitable position.”
[edit] Scarlet a Minus
Frederic I. Carpenter College English, Vol. 5, No. 4. (Jan., 1944), pp. 173-180.
“The scarlet letter has seemed the very symbol of all sin, translating into living terms the eternal problem of evil. And in 1850 the book was timely as well as timeless: it specifically suggested the nineteenth-century answer to the eternal problem. "Sin" might sometimes be noble, and "virtue" ignoble. Rousseau himself might have defined the scarlet letter as the stigma which society puts upon the natural instincts of man. But in modern times The Scarlet Letter has come to seem less than perfect.”
To the question "Was the action symbolized by the scarlet letter wholly sinful?" it suggests a variety of answers: "Yes," reply the traditional moralists; "Hester Prynne broke the Commandments." But the romantic enthusiasts answer: "No; Hester merely acted according to the deepest of human instincts.” And the transcendental idealists reply: "In part; Hester truly sinned against the morality which her lover believed in, but did not sin against her own morality, because she believed in a 'higher law.' To her own self, Hester Prynne remained true."
