Free Scarlet Letter Essay: Secrets :: Scarlet Letter essays

The Secrets of The Scarlet Letter   Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter is considered by many to be the greatest accomplishment of an author hailed as the subjugate of the American short story. It is set in Salem, Massachusetts. In this strictly controlled puritan town the inhabitants live by uncouth laws and fierce prejudices. Hester Prynne, a unseasoned wife whose husband is presumed dead, is being publicly humiliated for the sin of adultery. The confirmation of her sin is her baby girl drop cloth. She conceals the identicalness of Pearls father to protect him from the harsh judgement of prude law. She however is doomed to spend the rest of her sustenance marked as an adulterer by wearing a cerise A on her chest. Hesters husband meanwhile has arrived in the colony and taken up practice as a doctor. He makes Hester promise that she wont stop his identity to anyone. The book covers a seven year period during which the identity of the father becomes known. It is the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who is renowned as an especially holy and godly man. Wracked by viciousness he starts to show outward signs of serious illness. Hesters husband under the assumed name Roger Chillingworth moves in and begins taking care of Dimmesdale. Chillingworth in brief discovers that the Reverend is Pearls father. Dimmesdale however thinks that Chillingworth is simply a doctor. Chillingworth uses his influence to multiply the feelings of guilt in the minister while trying to keep him in forcible health, as a form of emotional torture. At the climax of the story, Dimmesdale confesses and dies. Hester and Pearl leave the colony. Chillingworth whose whole purpose was to get revenge from Dimmesdale suddenly finds his life without purpose and dies within a year. Hawthorne used the settings in the book, not however to develop the story, but to make a statement about Puritan Society through the use of allegory. The Puritans were a people dedicated to perfecting themselves fit to a certain set of values that were uniquely Puritan. On the psyche level a Puritan would try to reach perfection by living out this series of values. If they did not succeed, as in Hester or Arthur Dimmesdales cases, their punishment would be in the fact that they did not live up to the perfection they strived for. The prison, in The Scarlet Letter is proof that Salem is a society striving for self perfection, not only individuals dedicated to perfecting themselves.