The Scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Outline

Historical context

In the 19th. century the U.S. was marked by westward expansion, increasing national consciousness, political organisation and regional competition. The Monroe Doctrine brought many of these different strands together in 1823. It stated that the western hemisphere was no longer open to European colonisation, under threat of aggressive reaction by the U.S. This was a political response to the cultural search for identity coursing through the country and culminating in civil war in the middle of the century. The Scarlet Letter can be seen as part of the historical search for personal and national identity.

Hawthorne set the scenario of his novel in the Puritanical era of 17th. century Boston. It can be argued that this harks back to a family identity interest, since his great grandfather, John, was a prominent judge in the infamous Salem witch trial of the 1600s. This part of Puritan history is the backdrop to the social mores depicted in The Scarlet Letter.

Literary context

Hawthorne subtitled his book A Romance, a reference to the European tradition of fantastical stories of knights. The “historical romance” was a subgenre that fictionalized historical events. The first modern historical romance was Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley, published in 1814, the first of a series. Scott’s historical romances were popular in the United States and provided early authors there with a model for writing about their own country. They used their narratives to develop a sense of national identity and pride, and to help readers understand their own history. 

In The Custom House preface to his book Hawthorne clarifies that it is not a novel, but a Romance, which takes readers to a different place and time where facts and fiction mix. The Scarlet Letter is clearly a fictional history aiming to inform on the past cultural identity of the country and so help present-day readers understand where they come from. 

Hawthorne's book is influenced by Transcendentalism, a radical, optimistic expression of Romanticism, which emerged to combat the dehumanising effects of industrialism. It was also a reaction against the established religious practice, based on harsh Calvinism, by preaching a more expressive, personal and humanistic form of religion.

Hawthorne's Romanticism took a more pessimistic view of human fallibility and proclivity for sin. Both the Romantic and Transcendental movements were a reaction against convention and formal classicism, placing emphasis on inspiration, emotion and subjectivity. For instance, the narrator in The Scarlet Letter is quick to support the main character's independent beliefs against those in authority, who are criticised and condemned. 

Discussion 

The historical background to The Scarlet Letter is a search for personal and national identity by the author. Nineteenth century USA was marked by westward expansion, increasing national consciousness, political organisation and regional competition. This led to a cultural search for identity, culminating in civil war in the middle of the century. Hawthorne also had a family interest in his book, since his great grandfather had been a prominent judge in the infamous Salem witch trials of the 1600s. This part of Puritan history is the backdrop to the social mores depicted in The Scarlet Letter.

The author subtitled his book A Romance, a reference to the European tradition of fantastical stories of knights. The “historical romance” was a subgenre that fictionalised historical events and the first modern historical romance was Walter Scott’s Waverley. Scott’s historical romances provided early authors in the US with examples for writing about their own country. Hawthorne used this narrative model to develop a sense of national identity in his countrymen.

The novel follows a double structure with the first chapter as an autobiographical introduction together with a fictional reference for the main plot to follow: the supposed finding of a manuscript telling the story of the scarlet letter, a narrative pretence also used in El Quijote. The binary construction of the novel continues in the moral opposition of good and evil seen in the characters of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, who also represent two opposed ways of thinking: religious emotionalism and scientific analysis. The reverend Dimmesdale himself plays a double role, a social one as revered minister and a personal one as participant in the sin of adultery. Hawthorn also constructs the whole novel by offsetting the historical events, seen through the Puritans' behaviour, versus the narrator's Romance vision of the story.                         

The main character is Hester Pryrne, who is shunned and shamed by the Puritan community for adultery by having to wear the large red letter A on her clothes. However, the narrator describes her in a favourable light as a martyr for the cause of freedom, since her ostracism liberated her from the small-minded rules of her Puritan society. She returns insults with charitable works, appearing as morally better than her oppressors. Her daughter Pearl is also presented as a bright and positive child by the narrator, yet considered elfish by the Puritan neighbours.

The theme of social criticism lays bare the crude patriarchal theocracy of the first US colony, governed by a strict Puritan code, but which allowed bond servants as slaves. The narrator thus draws a distinction between outward appearances and inward morality, suggesting that the society's ethics were in fact hypocritical. The eagle, as a symbol of the independent U.S., is described, not in tender terms, but as apt to claw at her nestlings. The identity Hawthorne draws for his countrymen and women is double-edged: raw, yet hopeful.