The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 – 1864) Essay, Research Paper
The Scarlet Letter, as one of the first
and finest “psychological gothics,” may bewilder modern, TV readers,” who
keep waiting for something to happen. The book contains very little dramatic
action. The bulk of the novel is occupied by the narrator’s uniquely penetrating
descriptions of his characters’ thoughts, feelings and relationships. This
narrator also breaks other literary ground: Not content to slip into the
background and let the storyline flow, he constantly interrupts the plot,
speculating on motives, offering his opinions, and suggesting alternative
views. Sometimes he even takes part in the interactions, as when, in the
first chapter, he plucks a rose froi-n a bush outside the town prison and
offers it to you, the reader. Furthermore, he claims to be guiding the
story through its many macabre twis . ts based on various sources (manuscripts,
gossip, rumors and legends) that may or may not be reliable. The reader
is often left to chose one or another version of the tale, or to reject
them all.
Hester Prynne is one of the great heroines
of literature. Though Hawthorne never condones her crime, he is, as described
in Harry Levin’s introduction, “concerned to show that fundamental morality
is not so much a series of rigorous laws to be enforced by a meddling community
as it is an insight to be attained through continuous exertion on the part
of the individual conscience.”
An ambiguous blend of sin and virtue, pride
and humility, severity and gentleness, justice and mercy, the novel’s true
message may lie in what Hawthorne describes as its true genre: The Scarlet
Letter, says its author, is not so much a novel as a romance,” filled with
details that disclose the “truth of the human heart.”