The Prison Door
"The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique than anything else in the New World. Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era." (Hawthorne 50). 1. The imagery in this scene reveals the dark foreboding aura that surrounds the prison door. Hawthorne writes it to sound like this door has always been here, and has always been dark and ancient looking. This symbolizes the dark and sinful nature of the individuals that lived around providence. It is the pathway between the ones who get caught for their sins, and the ones who get away with them. It also foreshadows the dark nature of the story to come. Hawthorne purposefully opened with describing this door, the door behind which Hester lived for months, to give the reader a hint of how dark the story of Hester Prynne was going to be. It is described in great detail to express its decrepit features, and to foreshadow all the dark details to come. There is also a bit of mystery surrounding it, and it's origin. This is done to show the secrecy of the puritan people in Providence, and to express the hidden secrets that they have to hide. The imagery of the door is effectively used to symbolize the people in the area, and to foreshadow the events in the story to come.
The Market-Place
"It was no great distance, in those days, from the prison-door to the market place. Measured by the prisoner's experience, however, it might be reckoned a journey of some length... as if her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon." (Hawthorne 57). 7. The details in this passage are important because they show how we as people feel we need to punish our criminals. The very first thing that Hester did after getting out of prison was walk to, and stand on the scaffold, to be ridiculed. They chose this as her punishment because it was a way to humiliate her to all of the town. She had to stand there while the whole town judged and condemned her. We still do this today in our society. If you commit a crime today it isn't kept public. The reporters will have your face all over the news after the news is out that you committed a crime. As people we do this in order to ridicule these people who commit the crimes. We want to know what they did, but more importantly we want them to know that we know what they did, and we hate them for it. It is a way we punish them for committing the crime, we make them know that everyone knows what they did, and they will never be able to be looked at the same way again.
Conclusion
"This unhappy man had made the very principal of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge; and when, by its completest triumph and consummation, that evil principal was left with no further material to support it... It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at the bottom." (Hawthorne 287). 9. Something I wonder about is did Chilling worth fully forgive Hester before he died. It is obvious that he got past the fact that Pearl was not his daughter by blood, and that he cared about her. This is seen by him leaving her his wealth. I question if it is possible that he, after everything that happened, was able to let it all go and forgive Hester for what she did to him. Hawthorne states that love and hatred are connected; that you have strong feelings for the ones you love, but also the ones you hate. So is it possible, after everything that she did to him, for him to be able to forgive and love her like he used to. To further my inquiry, i also wonder if it is possible that he, in the end, could have forgiven Dimmesdale. After returning Chillingworth's whole existence revolved around making Dimmesdale's life a living hell. He hated him for ruining what he had with Hester, and he let that hatred fuel his very being. You see and hear about people today who have so much anger towards a specific person, or everything in general, and they just can't let it all go and forgive. I wonder if by the time he was close to death, and his anger and hatred had receded, if he could have let himself forgive the man that ruined his life.
A Forest Walk
"It was a little dell where they had seated themselves, with a leaf-strewn bank rising gently on either side, and a brook flowing through the midst, over a bed of fallen and drowned leaves... at some short distance withing the forest, but soon lost all traces of it amid the bewilderment of tree-trunks and underbrush, and here and there a huge rock, covered over with gray lichens." (Hawthorne 205). The setting gives the effect of a secret and ominous location deep within the dark forest. Hawthorne gives great descriptions of the forest to make the reader see how dark and foreboding it is. He does this to show that the forest represents sin and evil that people commit. The forest is where all the evil things happen. For example, it is in the forest where Mistress Hibbens dances with the devil, and does her witchcraft. Hawthorne has Hester and Dimmesdale make their agreement to run away, in the forest on purpose. He does it to express how it is sinful of them to decide to run from their problem instead of facing it. He uses the forest to show the reader that you have to watch out for temptation to do wrong. No matter where you are, and no matter how you are tempted, you need to make good decisions instead of the sinful ones. If you are in the forest, you can always decide to walk out into the sunlight, instead of giving in to the forest's inner darkness.
The Minister's Vigil
"'Wilt though stand here with mother and me, to-morrow noontide?' inquired Pearl...Pearl laughed, and attempted to pull away her hand." (Hawthorne 165). 3. The author seems to feel that what Dimmesdale is doing is wrong. Throughout the story, Hawthorne expresses, in multiple different ways, that how Dimmesdale handles his sorrow is cowardly and wrong. In this scene, Pearl offers Dimmesdale an out to his guilt. She offers him to stand with Hester and her,and admit that he is her father. But he instantly refuses her. Hawthorne shows his disgust in this action by having Pearl laugh at Dimmesdale and pull her hand away. In displaying scenes like this Hawthorne is expressing that Dimmesdale is handling his guilt and sorrow of his sin incorrectly. He is choosing to bottle it in, and hide what he did. Hawthorne implys that instead of hiding the sins that you commit, you should admit to what you have done, and accept your consequences. He displays Dimmesdale as a coward through the whole novel to contrast how he feels we should really handle our problems.
Another View of Hester
"None so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty... None so self-devoted as Hester, when pestilence stalked through the town." (Hawthorne 177). 5. This scene shows that Hester feels that it is time to move on with her life, and overcome the scarlet letter. She has, up until this point, stayed on the outskirts of the society. She didn't communicate with anyone, and she only interacted with Pearl. In this chapter, and throughout the rest of the story, Hester starts to contribute to the community, instead of hiding from it. She sees that there is no point in hiding from what she did any longer. She sees that she could be helpful to the community, instead of worrying about how they thought of her. Hawthorne has her do this in contrast to how Dimmesdale handles his years after their relation. While Hester decided to start to openly help the community, and overcome her shame, Dimmesdale decided to keep it all inside. Hawthorne has Hester make these actions to show the reader that sometimes you just have to get over what you have done, and try to move on. He is expressing that you can be so much more helpful to the community in general if you actually exert yourself and help, instead of hiding from everyone and worrying about what you have done in the past.
The Procession
"Many a church-member saw I, walking behind the music, that has danced in the same measure with me, when somebody was fiddler, and, it might be, an indian powwow or a lapland wizard changing hands with us!" (Hawthorne 268-269). 6. This conversation between Hester and Hibbens is ironic because Hibbens states that she has danced with the "good church-going folk" out in the woods with the blackman. She outright states that she has seen a lot of the townspeople out in the woods dancing with her during one of her witchcraft gathering in the forest. This is ironic because as a bystander you wouldn't expect the individuals who state that they are good puritans, to partake in witchcraft seances. Hawthorne does this so that the reader can get the point that everyone, regardless of how pure they are, has sinned and has secrets. He expresses that no one is perfect, but he feels that everyone should strive to be the best that they can, and not hide what they have done. He also uses this ironic conversation to express one of his main purposes for writing this book. He is showing how the "pure puritans" weren't as good as they sounded. He wants the readers to see that some, if not most, of the puritans were sinful liars that hid their wrongdoings. He wants the reader to also see, from Hester's perspective in this conversation, that you don't always know people as well as you may think. You don't know if the people that you are around are as good as they may seem, and you should always be wary of the possibility that they are not.
The Leech
"If he show no intrusive egotism, nor disagreeably prominent characteristics of his own; if he have the power, which must be born with him, to bring his mind into such affinity with his patients...and flow forth in a dark, but transparent stream, bringing all its mysteries into the daylight." (Hawthorne 133-134). 8. This is an interesting because it describes Chillingworth's unnatural dark abilities. This long, run-on sentence states that Chillingworth has the ability to look deep inside of people, and make their darkest secrets known. For one thing this foreshadows what is to come between him and Dimmesdale. Right from the beginning he knows dimmesdale's secret, and he tortures him because of it. Along with being foreshadowing this passage also helps develop one of Hawthorne's biblical allusions in this novel. This unnatural dark ability that Chillingworth has makes him represent the devil. He can see into your innermost secrets and reveal or exploit them. This makes the reader thing about their actions that they make, and the secrets that they have to hide. It makes the reader think about the possibility that there is someone in real life that might know their secret, and this makes them more wary of it. Hawthorne continues using passages like this to further establish
The Leech and his Patient
"'They grew out of his heart, and typify,it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his life time.'" (Hawthorne 141). 10. This reminds me of the tale-tell heart by Edgar Allen Poe. This reminds me of this poem because of a few reasons. The obvious one is because it is referencing a literal heart in this scene, which reminded me of the name of the poem. But the main reason i tie this scene to the poem is because of the meaning behind the heart. In the poem the protagonist hears a constant heart-beat, he thinks from the dead body he just hid under the floor boards, while he is talking the police, outside his door. He is so afraid that his secret is going to be revealed to the police, that he imagines the heart-beat, which makes him think that he is going to be found out. In the novel the heart with the flowers growing out of it represents the secret of Dimmesdale's that Chillingworth knows. He is letting on to Dimmesdale that no matter how much he wishes to hide it Chillingworth knows his secret. This all ties into Hawthorne's main theme that you cannot hide your sins forever. They are always going to come to the surface and be revealed to people.
The Recognition
"Here, to witness the scene which we are describing, sat governor Bellingham himself, with four sergeants about his chair...accomplished so much, precisely because it imagined and hoped so little." (Hawthorne 69). 4. The tone that Hawthorne uses in this passage is descriptive indifference. He describes Bellingham as a noble man, not unfit to rule Providence, yet not making the best decisions either. He does this to get across one of his main points in writing the book. This point being criticizing the puritans, and their rulers. He first describes Bellingham as a noble ruler of this very religious town during the punishment of a criminal. He intentionally introduces Bellingham in this scene to show that he is one of the hypocritical leaders of the puritan religion. They preach to be holy and good, yet they enjoy displaying a criminal to be ridiculed in front of the whole town. Hawthorne does this to show the reader that even the puritan leaders were corrupt and hypocrites. He uses this descriptive tone to give the reader a characterization of Bellingham, but does it to make sure that the reader sees the hypocrisy in his leadership. He gives these hints throughout the book that the puritan people overall are sinful and hypocritical, and this scene is used to show that even the leaders follow this concept.