Madeline Dagnall, “A For Adultery, Ambiguity, & Authority: Public Discipline in The Scarlet Letter,” 1st Place.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter offers an intimate glimpse at the personal and social implications of longstanding public punishment. Hester Prynne is indefinitely visibly marked as an adulteress through the scarlet letter A embroidered on her dress, but the townspeople’s interpretations of the letter and of Hester as a person shift throughout the novel. The interpretive instability of the scarlet letter itself renders Hester unidentifiable as either a figure of damnation or redemption. The publicized nature of Hester’s punishment extends beyond mere visibility and into the realm of public accountability and self-regulation. The fact that the meaning of the scarlet letter lies within the interpretation of each inhabitant of the town is an important aspect of this disciplinary tactic – the ambiguity of the symbol of punishment allows for it to be perpetuated, internalized, and feared. The interpretive instability of the scarlet letter forces Hester and the public to remain aware of its original signification despite the presence of alternative interpretations, upholding Puritan authority through its ability to act as a form of internal discipline.
The purpose of the scarlet letter is to set a clear definition of Hester and what she has done: A for adulteress. The townspeople see her as a sinner and understand what could happen to them if they should commit that same sin. Without the public to uphold the meaning of the A throughout Hester’s lifetime, there would be no effective punishment. Giving Hester the death penalty, as one of the townspeople suggested in the opening chapter (Hawthorne 36), would be setting only a very temporary example of her, and Hester’s peers would have no direct involvement in her punishment. Condemning her to wear the scarlet letter indefinitely, however, ensures that the authorities always have a figure and example of sin, and forces the townspeople to accept responsibility for ensuring her punishment is carried out. The only disciplinary action the authorities must take is designating her punishment, and the public takes the rest upon themselves.
The intention of the Puritan authority figures is to utilize Hester as a personification of sin. The desire is not only to ensure that Hester herself knows that what she had done was wrong, but to ensure that the townspeople know this as well:
[g]iving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman’s frailty and sinful passion. Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast . . . as the figure, the body, the reality of sin (Hawthorne 54).
The disciplinary goal of the scarlet letter is not only to strip Hester of “her individuality”, but of her humanity as well. To the Puritan authority, she is no longer a person, but an example —a mere “reality of sin”. The use of “their” represents the fact that the definition of sin is subjective and lies entirely within the person interpreting Hester’s scarlet letter. This allowed for more positive interpretations of Hester’s A, as “many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able” (111) after witnessing her perseverance in the face of public scrutiny. However, the interpretive instability of this symbol of punishment and sin also opens the door for the more harsh and publicized interpretations like those of “the preacher and moralist”. Any characteristic complexity of Hester is now the complexity of the symbol, because this is what Hester has been reduced to. The fact that the Puritan authorities are using Hester to “vivify” their own pre-existing beliefs and teachings highlights the interpretive instability of Hester and her A, as the original intention of adorning her with the letter for the rest of her life is to allow the authorities to permanently ascribe their own personal interpretations of sin onto her. The authority does not recognize the realities of Hester’s actions, or the nuances of the sin she committed; rather, they are using her as an object onto which they can project their all-encompassing definition of sin.
The enduring and public nature of Hester’s punishment is intended to turn her into a spectacle of sorts, encouraging the public to voice their own opinions of Hester to one another. This would thereby make the public less likely to want to commit the sins as she did, because they themselves have been the punishers and understand firsthand the scrutiny they would be subjecting themselves should they commit a sin. By allowing for individual interpretations of the A, the authority also removes itself from the equation. The authority figures shift the responsibility of punishment away from themselves and onto the public, making Hester’s punishment a source of communal fear rather than simply a punishment imposed by the disciplinary figures in power. This, in turn, fosters a sense of communal responsibility – while the Puritan authority figures are the ones doing the pointing, it is the responsibility of the “young and pure” (54) to understand and internalize their message. They are the ones who must understand why they cannot be like Hester, and the ambiguity of the symbol thus acts as a way of enforcing self-discipline. If the “young and pure” understand what the A symbolizes—A for adultery, as they are taught by the figures of authority—they will always have that knowledge available in the back of their minds. Whenever their interpretation of the scarlet letter begins to shift according to their own personal perspectives of Hester as the human being rather than Hester as the adulteress, the letter’s original meaning is readily accessible for them to interweave or even overwrite these positive iterations of Hester with. The public therefore must hold themselves accountable, and the interpretive instability of her punishment creates the illusion that the public is the source of disciplinary action and measures. Furthermore, witnessing the ostracization of Hester would influence the public to strive to be unlike her to avoid a similar fate. The association between adultery and public shame becomes ingrained in the townspeople not because the authorities are enforcing it, but because the townspeople are the ones upholding this association.
The ability for the meaning of the scarlet letter to become perpetuated and internalized is clearly evident in Dimmesdale’s character arc. The fact that Dimmesdale issues a public confession before dying highlights the role of the public in this Puritan model of punishment and discipline. Dimmesdale cannot just die with the knowledge of his sin remaining internal; he must publicize it and make an example out of himself before his character is removed from the narrative. However, up until his public deathbed-confession, the punishment for his sin lies almost exclusively within himself, as the guilt of knowing what he did coupled with the fact that he has avoided the kind of punishment Hester has experienced weighs heavily on him over the course of the novel. His internal struggles relating to this guilt become evident to Hester, who “witnessed the intense misery beneath which the minister struggled, or, to speak more accurately, had ceased to struggle. She saw that he stood on the verge of lunacy, if he had not already stepped across it” (114). Dimmesdale’s relationship to the scarlet letter counters Hester’s, in that his shame is entirely internal while Hester’s was cultivated through external social factors. This difference manifests in the appearance of each character’s scarlet letter, as Hester simply wears a dress embroidered with the letter A (37) while Dimmesdale’s mark of sin is “imprinted in [his] flesh” (176), implying that the guilt of his actions was powerful enough to sear through him. While Hester is able to raise their child, who grows into a respectable, married woman (179), Dimmesdale does not even get to form a relationship with her until he is on his deathbed (175). He lives out the remainder of his life plagued by guilt and shame, going to the scaffold alone at night in an attempt to atone for his sins (Hawthorne 103), and dying almost immediately following the publicization of his own scarlet letter (176). All of this guilt and shame does not come from the fact that he has been punished for a sin; rather, it comes from his own knowledge that he has committed this sin. This highlights the efficacy of the scarlet letter and the Puritan authority, as Dimmesdale has accepted Hester’s punishment as his own and internalized the teachings of the authority figures.
In her book-length study of Hawthorne’s works, The Anatomy of National Fantasy, Lauren Berlant explores the multifaceted nature of collective discipline and its ability to be internalized. Berlant argues that the “Puritan mnemo-technique” of naming and identifying someone by a collectively understood signifier, such as A for adultery, is powerful enough to destabilize “the formal apparatus of collective order” (133). Dimmesdale’s guilt surrounding his adultery is so powerful that it transcends the need for state-sanctioned punishment like Hester, as his guilt burned the scarlet letter into his chest. He has internalized the effects of this “Puritan mnemo-technique,” classifying himself as an adulterer as the shame of that self-identification continues “gnawing from [his] inmost heart outwardly” (Hawthorne 176). While Hester served as a point of judgment regarding sin and punishment, Dimmesdale was internally consumed by his own guilt. Although the guilt and shame Dimmesdale feels seem to overshadow that of Hester, the public is unable to make an example out of him. His shame remains internal, and only serves to police his own thoughts and actions instead of being utilized to influence and discipline the public like Hester’s was. Dimmesdale’s shame was born out of the same sin Hester committed—which he committed with her—but the novel only offers depictions of his shame following Hester’s conviction and punishment. In this sense, the power of the symbol lies in its ability to become internalized. The method of discipline employed by the Puritan authorities proves itself successful in the case of Dimmesdale, as his recognition of the fact that Hester has been publicly marked as an adulteress influences him to self-govern by viewing himself as an adulterer despite the significantly more private nature of his guilt. Thus, Dimmesdale’s character arc perpetuates the original disciplinary intent of the scarlet letter: even someone who was not publicly punished for his actions will be privately punished for them through the knowledge of their own sin.
The scarlet letter’s ability to become internalized by individuals who were not the target of the punishment, such as Dimmesdale and other women in the town who had committed adultery but not been caught (Hawthorne 60), is representative of its ability to uphold authority. Berlant argues that “Hester Prynne is the conventional sign of the law, and also of the law’s failure to deter, regulate” (134). However, Hester cannot be seen as “the conventional sign of the law” because the interpretations of her scarlet letter continue to shift throughout the novel. She is never just an adulteress—the townspeople begin to see her as a skilled embroiderer (Hawthorne 57), a caretaker to the sick (111), and some even feel that “her scarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nun’s bosom” (112) —but that is exactly what makes her such a powerful representation of discipline among the townspeople. In failing to be “the conventional sign of the law,” Hester actually upholds the law’s intention of regulation. The townspeople understand the multifaceted nature of Hester Prynne and this understanding is arguably what makes her so powerful as a representation of discipline. Even as the public’s thoughts on Hester grow to include more positive interpretations of her, the scarlet letter’s original signification remains prevalent and readily accessible.
Barbara Johnson explored a similar concept in her deconstruction of the binary of guilt versus innocence in Billy Budd, a novella written by an American Romantic contemporary of Hawthorne, Herman Melville. Johnson argues that attempting to draw a line between two binaries (i.e. guilt and innocence) “is not only inexact and violent,” but that to judge is to inherently be partial (597). The responsibility of the law is to draw the line between two concepts that cannot be fully separated from one another, ignoring any “differences within” the person by making a definitive interpretation despite the fact that people often do not fit into such polar categories as guilty or innocent (Johnson 596). This concept carries over into the public’s condemnation of Hester as an adulteress. Although the meaning of the A fluctuates over time and the townspeople’s opinions of her as a sinner become interwoven with opinions of her as a charitable, considerate woman (Hawthorne 111), the scarlet letter’s original signification of “Adultery” remains within mental reach of the public. Through this, the townspeople are provided with the message that once one commits a sin, that sin will follow them forever. This instills the fear of being labeled as a sinner despite the multifaceted nature of their lives, which enforces the law’s ability “to deter, regulate” (Berlant 134): the desire to be recognized solely for their positive qualities and good deeds acts as an internal dissuasion against acting out of accordance with the Puritan models of sanctity and thereby being publicly labeled as an outright sinner.
The novel’s election day event offers a final look at the public perception of Hester Prynne seven years after her conviction. Here, it is revealed that despite the complex interpretations of the scarlet letter that had developed during this time,
[t]he inhabitants of the town (their own interest in this worn-out subject languidly reviving itself, by sympathy with what they saw others feel) lounged idly to the same quarter, and tormented Hester Prynne, perhaps more than all the rest, with their cool, well-acquainted gaze at her familiar shame (Hawthorne 169).
Even though the townspeople were the only ones in the crowd who had known Hester for seven years since her conviction, and had witnessed firsthand her good nature and “had quite forgiven Hester Prynne for her frailty; nay, more, they had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as the token, not of that one sin . . . but of her many good deeds since” (Hawthorne 111), it is their scrutiny that affects her the most. This scrutiny is sparked by their bearing witness to outsiders’ first impressions of the scarlet letter, which is the exact goal of the authorities in utilizing the scarlet letter as Hester’s punishment. Its ambiguous nature allows for the shift in interpretative meaning, but also allows for the backpedaling of that shifted interpretation upon witnessing others interpret the symbol by its original intended meaning. While the symbol’s interpretive meaning fluctuates from A for adulteress to A for “Able” (111), the symbol itself is always there, inviting the onlooker to internalize its meaning and associate Hester with it. The recognition of Hester’s sin is enough to make her feel the shame “sear on her breast more painfully than at any time since the first day she put [the scarlet letter] on” (169) and the public’s baseline understanding of the intended meaning of the A makes it readily accessible to them should their interpretation of the symbol inevitably shift. This enhances the symbol’s disciplinary capabilities, as external uncertainty surrounding the symbol’s meaning reignites the public’s tendency to accept responsibility for retaining the interpretive stability of the symbol whenever the symbol’s interpretive instability begins to come back to the forefront. Thus, Hester is trapped in a cycle of public shame and public acceptance, with neither ever entirely overshadowing the other. Hester is always present in the community, providing a constant point of reference for the community to consider the sin she represents. Hawthorne’s use of the words “familiar shame” (169) implies that the public has never truly forgotten the intended meaning of the scarlet letter, and the knowledge of this has been internalized by Hester herself.
The novel concludes with a glimpse into Hester’s life, years after the previous events of the novel. Hester returns to Massachusetts, takes up residence in the old cottage in which she used to live, and puts the dress with the scarlet letter back on, having “taken up her long-forsaken shame” (Hawthorne 179). Despite the fact that this is a punishment that “not the sternest magistrate of the iron period would have imposed” (Hawthorne 179), Hester takes it upon herself to govern her own actions and resume her “long-forsaken” punishment, effectively illustrating and living up to the authority’s intentions when implementing the scarlet letter as a method of discipline. Even with the legal factors fallen by the wayside and the social landscape beginning to shift more dramatically in terms of the public regards to Hester’s scarlet letter (Hawthorne 180), her internalization of the label of “adulteress” has prevented her from being able to live in freedom of her past sin. Hester continues to view herself as an adulteress because of how enduring the scarlet letter’s significance remained despite the multitude of possible interpretations, therefore establishing the interpretive instability of the scarlet letter’s symbolism as a feature of the Puritan methods of authority and discipline.
The interpretive instability of the scarlet letter allows the public to recognize the multifaceted nature of humanity, and witness firsthand how committing a sin could cause them to become labeled by one singular static aspect of their past instead of being fully recognized for their own multifaceted nature. The ability for various interpretations of the letter to become internalized through persistent public sustainment further upholds authority by fostering fear and self-regulation even in the absence of external legal and social forces. Hawthorne’s representation of Puritan authority and discipline in The Scarlet Letter therefore illustrates that the complex and constantly shifting interpretations of Hester’s scarlet letter are a feature of the Puritan disciplinary technique, rather than a flaw of it.
Works Cited
Berlant, Lauren Gail. The Anatomy of National Fantasy: Hawthorne, Utopia, and Everyday Life. University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Dover Publications, 2015.
Johnson, Barbara. “Melville’s Fist: The Execution of ‘Billy Budd.’” Studies in Romanticism, vol. 18, no. 4, 1979, pp. 567–99, https://doi.org/10.2307/25600211.