HAWTHORNE’S FIRST NOVEL

K. S. VENKATARAMU

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s first novel, The Scarlet Letter (a psychological romance), is regarded today as his greatest work, although it was his second novel, The House of the Seven Gables, which elicited the acclaim of his contemporaries. In fact, Hawthorne himself said that the latter work was more characteristic of him, and more natural for him to write than The Scarlet Letter.

Before considering the reasons for the unfading popularity of The Scarlet Letter, it may be a good idea to summarise its incidents, which are as follows:

Hester Prynne, a woman of Boston in its early days, is subjected to disciplinary action by the court for bearing a child out of wedlock. She is condemned to stand in the pillory and ordered to wear henceforth, as a token of her shame, the scarlet letter “A”; attached to her bosom. She carries her child to the pillory. Its other parent is known only to her and no one else.

Separated by her husband, Roger Chillingworth in Europe. Hester precedes him by ship across the Atlantic. She is labouring under the impression that he has been lost forever. But he has actually been thrown by shipwreck in a forest, and reappears at the scene where his wife is being tried for her sin. He at once decides to search for her guilty partner; and being a person of cold, calculative nature, he devotes his life thereafter for this revengeful purpose with single-minded determination.

In course of time he becomes suspicious of Arthur Dimmesdale, the young clergyman of the town, who is a person of “devout sensibility and warmth of heart”. Chillingworth, in the guise of an experienced physician, makes friends with Dimmesdale and remains by his side ostensibly to watch over him and protect his health. But not much longer he makes his evil intention known to the clergyman, and begins to torture him by indirect hints of his having detected the latter’s secret misdemeanourt while all the while impressing the parishioners with his clever simulation of sympathy and solicitude towards their beloved Priest.

The child Pearl plays a minor but indispensable role of binding “the interests of the parties together”. The few other characters in the novel are personages who are typical products of the manners and customs of the period. But, as Evert A. Duychinck has pointed out in his review of the book. the scarlet letter “A” acquires almost the characteristic of the “hero of the volume.” It becomes as vitalised as the rest of the characters “in Hawthorne’s hands, skilled to these allegorical, typical semblances”. The letter “matures in its meaning through its relationship to Hester, Pearl, and the community”. The story ends with the death of the clergyman Dimmesdale during a public festival, after he makes an open confession in the arms of the condemned woman, Hester.

The popularity of The Scarlet Letter more than a century and a quarter after its publication in 1850, does not admit of a simple explanation; for as some one has said, “No one can say what makes a book a classic.” We can, however, identify three probable reasons for The Scarlet Letter acquiring the status of a classic, and its appeal to the modern general reader. (1) The modern reader is interested in reading it for historical or sociological reasons rather than for literary reasons. (2) It instructs us as to the attitude of nineteenth century New Englanders towards their Puritan ancestors. These reasons are, however, obviously inadequate; for the historical and sociological factors are of interest only to the scholar and the social historian! while Hawthorne’s belief concerning the attitude of his contemporaries towards their Puritan ancestors appears quite vague and uncertain.

The third and perhaps the only plausible reason for the popularity of The Scarlet Letter is, therefore, its artistic excellence, from the point of view of structure, charaterisation and treatment of the theme. We have also, of course, to consider the timelessness of the environmental community and moral problems which Hawthorne has dealt with in his work.

As regards the structure of the novel, it is so inconspicuous, that we can recognise its unity, only after we have carefully read the book and reflected on it. As Anthony Trollope says, in order to appreciate “the incredible unity of The Scarlet Letter, it is necessary to read the novel through, for only then can we see how well it holds together.” And this structural unity is achieved by “the consistent darkness of the mood”, which Hawthorne feared would make his novel unpalatable to the general reader. But the depressing effect of the darkness of the mood is neutralised by the dramatic element in the structure of the novel, which, unlike the narrative aspect (as in most novels), gives one the unique experience of participating in the action.

The superb craftsmanship that Hawthorne displays in the technique of characterisation makes one remember Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth and the child Pearl, even long after the incidents of the novel have receded into the inner regions of one’s memory. Even the names of the characters are quite significant. The coldness of Chillingworth and the confusion in the mind of Dimmesdale, engendered by his indiscretion, are unmistakable.

In the treatment of the theme, Hawthorne displays the same unwillingness to simplify, as in the construction of structure and delineation of character. In the words of Robert Donald Spector, “....his attitude toward his subject matter, his use of structure, and his development of characterisation were extremely complex, and because this complexity characterises every part of the novel, just as it does the ordinary business of life, critics have been unable to agree on the precise meaning of his work.”

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