Hawthorne, like Poe and Melville, is a pessimistic Romantic. His writing is deceptively simplistic on the surface, but his subtle philosophy can be divined through a close reading — anything simple is an illusion. Hawthorne separates the reader from the action as much as possible (e.g. arachaic language, third-person narrative, time displacement) wanting the reader to think more about moral and philosophical dilemmas and ideas that he presents rather than being caught up in the action (which he believed was removed from reality). His is a very symbolic literature — everything is in need of interpretation — a literature of thought, rather than feeling like Poe. Hawthorne views Nature very differently from Emerson and Thoreau; instead of a medium of transcendence, nature holds disease, death, torture, and alienation. Nature is an unbridgeable gap between man and Truth; Emerson and Thoreau spanned this abyss with intuition. Man glimpses this pit and, like Poe, loses his mind or runs away where wisdom is gained through introspection and retrospection.
This pit is nothingness, but rather than concluding that there is no meaning or value only truth and lies in the universe like Poe, Hawthorne doesn’t run away but imposes his own values similar to those of Christianity: brotherhood and charity. Hawthorne accepts Jesus’ values and chooses to live by them. The Scarlet Letter is interested in the characters’ abilities to come to terms with guilt. Hawthorne believed it was a tragedy to turn your life into a Hell because of guilt; this is not an issue of an afterlife — the life on earth is the only life and we must make it right. Psychological health is more prevalent to Hawthorne — he advocates being open about guilt and “sin,” for keeping it inside creates a living Hell.
There is a perpetual battle between Head and Heart. Hawthorne felt that a balance, a Middle Way, was the best — avoid extremes. The Scarlet Letter is a conflict of psychological character types: heroes are loving, villains are uncaring, and mad people cannot achieve the necessary mean. The heroes gain a higher wisdom through suffering, much like the tragic hero. All of the novel’s characters are caught up in society and represent all of humanity — we all fall, but we have to make it a fortunate fall to avoid a hellish life and accept the evil but emphasize the good.
Chapter I sets the novel’s mood. Hester, like many Romantic heroes, is imprisoned or unfree both literally and psychologically — will she be able to break free? The literal aspect is obvious, she is in prison for committing adultery; psychologically she is a citizen in a Puritan settlement which imprisons or stifles natural responses and passions so people become afraid of their own human natures. People are between a prison and a cemetery; Poe would say the pit and the pendulum. We are immediately confronted with dichotomies: black of the prison and the red of the roses. Hawthorne was concerned with the social order, but he felt that it should not be stifling, having room for imagination and passion. Society should be a mixture, as should all people, of Head and Heart.
- Hester Prymme — all emotion and no thought — she keeps her self-reliance and ego and therefore she is flawed — she must see herself as flawed — transforms with her artistry to something noble rather than depraved. Hester is a type in American literature: dark-haired female who is a source of sexual passion, artistry, beauty, and sex — she is these things but she keeps her hair (the symbol of these characteristics) under her hat and therefore under control. When she addresses Dimmesdale, Hester uses forceful commands, like commandments (1222, 1266-8)
- Arthur Dimmesdale — the dutiful minister who cannot admit is own humanity — he is all rigid order (Head) — his fall makes him a better preacher because it causes him to be empathetic — he hides his tremendous guilt inside of him which creates his Hell on earth.
- Pearl — represents the unity of Head and Heart (Hester and Dimmesdale) — she is all passion and natural instinct — wild — she is identified with the scarlet letter.
- Roger Chillingworth — the ex-husband of Hester that becomes the villain and torturer of Dimmesdale — he has no compassion — all cold intellect with no heart.
The scarlet letter is the novel’s biggest symbol. Aside from its implicit meaning of Adultery, it could also represent Angel, Artist, Able, Adam & Eve, Ambiguity, Ambivalence, Anarchy, Atonement, etc. It also is a symbol of America — the freedom to be an individual in the new world where adultery can be based upon love. And the novel asks who can love be evil?
- black — stands for prison, order and structure ñ it is all Head like Dimmesdale. It is rigid like the town and its laws.
- red — stands for nature, spontaneity and freedom — it is all Heart like Hester — it is also a self-reliant Emersonian character.
The structure of The Scarlet Letter is very precise: it begins on a scaffold at noon, the middle happens at midnight on the scaffold, and it ends at noon on the scaffold. There are twenty-four chapters in the novel. Everything comes full-circle.
