The ambiguity of the letter ‘A’ in Nathaniel
Hawthorne′s "Scarlet Letter"

by: Kathrin Gerbe

Table of contents

1. Introduction

1.1. The Scarlet Letter
1.2. Puritanism in 17th-century America

2. The significance of the scarlet letter ‘A’

2.1. In the Puritan community
2.2. For Hester
2.3. For Pearl
2.4. For Dimmesdale
2.5. For Chillingworth

3. Conclusion

4. Impressions of a 21st-century reader

5. Bibliography

1. Introduction

1.1. The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s first novel and was published in 1850. Its subtitle A Romance consciously places the novel apart from everyday life. Set in 17th-century Boston it tells a story about sin, guilt and love. As the moral values back then still were in force among Hawthorne’s contemporaries, he uses the imaginative and symbolic form of the romance to alleviate the impression of the unusual themes in his novel.

The Scarlet Letter deals with the life of a woman, Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and is sentenced to wearing a scarlet letter on her dress as a reminder for her and the Puritan community she lives in. She does not confess who the father of her child is that she conceived in her crime. She is expelled from the community and has to make her own way.

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the admired minister of the Puritan community and unknown father of Hester’s child, gets sick because he cannot tell anyone about his guilt. Roger Chillingworth, who turns out to be Hester’s husband who was thought to be dead, makes it his task to find out who his wife’s lover was and to punish him. During the course of the novel, the original significance of the letter imposed on it by the Puritan officials changes. In this regard the letter is the main character of Hawthorne’s romance. This is already prepared by the introductory autobiographical chapter “The Custom-House” that deals as a frame for the action. It describes the discovery of the letter two hundred years later. To understand the full extent of Hester’s crime and the Puritan community’s reaction, we have to know what principles Puritanism is based on. This I will examine in the following paragraph.

1.2. Puritanism in 17th-century America¹

Puritanism is a religious movement which originated in 16th-century England that looked for a way between Roman Catholicism and Protestant Reformation. The name is rooted in the wish to purify the Church of England, which basically means to reform it. There are three fundamental principles in Puritanism. One of them is morality: this principle assumes that humankind is basically sinful, but the Puritans believe that God promised to save a certain number of human beings. Who will be saved is predestined. The Puritans see themselves as God’s chosen people. The other principles are worship and a community based on God’s commandments: self-discipline and introspection are central in both of them. The Puritans were supposed to be faithful and worship God in a simple way, especially on Sundays, which was opposed to the Anglican Church: King James I. preferred to organize games on Sundays. Furthermore, the Puritans were opposed to the Episcopal system, as it did not conform to the Bible. By taking this position, the Puritans took a stand in politics. When the Puritans did not succeed in reforming the Anglican Church, some decided to go to America. There they wanted to found autonomous congregations, a “Christian commonwealth” in the wilderness that should be determined by biblical covenants with God. The Puritan saw himself as a new Adam, who was sent to live in a paradise on earth - America.

Three covenants can be named in this context: the first “Covenant of Works” that assured that a life of good deeds according to the moral principles of the Bible would lead to eternal life. This covenant was rejected by the Puritans as it was part of Catholicism. The second covenant was the “Covenant of Grace” that demanded the life of a saint and punishment for sins. The third, the “Covenant of Redemption”, claimed that the Christians will be saved by Christ’s suffering.

2. The ambiguity of the letter ‘A’

Culture is a structure of meaning that is not ‘nat ural’ or automatic but locally variable, historically changing and thus both inescapable and humanly revisable – as the changing meaning of Hester’s letter within the Puritan community makes clear. (Millington, p.69)

2.1. The significance of the letter in the Puritan community

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1 This paragraph is based on: Donna M. Campbell. “Puritanism in New England.” Literary Movements.