The Scarlet Letter
AT A GLANCE
An introduction to the novel, its themes and reasons why it is a great
text to teach Grade 12 learners.
Title: The Scarlet Letter
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
INTRODUCTION
Originally published in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter explores issues of
shame, guilt, hypocrisy and malice in Puritan America.
The plot chronicles the psychological journey of a single mother struggling to regain the
respect of her community while keeping the paternity of her child secret.
Never out of print (in over 160 years), the work is rich in symbolism and easily applicable
and relevant to young adults in South Africa today.
Date Published: 1850
Key Themes:
• Sexuality and shame
• Guilt and malice
• Alienation
PLOT SUMMARY
Hester Prynne, a beautiful young woman from 17th century England, sails to America
ahead of her much older, scholarly husband who is wrapping up his affairs in Amsterdam.
When he fails to join her in Boston, she has a clandestine love affair and falls pregnant.
The theocratic government imprisons her for breaking the seventh commandment. After
the child is born, Hester is publicly shamed and has a scarlet letter ‘A’ (presumably for
‘Adulteress’) embroidered on a badge on her chest. She is constantly harangued into
naming her co-adulterer, but she refuses.
After she is released from prison, Hester lives a solitary life with her daughter, Pearl. She
is still obliged to wear the scarlet letter and mother and daughter are treated as outcasts.
Hester’s husband arrives and resolves to hide his true identity and exact revenge on her
co-adulterer. He establishes himself as the town physician using the pseudonym of Roger
Chillingworth.
Chillingworth suspects and, ultimately, discovers that the town’s much-admired minister,
Arthur Dimmesdale, is Pearl’s father.
Realising the danger of Dimmesdale’s imminent discovery, Hester and the minister
attempt to flee with Pearl, but they are trapped. Before he dies, Dimmesdale confesses
himself Hester’s fellow sinner and Pearl’s father before the entire community.
Mother and daughter leave Boston, but Hester eventually returns, still wearing the scarlet
letter on her bosom.
ACCESSIBILITY
Though set in 17th century colonial America, there is a universality in the experiences
of the novel’s protagonists that transcends time and place. While the subject matter
is serious and sometimes a bit ‘heavy’, anyone who has experienced feelings of guilt,
shame, lack of self-worth, moral and/or religious confusion, isolation, being stigmatised
or outcast will find profound relevance in studying The Scarlet Letter — particularly young
adults beginning to sense that the problems of life are perhaps more complex than a
simple moral didacticism can make sense of.
• Identity
Why choose this novel:
• Universal themes pertinent
to young adults and ideal
for classroom discussion
and debate
• Crippling effects social
pressure can have on the
individual likely to resonate
with learners
• Profound study of the
complexities of human
nature and human
relationships
• Learners will develop
thoughtful insight into
literature and social mores
in general, as well as
themselves
The socio-historical context required to understand the novel need not be intrusive and a
single lesson on ‘the Puritan experiment’ will suffice.
Like Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the conversation of the characters is deliberately
archaised (e.g. Hawthorne uses “hast thou” and “she doth” etc.), but is still accessible to
First Language learners. The tone and register of the narrator is that of someone telling a
tale by the fireside.
THEMES
Sexuality and shame
Adolescents and young adults discovering and exploring their sexuality often have to
deal with feelings of shame and guilt, overtly or implicitly triggered by their social, familial
and religious communities. While not advocating sexual license, in The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne argues that sexual expression should be the preserve of the individual and not
the community.
As a single mother dealing with the shame of adultery and a lack of support from her
community, the figure of Hester Prynne will resonate with many young South Africans
today who are facing challenges created by, and resulting from, single parenthood or HIV/
AIDS (or even just the fear of these things).
Guilt and malice
The two male characters, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth, symbolise and
embody the crippling effects of guilt and malice, respectively. Dimmesdale is wracked by
guilt and feelings of hypocrisy and his struggle is easy to identify and sympathise with.
Chillingworth’s deep-seated malice destroys him as a person and he serves as a poignant
warning against the debilitating effects of self-righteousness and vengeance.
Alienation
Through their feelings of shame and guilt, Prynne and Dimmesdale feel alienated from
their communities. Feelings of alienation are all too familiar to teenagers attempting to
establish their identities and ‘break the mould’ of conformity pressed on them by their
peers, families and communities.
The novel’s positive assertion is that, provided they maintain their integrity, the alienated
individual will ultimately, albeit gradually, earn the respect of those resisting their
individualism.
Identity
As a psychological novel, The Scarlet Letter explores much of the conflict between
the public and private self, as well as that between the head and the heart. Prynne
and Dimmesdale are obviously ‘good’ people, but they are so tortured by the morality
and obsession with sin of the Puritan community around them that they conceive of
themselves as wicked and worthless.
High school learners often have to deal with ‘shaking off’ the stigmas and stereotypes
attached to them by their peers. Hawthorne suggests that, regardless of whether or not
an individual succeeds in this, true victory lies in knowing who one really is inside and
letting that — rather than an externally imposed identity — govern one’s actions and
choices.
CONCLUSION: WHY CHOOSE THIS NOVEL?
• Universal themes pertinent to young adults and ideal for classroom discussion and debate
• Crippling effects social pressure can have on the individual likely to resonate with learners
• Profound study of the complexities of human nature and human relationships
• Learners will develop thoughtful insight into literature and social mores in general, as well as themselves