A Thematic Analysis of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter Summary

In “A Thematic Analysis of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter”, the authors, Parvin Ghasemi and Pyeaam
Abbasi discuss the thematic implications, and more precisely the motif of appearance vs. reality of the various
characteristics of the scarlet letter in an ordered format, arranged in four binary themes: Puritan Culture /
Individual; Arthur Dimmesdale/Hester Prynne; Religion/Love; and Sable/Gules. First of all the authors discuss
the duality between appearance and reality in the book as is presented by Hawthorne. An example of this duality
is how the magistrates pass religious codes that, “in appearance seem to be to the people’s benefit [sic.] while in
reality, these codes are imposed so that the people are unified”(Ghasemi, Abbasi 1).
After the introduction, the authors discuss the first binary set of Puritan Culture / Individual. This
section sheds life on the conservative Puritan society, how “every aspect of life is covered by laws haunting it's
people's imagination”, and at home, they remove the pious veneer of life to enjoy a seconds relief with real
emotions. Here the authors mention the novel “Billard um halb Zehn”, and divide the social hierarchy into the
lambs and the beasts, the common people and the magistrates, respectively. As in the novel 1984 by George
Orwell, the result of this system is a society where people, while believing in the righteousness of the system,
surrender any, and all power to decide for themselves to the authorities. In this sense, The Scarlet Letter can be
thought of as a social commentary, or attack on the Puritan system, and the harmful consequences of individuals
relinquishing responsibility of their decisions and opinions to an outside group. When a lamb does gain access to
the greater truth, the beasts move quickly to repress the spreading of this knowledge, by strictly punishing the
dissenter, which encourages the others not to embrace this new found freedom and legitimizes their own power.
This, ironically, is akin to U.S.S.R., and how it utilized secret police to keep its citizens in check. In the same way
that the roses at the prison are a contradiction in terms with the Iron doors of the prison, the marketplace is an
oxymoron to the forest exemplifying the duality. For the Puritans, the Forest is an evil place, not to be trodden
upon, but for Hester and Dimmesdale, the forest represents a sanctuary, where they can let their emotions pour
out, while the marketplace is the actual evil, since it forces the people to repress their natural feelings, and put on
a facade of piousness.
Next, the authors dive into the binary set of Dimmesdale and Hester and mainly explore the motif of
appearance vs. reality for Dimmesdale. For example, Dimmesdale paleness is taken for a sign of “too earnest
devotion to study, his scrupulous fulfillment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of
which he made a frequent practice”, rather than the actual religious deceit that he commits (Hawthorne 120). In
fact, right after the narrator describes his appearance, Pearl identifies him with the ‘black man’. However, later,
the authors come to the conclusion(in the respective paragraph) about Dimmesdale eagerness to reveal the truth,
but in fact, Hawthorne repeatedly demonstrates that despite his guilt, Dimmesdale is too scared to actually
confess. The authors also discuss the interpretation of Hester’s role of a cult heroine and how ironically, due to
their ignorance, she is perceived as “a guilty harlot even though she is actually a loyal loving woman”(Campbell,
1997, p. 721). As a result of this pressure, Hester suffers from mental trauma, “which pushes her to become the
worshipper of the temple of her own nature”, because society will not allow her to display her own identity, her
own thoughts, her own feelings, her unique qualities that segregate her from the passive members of society. In
this sense Dimmesdale can be compared to Mr. Rochester from Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre”, and further can
be identified as Byronic heroes, which although seem as rebels, are actually saints carrying the torch of truth.
The third binary set of Religion/Love deals with humanism, and its connection to religion. It reaffirms
Hester’s decision to practice what she believes in and preaches. In reference to the analogy comparing magistrates
to beasts, Hester knows a greater truth than that exercised by the Puritans. To Hester this higher identity is love,
and according to Puritan Doctrine, sin is rooted in all the basic human feelings, and to Hester, that is simply not
acceptable.
The last part discusses the binary set of Sable/Gules. Sable effectively means Black, and Gules means
Scarlet, thus the inscription on Hester’s tombstone effectively reads, “On a black background, a scarlet letter A".
The authors interpret the inscription to essentially that the black symbolized the dullness and restrictiveness
compared to Hester’s sincere attempt to remove herself and Dimmesdale out of the black framework of
puritanism. However, as with any novel, the meaning of the A is up to individual interpretation, since the
meaning of the letter changed over time, from Adultery, to Able.