English > The Scarlet Letter: Only the Strong Survive

While Hester Prynne is openly humiliated and made an outcast in society, it is her lover, Reverend Dimmesdale who breaks under the burden of their deed. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter tells the story of the two lovers who have to keep their affair secret in the puritan society of seventeenth century America. Of the two, it is Hester who has to suffer public disgrace as the consequence of their extra-marital relationship. She keeps the identity of her lover a secret, but Dimmesdale's punishment is even greater as it is a result of his guilty conscious. Hester is punished by having to wear the letter A on her dress, but this stigma only seems to make her even more resilient to the hardships she has to endure. The contrast between her strength and Dimmesdale's weakness becomes more evident as they come closer to facing their common enemies: the townspeople and Hester' former husband, Chillingworth.

The disparity between the nature of Hester and Dimmesdale seems obvious from the beginning. The fact that Hester humbly confesses her guilt without giving away the name of her lover shows her infallible persona. Dimmesdale wants the world to know his identity, but he is incapable of telling. He actually orders Hester to reveal him while she is standing on the scaffolding: "I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer" (60). When Hester denies saying the name, he realizes:

"Wondrous strength and generosity of a woman's heart!"(61). Dimmesdale realizes early on that it is better to live in public disgrace than to "hide a guilty heart through life" (60). But he is just not strong enough to be honest in front of his congregation, and Hester will surely not give away his secret.

In regard to their mutual enemy, Chillingworth, they again show a different disposition. The Reverend is fearful, and his "soul shivers" (140) when the dreadful man is near, while Hester simply despises, but is not fearful of her ex-husband.

Chillingworth pledges to take revenge on the man who stole the heart of his beautiful wife, and she is the only one who knows his real identity, and promises never to tell anyone. She keeps her promise but only as long as it doesn't endanger the life of her beloved Reverend.

Even Hester is surprised to see how bad of a condition the Reverend is in. One would think that as a disgraced, banished woman, Hester would have a desperate and miserable life as an outsider. In reality, she is very much connected to the townspeople through her business. The Reverend however, while he's safe from public disgrace, becomes sicker and sicker every year. This condition originates not so much from a physical disease, rather from his guilt. When they meet on the street one night, Hester's stunned by the poor condition he is in: "His nerve seemed absolutely destroyed. His moral force was abased into more than childish weakness" (144). A turning point in the novel is when Hester decides that it's up to her to save this man. Hester, "knowing what this poor, fallen man had once been, her soul was moved by the shuddering terror with which he had appealed to her, - the outcast woman, - for support against his instinctively discovered enemy" (144). She knows that she is the only person who can help him, the only one who knows his secret, therefore "there lay a responsibility upon her, in reference to the clergyman, which she owed to no other, nor to the whole world besides" (144).

What is it that gives Hester this enormous amount of determination and makes Reverend Dimmesdale give up all hopes? We may look at the letter A that is fastened on the bosom of Hester as a symbol of her purity. Even though she is forced to wear the scarlet A by the puritan people of the town, she wears it proudly as a commitment to herself. Dimmesdale on the other hand is saved from what first seems as a disgrace of wearing this same letter A on his clothes, but his retribution comes from inside. Chillingworth tells Hester that in his opinion "his [Dimmesdale's] spirit lacked the strength that could have born up, as thine has, beneath the burden like thy scarlet letter" (155). The physician even admits the fact "that he now breathes, and creeps about on earth, is owing all to me" (155). It is the scarlet letter A that saves Hester's life and helps her prevail over her enemies, while the absence of this same letter from the chest of the

Reverend causes his down fall. During one of their last meetings, Dimmesdale tells Hester that she is happy because she can "wear the scarlet letter openly upon [her] bosom! Mine burns in secret" (176)! Dimmesdale wishes he had the courage to tell the world about his sin regardless of the consequences so he can finally find his peace.

Hawthorne brilliantly portrays the two main characters whose personalities are so perfectly conflicting. On one hand Hester is a woman of honor and decency who openly assumes the responsibility of her actions, and on the other hand the Reverend, who is weak and powerless. Hester draws her strength from the symbolic scarlet letter that she wears on the outside of her dress, while the lack of the same letter keeps captive and slowly devastates the heart of Reverend Dimmesdale.

 

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