Parallel to the telling act of Hester's donning the scarlet letter and not freeing herself from her shame despite the reiterpretation of the symbolic "A" in Chapter XIII, is the despair of the Reverend Dimmesdale which is also revealed. When Chillingworth tells Hester in Chapter XIV that there are rumors that the magistrates may allow her to remove her scarlet letter, she responds,
Were I worthy to be quit of it, it would fall away of its own nature, or be transformed into something that should speak a different purport.
Likewise, the Reverend Dimmesdale feels that he is not worthy of surcease from his suffering. When Hester asks him if he has found peace, he answers, "None!--nothing but despair!" He tells Hester that his scarlet letter "burns in secret!" Then, Hester urges him to leave Boston and start a new life elsewhere, but he resists, so Hester makes it strongly, urging him to change his name and start a new life. But, the minister lacks the strength to make such a change because of his deep sense of guilt.
In Hester's resuming the wearing of the scarlet letter and in Dimmesdale's despairing acceptance of his fateful guilt, tragically, both Puritans deny the freedom of the will. These acts are pivotal to Hawthorne's criticism of the stultifying effects of Puritanism, the moral cowardice and hypocrisy that it engenders.
No comments:
Post a Comment