Ian Coyne
Coyneandbill
The Scarlet Reader
This post focuses on the hypocrisy displayed in ch. 1-4
Puritan Hypocrisy: A Fundamentally Flawed Utopia?
So I just got done reading a few chapters of this novel, The Scarlet Letter, which seems to also double as a sleeping aid. I have been known to exaggerate, but let it be known that there is no hyperbole in this statement: this novel makes looking up five syllable words in the dictionary seem like a good time. I guess when you see a name as antique and elegant as “Nathaniel Hawthorne” strewn across the cover, you can’t really expect anything particularly exciting. OK, enough of this pre-emptive book bashing, let’s get down to business.
Let us begin by talking about what the Puritans set out to do in their little slice of heaven in Massachusetts. If you have read my earlier post (I hope you have), you’ll know all about the Puritan’s reasons for coming to the future home state of the Boston Red Sox and what means they took to accomplish such a feat. However, I did not define specifically what the Puritan’s sought to create in this new world they founded. Their aim was to establish a utopian society: a completely homogenous, pure society that strictly abided to the Puritan code. So, when the Puritans landed upon the Massachusetts Bay beaches, they began to build and manage their settlements with the intent of making them perfect. Dissent, sin, and any transgression that could be interpreted as being against God was a big no-no and was not tolerated by the Puritans. With this established, let’s move on to what the Puritan’s utopian pipe dream has to do with The Scarlet Letter.
Our protagonist, Hester Prynne, is one of those aforementioned sinners that wouldn’t be tolerated. For her sin of adultery, she was prosecuted and thrown into an old jail cell within the town. Here we see our first example of hypocrisy being displayed by the Puritans. If this settlement was truly a utopia, why would they need a jail cell? If the founders knew that everything was going to be perfect form the start, surely they wouldn’t have built a jail cell, would they? By simply having this building in their town, the Puritans unwittingly show how fundamentally flawed their society is. They realize that sin is inevitable among their people, but still believe that creating their sinless utopia is plausible despite this.
The hypocrisy doesn’t stop there: rather, it increases as the story progresses. As Hester is brought through the market to be stood upon the platform, the “stern-browed men and unkindly visage women” (Hawthorne 52) stare at her as if she is something evil and deserving of disdain. This seething disgust is yet another hypocrisy of Puritanism displayed within the novel. Instead of following the age-old teachings of their prophet, Puritans choose to cast stones upon the sinner with their eyes, even though doing so is considered sinful itself. Through its treatment of sinners, Puritan society makes everyone in the society sinners themselves.
Even the spiritual leaders aren’t safe from the hypocrisy that plagues Puritan society. As I read about the clergymen and Dimmesdale’s efforts to get Hester to confess, I realized their actions contradict yet another important part of Christianity: forgiveness. Instead of comforting her and accepting her as a sinner, Dimmesdale and his cohorts stress that the only way she can redeem herself is through punishment and the ousting of her fellow sinner so that he too may be punished. Dimmesdale even says that “earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation,” (Hawthorne 63) meaning that taking punishment for sins on Earth will help one pay for his sins, making them more holy when they reach heaven. Now let’s analyze this for a second. So Dimmesdale is basically saying that it is the duty of them, the Puritans, to dole out physical punishment for sins, right? Last time I checked, God is considered the ultimate authority on what constitutes a sinner and whether or not they truly deserve punishment or salvation. It seems to me that the Puritans have gotten so deep in self-righteousness that they feel fit to carry out the will of God without any say from the big man himself. The Puritans really do dive into the deep pool of hypocrisy when they begin to play God amongst their constituents.
Being exposed to this hypocrisy in so little pages makes me feel like The Scarlet Letter will have its fair share of criticism of Puritan society. While it may be a pretty dry read at times, I think I’m going to enjoy noticing all the little cracks in Puritan culture that Hawthorne points out as I follow the story of Hester Prynne.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Market-Place.” The Scarlett Letter. New York: Bantam Dell, 2003. 52. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Recognition.” The Scarlett Letter. New York: Bantam Dell, 2003. 52. Print.
The Scarlet Reader 
It is interesting to read the comparison of the ideals of Puritan society with the realities of Puritan society, and you’ve done a great job assessing that. I never would have thought about the mere presence of the jail cell in the town being a symbol of hypocrisy compared to the Puritan ideas.
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“The Scarlet Letter doubles as a sleeping aid.” Yes yes and yes. No need to worry about getting to sleep on time when you have a sleeping pill on your nightstand composed of paper and ink and extensive paragraphs of tedious description. I realize that somewhere deep in all of that description, there’s actually some worthwhile content. Like, as you pointed out, it actually does serve its purpose in calling our the Puritans on their hypocrisy and the cruelty of their punishments. It isn’t primarily an adventure or a love story; it’s social commentary, which actually adds an element of interest to the story. Maybe. Sometimes.
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