Where Did All the Money Go?

Hello again! It is interesting to see how far I have come as a writer as this blogging project has progressed. Not only have I grown and matured as a writer, but so have my fellow bloggers in The Scarlet Reader. Unfortunately the Scarlet Letter has ended, so this is going to be my final blog on any more chapters. I would like to examine the reasoning behind Chillingworth’s decision to leave all of his money to Pearl, a girl that he did not bear with Hester. There are many reasons behind the reasoning for this but luckily for us, Hawthorne saved the best for last.

Chillingworth throughout the entire story has been seen as the devil, or an evil that is beyond human belief. Although most of this is true, Chillingworth still has a side of him that has been hidden until the very end of the novel, and this is regret. I believe that Chillingworth realizes that he is close to death so he begins to contemplate on decisions that he has made in the past, which ties in to my second blog post, The Thoughts Before Death. I think that Chillingworth is finally feeling true guilt for what he has done not only to Dimmesdale, but also to Hester and Pearl. This guilt is centered around his years of torturing Dimmesdale, and the years that he spent torturing Hester as well for the acts of brutality towards Dimmesdale. The only way in his mind to get rid of this guilt and cast away all of the horrible things he has done, is to leave all of his money to the one thing that is the reason for all of this, Pearl.

Chillingworth is a wise man, and it is stated and well known by the reader that he is a smart man in the community, so it is no surprise that after all of these years, he is finally realizing the wrong that he has done. He says that he wants to find the man for committing the horrible sin of adultery with his wife, but once he steps back and looks at the larger picture, he sees that he has committed sin as well. Therefore, it is perhaps a combination of guilt, the fear for perishing in Hell, and the final realization that his deeds were, indeed, quite evil that motivates Chillingworth to leave all of his money and properties to Pearl. Chillingworth wants Pearl to prosper and to forget about what has happened in the past and what she and the letter “A” stood for, so by giving her the money, this allows her to try to pursue a better life. This act of kindness and giving is something that Chillingworth hasn’t done in a very long time, but he feels as though this is the only way to cleanse himself of his wrong doings and his sins.

Chillingworth throughout the novel played a very interesting role. At first he was just a man in the crowd, a leach in society, and then in the end he was again a man in the crowd, but was a man that had changed into something evil. At times in our lives, we sometimes forget about the feelings of others and how our words and actions can affect the overall happiness of their character. Sometimes we all need to step back and think about things before they come out of our mouths, because what we say and do in life ultimately defines us as a person. So would you rather be a man like Chillingworth who treated others horribly and then came to the realization that what he was doing was wrong, only because he was dying? Or would you rather live a guilt free, happy life because you are satisfied every day with the way you treat others and the way others treat you?

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam, 1986. Print. Reissue 2003.

The “Black Man” Finally Appears

Hello again my fellow bloggers, readers, and visitors to The Scarlet Reader. I have decided to examine today the symbolism and the story behind the Black Man in the Scarlet Letter. As the week has progressed, I have tried to draw connections between The Crucible and the Scarlet Letter and I have found many similarities that could connect the two books together. They are connected through objects such as the black book, and the idea of the devil and evil.

The Black Man is a symbol for Satan in this book, and Hester considers the scarlet letter “A” to be the Black Man’s mark on herself. At the same time, Pearl wonders if the Black Man left his mark on Dimmesdale’s heart as well, because she notices that he grasps it quite often. Hawthorne loves to compare Chillingworth to Satan as well. Chillingworth has been seen in the town both as a leach and as something more than evil, so it is no surprise that when this Black Man appears, Chillingworth is the first to be compared to him. But don’t you find it coincidental that Pearl says that the Black Man comes to make people sign his black book, while in The Crucible, we see young girls accuse innocent people in the town of signing the black book? The Puritans believed during this time period that witches and the devil were prominent in their society, so whenever something horrible went wrong, they would automatically accuse that person of being a witch, or being influenced by the devil. The Puritans like to use the Black Man as a symbol of all evil, making evil something separate from common human life. But, it seems as though Hawthorne does not agree with that statement.

Hawthorne, I believe, looks at the Black Man as someone who has set its mark on society in a positive way, and these marks are symbols of something good in society. These symbols I am referring to are the letter “A” on Hester’s dress and the unknown symbol on Dimmesdale’s chest. Both Hester and Dimmesdale committed a sin that for that time period was punishable, but I think Hawthorne looks at them as examples of how to accept sin and move on. The Black Man is nothing more than a representation of that sin and the mark that it has had on people’s lives. Society, on the other hand, looks at the Black Man as being the symbol of all evil and the devil, as seen through the comparison to Chillingworth. But in reality, he is nothing more than a mark on society.

So, I leave you all with this; to you, does the Black Man represent something more than just evil, or do you believe that it is up to you as the reader to distinguish whether the Black Man represents something good in society? To me, I think that he is a representation of people who dare to be something greater in life, people who go their own path and do what their heart desires. These are the people in life who will be most respected and most loved just like Hester Prynne is with the scarlet letter.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter.

Scarlet and Sin Symbolism Starts Swiftly

Name: Paulina Smolinski

WordPress user name: paulinasmolinski

Blog Title: Scarlet Reader

This post focuses on Chapters 1-4

A couple of pages into the novel The Scarlet Letter the plot is already filled with both glaringly obvious and slightly less blunt symbolism. The novel starts off with the description of a rosebush amongst weeds covering the prison door.  The narrator even accentuates the fact that he  “could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers and present it to the reader . . . to symbolize some sweet moral blossom” (46). We could easily infer that this delicate rose stands for the essence of Hester Prynne as she stands surrounded by the weeds of ridicule and shame. Somehow, she maintains her beauty by having strength and perseverance. Her thorns are made of self-worth and mental endurance, and they help her to survive the obloquy at the scaffold.   I find her mentality to be just as commendable as it is rare. Many delicate creations deteriorate under the pressure of nature’s wrath which is what makes it even more laudable that “this rosebush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history” (46).

Furthermore, the scaffold on which Hester Prynne is exposed to a pack of gossip-thirsty Puritans shows the symbol of the living sermon which the Puritans wish to make of Prynne. Those who mock her seem to create a foundation on the psychological defense mechanism of projection as they find no faults in their own lives and quite a lot in Hester’s. In essence, I think the Puritans act like a group of teenagers as they revel in backstabbing and malicious talk.  The exhibit that is Hester serves as a threat and reminder to those who dare to follow in her sinful footsteps. The scaffold “in old times was used as an effectual agent in the promotion of good citizenship, as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists of France” (52). I find it important to note that Puritans often searched for symbols in their lives to confirm divine sentiments. Clearly they found it quite necessary to confirm let’s call it less divine sentiments or, in other words, symbols of condemnation. I mean the worst thing that the scaffold does is it takes away the ability to hide. Exposure is inevitable as a shroud of judgment covers her soul. Henceforth, the scaffold also becomes a symbol more obviously of ignominy.

As if this were not enough, the condemning symbol of the ever so flagrant scarlet letter reigns supreme as it even is the namesake of the novel which means it has to hold some paramount purpose. Overall, the scarlet letter A is meant to mark Hester’s soul with her sin of adultery. Every soul she is to encounter is to see and judge her based on this shameful display. The interesting thing is that Hester does not hide the stain of shame. Instead, she embellishes it with “elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourished of gold thread” (50).  I mean it is a huge slap in the face to the Puritan ideology that simplicity is key. She actually goes out of her way to go “greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony” (50). Other than that, it is important to note that Hester almost immediately becomes an anit-hero in these first few chapters. Her refusal to confess the father of the child and mental strength when on the scaffold makes the dreaded scarlet letter also embody power in the face of adversity. Hester proves to accepts her fate and all the pain that is to come as we can see by her last moment before entering the prison doors as she sees that “yes!- these were her realities” (56). Overall, I find the abundance of symbols from the start of the novel to lay the groundwork for the plot to come.

Work cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam Dell, 1850. Print.