Moral and Ethical issues in The Scarlet Letter
Before we consider the moral and ethical issues and value of the work, it is worthwhile to look at the literary worth of this masterpiece of beauty and power. The largeness of its theme, the imaginative genius of author, the symmetrical design, the ordering of plot, the allegorical significance and richness of symbolism all contribute to the effectiveness of the work. The novel is rich in the use of symbols and abounds throughout the entire work. Accordingly, we should use every opportunity to emphasize moral and ethical values in stories, poems, novels and other kinds of literary works.When we speak of “Ethical” and “Moral” values, what do we mean? Arthur Holmes explains, ‘Ethic is about the good and about the right.’ Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘Ethic’ as: ‘The system or theory or moral values.’ and ‘Moral’ as: ‘Of or relating to principles of right or wrong.’ A study of ethical and moral issues in any literary work should consider the biblical basis of thought and conduct. A woman (Hester Prynne) has been taken in adultery and is brought upon the stage that she may be punished by a public stigma. She was beautiful and young, and had been married to an old husband who had wandered away from her for a time. Then she has sinned, and the partner of her sin, though not of her punishment, is (Arthur Dimmesdale) the young minister of church to which she is attached. It is her doom to wear the scarlet letter; the ‘A’ always worked on her dress, always there on her bosom to be seen of all men. The first hour of her punishment has to be endured, in the middle of town, on the public scaffold, under the gaze of all men. As she stands there her husband (Roger Chillingworth) comes by chance into the town and sees her and she sees him, and they know each other. But no one else in Boston knows that they are man and wife. Then they meet, and she refuses to tell him who has been her fellow sinner. She makes no excuse for herself. She will bear her doom and acknowledge its justice but to no one will she tell the name of him who the father the baby (Pearl) is. For her disgrace has borne its fruit and she has a child. The injured husband is at once aware that he need deal no further with the woman who has been false to him. Her punishment is sure. But it is necessary for his revenge that the man too shall be punished, and to punish him he must know him. Then he goes to work to find him out, and he finds him out. Then he does punish him with a vengeance are brings him to death, does it by the old man finds out to accompany them in their flight. The minister dies after he confesses, and the woman is left to her solitude. One other literary device Hawthorne uses is called the “multiple choice” technique. Terry Dibble explains that with this Hawthorne,“Casts doubts on his own stories and suggest that an incident may have happened in quiet different way if at all.”(Dibble Cliff 84-85)In The Scarlet Letter, as in some of his other stories, Hawthorne seems obsessed with the effect of sin on the sinners themselves.His earliest ancestor was William Hawthorne who arrived in Massachusetts in 1630. Hawthorne speaks of him as a soldier, legislator, judge and church leader who possessed all the puritanical traits, both good and evil. Whether or not Hawthorne believes in curse, we did believe in the reality of sin and guilt and shared with his puritan ancestors the belief in mans partial depravity and inherited guilt.
The purpose of this research paper is to examine the ethical and moral issues involving the major characters in The Scarlet Letter and to consider the effect of their action on themselves and on their relationship with others.The setting ofThe Scarlet Letter is Boston during the Puritan era. Anthony Trollope’s telling summary will serve to introduce the reader to the plot of the narrative.
The guilt that Hawthorne felt over the actions of his ancestor had an enormous impact on his writings. In the “custom house”, his introduction to The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne accepts the guilt from his forefathers and offers to repent for their crimes. This unusual way of viewing guilt and sin is one driving factor in Hawthorne writing. The other which is closely related to the first, is the relationship between men and of man to humanity as a whole. It centers on the consequence of breaking the basic links between humans by committing acts of sin.
Bryan Bourn agrees and writes:
“The guilt that Hawthorne felt over the action of his ancestor had an enormous impact on his writings. In the “custom house”, his introduction to the scarlet letter Hawthorne accepts the guilt from his forefathers and offers to repent for their crimes. It centers on the consequence of breaking the basic links between humans by committing acts of sin.”(Bourn What is)
The novel deals with issues that relate to human nature-sin, guilt hypocrisy, revenge and pride. An understanding of the Christian world-view can aid them in this regard. In Christianity Sin means: “As by one man sin entered the world and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”The Bible also states: “sin is the transgression of the law.” man is aware of both good and evil in this world, and of his capacity to do both. Like animals trained to obey their master, man would obey for fear of the whip of for scraps of food, but that is not what god wants,“He wants free moral agents in whom faith love and conviction run deep-people who shape their lives by god’s will because they love and trust him.”The Biblealso tells us: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”The Christian approach is to demonstrate what Barry Hill calls moral values: “Compassion, equality, justice, to tolerance.”(Hill Teaching)
Hawthorne believes that people should show understanding and love to those who transgress and so he reveals his utter disgust of a society that is intently intolerant of persons who slip from the path of morality. The example of Jesus in his dealing with sinner is pertinent as we consider Hawthorne’s world view. Hawthorne points out how unwise it is to set up one’s self as a judge. Jesus declares:“Judge not they ye are not judge. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judge; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
Jesus did not mean that we should condone or overlook moral misconduct. Nor did he mean that we should not pass judgment against sin or apply disciplinary measures against conduct that is wrong, sinful, or unacceptable. He did not mean that as individuals or a group we have no right to condemn sin wherever it occurs, or to pass judgment on others. John Fowler writes: “If no one could judge others, there would be no court system, no trails for breaking a law, no justice and no punishment. A society without the ability to judge its members for violation of its laws would descend into chaos and eventually self destruct.”(Fowler Should We)
Hawthorne presents man as being good or evil. A large portion of the opening chapter of The Scarlet Letter contains a number of symbols which emphasize this fact. So, in the introductory part of the novel the reader is already aware that the work is dealing with the relationship between good and evil and more important realization that moral good will be less strongly felt than moral evil.
In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne describes the consequences of sin and guilt. In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne shows the woman suffering public shame and scorn, the sensitive and neurotic minister who conceals his participation in the sin withering inside and the jealous old man, Chillingworth, consumed by the madness of revenge.Turner states: “Basic assumption is that reward and punishment are inevitable here and now retribution for sin is certain.”(Turner Nathaniel Hawthorne 58)
Although many critics view Hester in a positive way, some liberal one sees her as degenerating spiritually since her thoughts are on earthly love as is clear in her conversation with Dimmesdale during their meeting in the forest. In fact, her artistic embroidery is seen as her way of “expressing and therefore soothing the passions of her life.”(Crews The sins 148-58)Over the courses of the years, she becomes involved in performing acts of charity and kindness to people in the community and shows her care and concern for the sick, the poor and dying. As Herbert Gorman writes: “Slow years of ridicule and the stony path of regeneration. Hester guilt is absolved through her public suffering and her great and noble will and self- command her very badge of shame into a symbol of a lost world renew.”(Gorman The absolved 250-51)
Hawthorne points out that while sin which is exposed and confessed frees the sinner’s mind and often brings about a transformation in the life sin which is concealed and cherished tends to cause ruin and death. Guilt eats away at his very soul and threatens to destroy him. Concerning the close relationship between the mind and the body, Ellen White writes: “Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, all tend to break down the life forces and to invite decay and death.”(Ellen Ministry 241)
Roger Chillingworth, who enters the story as Hester stands on the scaffold, waits with fiendish patience to destroy the soul of his patient. He clings like a leech to the minister intent on taking his revenge and willing to become a devil. He is led to commit what some critics call the unpardonable sin by his lack of human sympathy. Of him Hester says:“That old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated in cold blood, the sanctity of human heart.”(Hawthorne The scarlet 110)
Frederick Crews comments on the devoting effect of guilt;
"The breach which guilt has once made into the human soul is never, in this mortal state, repaired. It may be watched and guarded; so that the enemy shall not force his way again into the citied, the might even, in his subsequent assaults; select some other avenue, in performance to that where he had formerly succeeded. But there is still the ruined wall and near it, the staling tread of the foe that would win over again his unforgotten triumph." (Crews The sins 137)
The attitude of these women is the same as that display by the Pharisees in Jesus day. When the woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus, her accurse observed that according to the law of mosses, she should be stoned. In Hester case, one of the self-righteous women remarked this woman has brought shame upon us all and ought to die.
While Hawthorne’s characters are sinners, many of them are presented as people who actually as salvation and regeneration before the story end. The symbols of her shame, elaborately embroidered, and worn long after she could have removed it, are proof that she is trying to hide nothing. In her conversation with Dimmesdale when she apologizes for having concealed Chillingworth’s identity. She says:“In all things else, I have striven to be true! Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast and did not hold through all extremity. A lie is never god, even though death threatens on the other side!”(Hawthorne The scarlet 143)This is the meaning that Hawthorne wants to convey regeneration, victory and salvation come after confession of sin. It seems as if his own weakness makes him more understanding and tolerant of the faults and failing of others. It is through Hester, however most of all, that Hawthorne presents the greater understanding due to sin. In conclusion we can say that sin has a disastrous effect on the sinner and on his relationship with others. The writer of an essay on the novel summarizes it aptly: “Hidden sin and guilt cause more suffering than open guilt. For these reason it is vital to be honest with one’s self and others concerning transgressions, however mortal.”
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WORKS CITED
- Bourn, Bryan D. “What is one moral/ethical issue addressed in “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne?” web. August 1, 2014.
- Crews, Frederick. The Sins of the Fathers: Hawthorne’s psychological themes. London: Oxford University Press, 1966. Print.
- Dibble, Terry J. Cliff Notes Inc.: The Scarlet Letter Notes. Lincoln: Nebraska, 1988.Print.
- Ellen, White G. Ministry Of Healing, Boise, Idaho: Pacific Assn, 1942. Print.
- Fowler, John M. “should we ever judge others?” Dialogue. 11(2 1999):28. Web. August 10, 2014.
- Gorman, Herbert. “The Absolved, The redeemed, and the Dammed: A Triangle.” A Norton critical edition, edited by sully Bradley . New York: W.W.Norton and co., 1962. Print.
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. A Norton critical Edition, edited by scullery Bradley. New York: W.W. Norton and co., 1962. Print.
- Hill, Barry. “Teaching value sin Adventist Education” web. July 2, 2014.
- Holmes, Arthur F. Ethics: Approaching Moral Decisions. Downers Grove: Illinois: Inter Varsity Press, 1984. Print.
- Turner, Arlin.Nathaniel Hawthorne: An Introduction and Interpretation. New York: Holt, Rinehart Winston, Inc. 1961. Print.
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Prof. Dr. Narendra K. Patel | Shreya Navinchandra Vyas |
