Hawthorne in conversation: tracing The Scarlet Letter’s responses to philosophical discussions about community and individualism in American literature

Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne presents reflections on different types of community and individualism that build on and contribute to the conversation surrounding those topics that had been developing in American literature, from the Puritan period onwards. The novel serves as a philosophical reflection on community and the place of individuals within a community, and analyzes that relationship in the context of several different types of community, in conversation with previous American writers. In some cases, the references to previous works and outlooks are explicit, while in others, the references have to be extrapolated from the text; however, it is possible to identify sections in The Scarlet Letter that serve as responses to different philosophies throughout the years, analyzing the role of an individual in multiple types of community versus individualism. For the purposes of this paper, "The Custom House" is considered to be part of The Scarlet Letter.

Taking place in a Puritan setting, the novel acts as a reception of the Puritans, as a specific element of pre-Revolutionary America, and deals heavily with Puritan values and philosophy. Explicitly stating that the Puritans had both good and evil qualities, the narrator of the novel is presented as a descendant of the Puritan settlers in America, and feels personally responsible for their actions:

It is now nearly two centuries and a quarter since the original Briton, the earliest emigrant of my name, made his appearance in the wild and forest-bordered settlement, which has since become a city. [...] He was a soldier, legislator, judge; he was a ruler in the Church; he had all the Puritanic traits, both good and evil. [...] At all events, I, the present writer, as their representative, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes[.] (Hawthorne, pp. 20-21)

One such Puritan value is charity, which, in John Winthrop’s “A Modell of Christian Charity” can be displayed through mercy; in the essay, he writes “This duty of mercy is exercised in the kinds, Giueving [giving], lending and forgiving” (Winthrop, p. 3). Hawthorne portrays this mercy in a very particular way; Puritan justice is portrayed as harsh and unforgiving, but in the interests of mercy, Hester Prynne is forced to wear the scarlet “A” instead of being put to death:

“Now, good Sir, our Massachusetts magistracy, bethinking themselves that this woman is youthful and fair, and doubtless was strongly tempted to her fall—and that, moreover as is most likely, her husband may be at the bottom of the sea—they have not been bold to put in force the extremity of our righteous law against her. The penalty thereof is death. But in their great mercy and tenderness of heart, they have doomed Mistress Prynne to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then and hereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom.” (Hawthorne, p. 69)

Through this act of mercy, the ideal of Christian charity is being upheld; however, the text presents this mercy as being ironic, the over-the-top description of "great mercy and tenderness of heart" allowing us to read the text as being sarcastic or ironic, and the punishment is still cruel. With this more "merciful" punishment, Hester now must suffer social ostracization for the rest of her life, being excluded from the experience that Winthrop describes of “...rejoice together, mourne together, labour and suffer together, allwayes haueving before our eyes our commission and community in the worke, as members of the same body” (Winthrop, p. 13).

The Puritan cultural ideas of rigid religion and the ever-present preoccupation with Heaven and Hell is also presented during Hester’s sentencing, as the preacher gives a sermon on sin, and focuses on the sin of adultery to the extent that the letter on Hester “...seemed to derive its scarlet hue from the flames of the infernal pit” (Hawthorne, p. 74). Much like Michael Wigglesworth used The Day of Doom to instill fear in the Puritan congregation, Reverend Wilson uses Hester Prynne as an example, with the text paralleling The Day of Doom’s description of suffering “...torments in hell fire” (Wigglesworth, line 230).

The ironic description of Puritan mercy and the harshness of Hester Prynne’s sentencing are presented in the context of forcibly severing a community tie, forcing an individual out of the societal context, and serve as a condemnation of the Puritan philosophy in strictly punishing deviation from community norms; the Puritan philosophy very much emphasizes conformity, with little room for individual variation.

However, Hawthorne is also wary of moving too far in the other direction. The specific act of adultery is still considered to be immoral; while Hester maintains that what they did had a "consecration of its own" (Hawthorne, p. 186), she does recognize that it was wrong, at least when it came to her relationship with Chillingsworth (p. 79). When looking at the novel in the context of an evolution of American literature, we see that in other American writings, such as Benjamin Franklin’s thirteen virtues, "chastity" is still considered a virtue and something to strive for (Franklin, p. 26); and while other writers, particularly the transcendentalists, may be read as promoting self-fulfillment without any regard for societal standards, potentially including adultery, The Scarlet Letter is careful not to fully embrace that philosophy. In building the background of the narrator of the story, Hawthorne explicitly invokes Emerson and Thoreau, and describes the narrator as having been immersed in their philosophy, but now has moved out of that environment:

After my fellowship of toil and impracticable schemes with the dreamy brethren of the Brook Farm; after living for three years within the subtile influence of an intellect like Emerson’s; after those wild, free days on the Assabeth, indulging fantastic speculations beside our fire of fallen boughs with Ellery Channing; after talking with Thoreau about pine trees and Indian relics in his hermitage at Walden; after growing fastidious by sympathy with the classic refinement of Hillard’s culture… (Hawthorne, p. 35)

In the plot of the novel itself, Hawthorne explores their philosophy of radical self-reliance and the transcendentalist connection to nature; while the earlier ironic presentation of Puritan charity criticized overly strict societal structures (as does the fate of Arthur Dimmesdale, discussed in more depth below), the other extreme of radical self-reliance is also considered in the text. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale discuss escape to the woods, living, like Thoreau, outside of society:

“Doth the universe lie within the compass of yonder town, which only a little time ago was but a leaf-strewn desert, as lonely as this around us? Whither leads yonder forest track? Backwards to the settlement, thou sayest! Yes, but onward, too! Deeper it goes, and deeper, into the wilderness [...]. There thou art free!” (p. 187)

Hester, already isolated from society, presents the woods as being an option where they can escape the judgement of the community, and live free of the societal expectations keeping them apart. This option also philosophically aligns with Thoreau’s determination that self-reliance, and acting upon your desires, will be successful:

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endevours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him... (Thoreau, pp. 878-879)

However, Dimmesdale recognizes that to escape to the woods would be abandoning the community, and he is not prepared to put his own needs above the needs of the community:

“It cannot be!” answered the minister, listening as if he were called upon to realize a dream. “I am powerless to go! Wretched and sinful as I am, I have had no other thought than to drag on my earthly existence in the sphere where Providence hath placed me. Lost as my own soul is, I would still do what I may for other human souls! I dare not quit my post[…”] (Hawthorne, p. 188)

Dimmesdale takes his societal role very seriously, which both develops him into his own person and ultimately harms him, the burden being too much for him to bear. The societal role of minister provides him with fulfillment, giving him a purpose which can only be fulfilled inside of a community; even after the taste of the forest, his Election Sermon speaks about the holiness of communities, living within a society:

His subject, it appeared, had been the relation between the Deity and the communities of mankind, with a special reference to the New England which they were here planting in the wilderness. (p. 232)

Dimmesdale reaffirms the importance of society, and refuses to take self-determination to an extreme, even as the consequences of living within that society catch up to him. Immediately following this declaration of the holiness of society, his guilt at having transgressed societal norms takes his life. This extreme result of refusing to abandoned societal norms serves as a critique of abandoning self-reliance too much; while Hawthorne recognizes that abandoning society entirely is going too far, some measure of self-determination is still necessary, in the view presented by the text, for living life. Hester’s punishment is cruel precisely because it cuts her off from society and prevents her from fully existing within it; she is both present within the community and cut off from it, neither fully living in the woods as an expression of self-reliance nor being fully integrated within society. In the end, she strikes a balance, choosing out of her own free will to continue playing the societal role that she had been assigned, thus both employing self-determination and operating within society:

She had returned, therefore, and resumed—of her own free will, for not the sternest magistrate of that iron period would have imposed it—resumed the symbol of which we have related so dark a tale. Never afterwards did it quit her bosom. (p. 244)

Self-reliance is also explicitly invoked as a concept in The Scarlet Letter, providing further evidence for interpreting the novel as commenting on that philosophy; when describing the elected officials of Salem, they are approvingly described as “They had fortitude and self-reliance, and, in times of difficulty or peril, stood up for the welfare of the state…” (p. 223), naming the concept of self-reliance (which, given earlier mentions of both Emerson and Thoreau, must then be interpreted as referring to the concept in that context). However, rather than being the "..end of conformity and consistency" (Emerson, p. 52), this form of self-reliance is used to contribute to society, countering Emerson’s claim that society never advances (p. 74); the concept of self-reliance is warped into contributing to building a functional society, rather than abandoning it outright.

Aside from self-reliance, the transcendentalist ideal of nature is also dealt with throughout The Scarlet Letter, particularly as presented as an alternative to societal existence. As compared with life within society, while the novel ultimately concludes that society is necessary, nature is still presented as an ideal and spiritually significant. For instance, in "The Custom House," despite earlier rejecting transcendentalist philosophy, the narrator bemoans the loss of being able to experience nature:

It was not merely during the three hours and a half which Uncle Sam claimed as his share of my daily life this wretched numbness held posession of me. It went with me on my seashore walks and rambles into the country, whenever—which was seldom and reluctantly—I bestirred myself to seek that invigorating charm of Nature, which used to give me such freshness and activity of thought the moment that I stepped across the threshold of the Old Manse. (Hawthorne, p. 44)

When Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the forest, nature allows them to escape temporarily from society. Pearl, as a child, is portrayed connecting to nature, a common association in Romantic literature; both nature and children are innocent and uncorrupted. The transcendentalist view of nature is essentially divine also can be found in this scene, as seen by the description of nature as connected to love:

Such was the sympathy of Nature—that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by higher truth—with the bliss of these two spirits! Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance that it overflows upon the outward world. (p. 193)

This quote serves as an example showing that despite the narrator’s explicit rejection of transcendentalist philosophy (p. 35), stating that nature had lost the qualities that it had been “spiritualized” with, nature does still play an idealized role in the text of the novel. The text thus establishes that both nature – and the associated transcendentalist concept of self-reliance – and societal existence within a community are important, and does not quite take a position on which, if either, is more important.

Aside from philosophies of self-reliance and community at the personal level, The Scarlet Letter questions philosophies of community at the national level. Written post-Revolution but set in the Puritan era, the novel looks back at the founding of the country, and examines what ideals the country of the United States of America was founded on. Thomas Paine in Common Sense compares England critically to a parent or mother, saying that England’s treatment of America is unbecoming of such a relationship, and "...[e]ven brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families" (Paine); with that in mind, we can read certain phrases in The Scarlet Letter as alluding to this concept, such as in “The Custom House”:

Over the entrance hovers an enormous specimen of the American eagle, with outspread wings, a shield before her breast, and, if I recollect aright, a bunch of intermingled thunderbolts and barbed arrows in each claw. [...] Nevertheless, vixenly as she looks, many people are seeking, at this very moment, to shelter themselves under the wing of the federal eagle; imagining, I presume, that her bosom has all the softness and snugness of an eiderdown pillow. But she has no great tenderness even in her best of moods, and, sooner or later—oftener soon than late—is apt to fling off her nestlings… (Hawthorne, p. 17)

The references to “bosom” and “nestlings” allow us to read this passage as critiquing America - the eagle serving as a metonymy for the country - in the role of mother, indicating that America is serving no better as a parent than England did. The rest of The Scarlet Letter explores the culture of the founding settlers of America; much like Washington Irving highlighted the Dutch culture of some of the original settlers, Hawthorne spotlights the strict, moral rigidity of the Puritan culture as a legacy that the later citizens of the country must deal with (p. 21).

Both Irving and Hawthorne deal with a reception of an aspect of the cultures of the early settlers of America, contributing to the literary discussion about the myths and narrative surrounding the founding of the country. Aside from both authors portraying specific cultural elements in early America, Hawthorne explicitly references Irving’s "The Headless Horseman" (p. 51), and, much like Irving’s "Rip Van Winkle," The Scarlet Letter presents the novel as being based on a discovered written account. In "Rip Van Winkle," the purported source is Diedrich Knickerbocker (Irving, p. 40), a Dutch expert; in The Scarlet Letter, the source is given as Surveyor Pue, the narrator’s ancestor with first-hand knowledge. In both stories, the given source is an individual embedded in the culture with which the story deals, giving legitimacy to the commentary on those cultures even if the author does not personally come from them, and that commentary then contributes to the philosophical issue of how to deal with that aspect of American history.

The question of how to approach history, including the history of a nation, is also a question of philosophies about community. The history of a community shapes that community’s values, social cohesion, and future prospects; embracing a shared history gives a basis for a shared community, while rejecting a communal background is a form of individualism, in which you do not allow the history of people before you to shape your personal path in life. While "Rip Van Winkle" is designed to remind Americans of their Dutch heritage, providing a communal background, The Scarlet Letter uses many of the same techniques in order to question what to do with the legacy of the Puritans, the rest of early American history, and ultimately, the philosophy of nationhood as a form of community, and the role of the individual within that community.

Drawing on earlier works in many different ways, The Scarlet Letter thus contributes to an evolving discussion in American literature, grappling with philosophies of individualism (self-reliance) and community, and how philosophies of nature and history relate to philosophies of community. Rather than just being a novel telling a compelling story, The Scarlet Letter serves as a method of addressing philosophies present in earlier writings; within the text, and through the actions of the characters, Hawthorne presents a nuanced take on the different approaches, not entirely rejecting nor entirely embracing any of the philosophies present in the works that he either references or alludes to. The novel raises questions about all of these philosophies that have been evolving in American literature, but never quite answers them, allowing the ambiguity to itself serve as commentary.

Works Cited

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance" (1841). Online handout.

Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography (1791). Online handout.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter (1850). Signet Classics edition, 1959 printing.

Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle" (1819). As presented in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories, Airmont Classics edition, pp. 40-55.

Paine, Thomas. Common Sense (1776). Online handout.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854). As presented in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, shorter fourth edition, pp. 788-884.

Wigglesworth, Michael. The Day of Doom (1662). Online handout.

Winthrop, John. "A Modell of Christian Charity" (1630). Online handout.