Essay on "Scarlet Letter Although Nathaniel Hawthorne"

Essay 4 pages (1299 words) Sources: 1

[EXCERPT] . . . .

For a start, it is worth noting that the heraldic language of the concluding line is -- even in Hester's day -- deliberately archaic. Even if a poet today or in the seventeenth century can still use the somewhat uncommon "sable" as a synonym for "black," there is nowhere but in the technical vocabulary of heraldry that the word "gules" remains as a synonym for "red." The fact that "gules" is additionally a postpositive adjective -- and therefore placed after the noun, like the "general" in "attorney general" -- additionally marks it out as a strange formal linguistic artifact. Yet this heraldic language, deriving from Norman French, actually dates from a time period centuries before Hester's own seventeenth century, just as the narrator of "The Custom-House" comes centuries after it.

But what could be the meaning of this conscious archaism? It is here that we must note one aspect of history which Hawthorne and his narrator have in common with Hester Prynne, but which none of them have in common with the language of heraldry employed in the novel's closing sentence -- that is American history. Heraldry -- with its knightly coats-of-arms -- is not only a medieval but a European phenomenon, and long predates the European discovery of America. The Puritan New England inhabited by Hester Prynne is a colonial society, but is also crucially a colonial society that distances itself from the aristocracy and royalty of the old England. If the narrator of "The Custom-House" is far distant from a Puritan New England that had the "custom" of branding an adulteress with the letter "A" embroidered on her clothing, to externalize her transgression, the same narrator is even farther distant from a medieval aristocratic society which bestows a coat-of-arms for some form of heroism. Hawthorne's deliberate use of heraldic language in the novel's closing is surely intentional, and should be understood as a comment upon history itself, and American history specifically. The Puritans who settled New England were, of course, not generally aristocrats -- the English monarchy never ennobled anyone with the title of Duke of Massachussetts, or anything similar. The American Revolution that falls between the time of Hester Prynne and the time of Hawthorne's narrator in "The Custom-House" was deliberately anti-monarchical in sentiment. So the use of heraldic language, which carries with it associations of monarchy and aristocracy, is intended to bear an ironic meaning: it is only through the domestic and personal lives of ordinary bourgeois persons like Hester Prynne that the historical narratives of families in America are constructed.

We might note in conclusion that Hawthorne himself was implicated in this very view of American history. Not only was he descended from a Puritan family contemporary with the fictional Hester Prynne -- his ancestor Judge Hathorne (to use the original spelling) was around during the Salem Witch Trials -- Hawthorne himself was part of the American Renaissance, which hoped to assert a distinctively American literary art that owed nothing to English or European models and fashions. The way in which the closing passage of The Scarlet Letter asserts the American difference, though, must necessarily look back at those English and European models in order to construct the difference. The transition of the titular symbol from domestic embroidered cloth into engraved stone is in some sense Hawthorne's concrete metaphor for the historical process itself. But the linguistic invocation of heraldry, and implicitly a historical process that long predates not only Hester but America, is Hawthorne's way of asserting American difference. England has knights and kings, but America has domestic and social life.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Dover Publications, 1994.… READ MORE

How to Reference "Scarlet Letter Although Nathaniel Hawthorne" Essay in a Bibliography

Related Essays:

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Novel the Scarlet Letter Term Paper

Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel the Scarlet Letter addresses the issue of sin, responsibility, and even salvation in the Puritan society of North America. Sentenced to wear her sin of adultery in… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (976 words) Sources: 1 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Moonlight Theory" the 'Humanization Term Paper

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Moonlight theory"

The 'Humanization' of Hawthorne's Characters in the Scarlet Letter: An Application of "Moonlight theory" in the Romance Novel

The most common yet controversial and interesting depictions… read more

Term Paper 5 pages (1524 words) Sources: 0 Style: MLA Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Scarlet Letter the Use of Light Term Paper

Scarlet Letter

The use of light and dark in the Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne's the Scarlet Letter inverts the traditional associations of light with goodness and darkness with evil. This… read more

Term Paper 2 pages (701 words) Sources: 1 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Scarlet Letter - The Individual vs. Society Term Paper

Scarlet Letter - the Individual vs. Society - Hester Prynne

Throughout the text the Scarlet Letter, the heroine Hester Prynne lives her life in opposition to her society. At first,… read more

Term Paper 2 pages (685 words) Sources: 1 Topic: Women / Feminism

---

Character Dilemma Topic (the Scarlet Letter) Nathaniel Essay

character dilemma topic (the Scarlet Letter)

Nathaniel Hawthorne's the Scarlet Letter develops themes such as personal development, sin, society and human condition. The characters in this book are the products… read more

Essay 1 pages (470 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Religion / God / Theology

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>