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Lana Manzanares

Klimas

English 10 Pre-AP

27 November 2017

Intolerance in a Puritan Community

Nathaniel Hawthorne in the novel, ​The Scarlet Letter​, explains how the intolerance from

the Puritan community affects Hester Prynne, the protagonist of the novel and wearer of the

scarlet letter, and Arthur Dimmesdale, the well-respected minister of the town, in different ways

while committing the same sin. Hawthorne's selection of detail, use of an appreciative and

didactic tone, and contrasting images create the sense of his frustration towards Puritan

intolerance.

Hawthorne’s selection of detail conveys his frustration with Puritan intolerance. He

describes this as, “We impulse it, therefore, solely to the disease in his own eye and heart, that

the minister, looking upward to the zenith, beheld there the appearance of an immense

letter---the letter A---marked out in the lines of a dull red light. Not but the meteor may have

shown itself at that point, burning duskily through a veil of cloud, but with no such shape as his

guilty imagination gave it, or at least, with so little definiteness, that another's guilt might have

seen another symbol,” (128). The townspeople see the A in the sky as a symbol for Governor

Winthrop, who passed away, standing for the word “Angel”, whereas Dimmesdale sees the A as

“Adultery”. Because Dimmesdale has guilt piling on top of him, everything he sees reminds him

of his sin since he is ashamed that he couldn’t be there for Hester and Prynne when they first

experienced the public shaming at the scaffold. This meteor also helps Dimmesdale realize that
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maybe he should be standing on the scaffold wearing his scarlet letter proudly as Hester does.

Another time we see Hawthorne’s attention to detail is when Dimmesdale asserts, “‘She will not

speak!’ murmured Mr. Dimmesdale, who, leaning over the balcony, with his hand upon his

heart, had awaited the result of his appeal […],” (59). Dimmesdale repeatedly places his hand

over his heart where his scarlet letter is placed foreshadowing an important detail that would be

later told. Afraid to confess his sin, Dimmesdale carved the A into his chest as an extreme effect

of the intolerance of Puritans. It is easy to see how Hawthorne’s selection of detail conveys his

frustration with Puritan intolerance.

Hawthorne’s use of figurative language creates the tone which aids in conveying his

frustration towards Puritan intolerance. An appreciative tone is created when Hawthorne says,

“The letter was a symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her—so much power to

do, and power to sympathize,— that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original

signification,” (134). The figurative language used, symbolism, helps explain that the scarlet

letter, although given a bad reputation at first, stands for something more. Now, the Puritan

community refers to the scarlet A as “Able”, as in able to have women’s strength. The Puritan

intolerance is of women’s thoughts because, in the beginning, Hester doesn’t challenge the

community or community leaders since she knew that she would not win. But, now that the

community sees her as a woman who not only cares for others but as someone who puts others

first, they tolerate Hester’s actions and thoughts. Of many tone shifts in the novel, one seen is the

shift to a didactic tone when Roger Chillingworth, the husband of Hester Prynne says, “‘A pure

hand needs no glove to cover it,’” (130). A metaphor is being used to describe Dimmesdale’s

attempt at hiding the scarlet letter from the community. Although Chillingworth did not
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explicitly say that he knows Dimmesdale has a scarlet A carved into his chest, he discovers it

when he moved Dimmesdale’s' clothing aside, revealing the scarlet letter. This connects to the

frustration regarding intolerance because the Puritans do not accept people who go against what

they believe in and act as a pure Puritan.

The use of contrasting images further explain Hawthorne’s frustration toward Puritan

intolerance. Hawthorne describes this when he comments, “And there stood the minister with his

hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom,

and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two,” (127). Ashamed

that he couldn’t be there for Hester and Pearl, Dimmesdale covers his scarlet A in

embarrassment. On the other hand, Hester owns up to her sin by letting people say things about

her since she knows the consequences of her sin. Hawthorne describes this as the scarlet letter

being a “suit of armor” because when Hester wears the letter, she does not let what others say

about her affect her. Another contrasting image is when Hawthorne notes that, “Meeting them in

the street, she never raised her head, to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accost her,

she laid her finger on the scarlet letter, and passed on,” (134). Although it has been seven years

since the time of the incident, the Puritan community acts as if they never shamed her for her sin.

This shows how easily the Puritan community can be swayed, revealing their hypocrisy. Puritans

are supposed to be intolerant of those who do not follow the rules set, but now that Hester seems

as if she doesn’t want to be part of that community, the Puritans like her, even more, revealing

how Hester is more Puritan than the Puritan community.

The selection of detail, use of multiples tones, and contrasting images create Hawthorne’s

sense of frustration towards Puritan intolerance. Hawthorne’s purpose in writing ​The Scarlet
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Lette​r is to point out the inconsistencies of Puritan intolerance so that the world can understand

that all humans share the same characteristics as one another.