Now you would think that Hawthorne’s classic on infidelity and early Puritan Christiandom focuses upon adultery, since supposedly, that is the crime marked upon her bosom. However, nowhere in the book is the word ‘adultery’ ever mentioned. One interpretation posits that the ‘A’ actually stands for the crime of incest, a crime so horrible as to not even be called out by name. Upon reading the book with fresh eyes, I was surprised to discover that the story is not focused upon the insidious nature of adultery at all.
Thus, I believe that Hawthorne never identified adultery because instead he intended the ‘A’ to represent:
- Authenticity: be true to one’s self and one’s own feelings. Although publicly shamed, Hester grows and develops and comes to understand the crime she perpetrated against herself by denying her feelings because of societal censure. In contrast, the respected Reverend Dimmsdale’s soul wastes away while he denies his love for her in order to protect his golden reputation in the community.
- Available: if I love someone, I am available to her with my presence and my time. Hester waits hours to speak to him in her midnight vigils. Meanwhile, the holy Reverend has all the time for his flock, for his sermons, for his midnight ministering to the dead, meanwhile he is not available to his own daughter born out of wedlock. Little Pearl asks him time and again, “Tomorrow, will you stand with us in the light of the sun and give me a kiss then?” a question from which he always withdraws into the night.
- Action: words and intentions mean nothing without investment into the ones we love. The Reverend can talk about how much he cares for Hester, how much he loves his daughter Pearl, but his intentions do not materialize. For seven long years they wait for him, while instead he guards his reputation, chooses to suffer his fate rather than take responsibility for his own child, provides no financial means for Hester and Pearl while he straggles from apartment to apartment paid for by congregants of the church. Sure, he finally chooses to reveal his true feelings and acknowledge his love for Pearl as her father, the moment before he dies. What an unworthy lover.
- Actualized: Hester’s ‘A’ comes to be recognized across the city as a mark of strength—here stands a woman of integrity, whose words and actions align unquestionably, who has fulfilled her utmost potential in contemplation, in service to the needy, in her understanding of love and the flaws of others. In contrast, the Reverend’s ‘A’ remains hidden and burned onto his flesh. He grabs his heart in pain, for what’s in his heart is never allowed to transform who he is on the outside. Without the nourishment of love, his mind becomes feeble and his body frail.
What happens when a society replaces the laws of the heart with the laws of the land? Our citizens do not develop Actualized love but instead develop Type A personalities: self-absorbed, rushing from one appointment to the next, exhausted, results-oriented, angry, nervous…unauthentic, unavailable, and incapable of action.
The Scarlet Letter remains a subversive text not because of its open discussion of adultery, but rather because it is an attack upon formalized Christian society. Raised a devout Christian myself, what bothers me most about Christians today is the disconnect between what I hear as Reverend-Dimmsdale-like speech of acceptance, generosity, and love in stark contrast with what I see as practices of intolerance, selfishness, and indifference. It’s easy to talk about how strongly you hold Jesus Christ in your heart, meanwhile you do nothing to carry out his principles in the light of day.
