Analytical Essay on the Scarlet Letter

In his book, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells of a story where a young woman has had an adulterous relationship with a respected priest in a Puritan community. Typical of Hawthorne's writings is the use of imagery and symbolism. In Chapter 12, The Minister's Vigil, there are several uses of imagery when Dimmesdale, the priest, is battling with confessing his sin, which has plagued him for seven years. Three evident techniques used to personify symbolism in this chapter are the use of darkness versus light, the use of inner guilt versus confession, and lastly the use of colors (black versus white).

Hawthorne's use of darkness versus light is vivid throughout the entire book. However, there

are two very important passages in chapter twelve that should be mentioned. The first one is when Hawthorne is talking about Dimmesdale: "Without any effort of his will, or power to restrain himself, he shrieked aloud; an outcry that went pealing through the night, and was beaten back from one house to another reverberated from the hills in the background; as if a company of devils, detecting so much misery and terror in it, had made a plaything of the sound, and were bandying it to and fro" (Page 130).

In this scene the event is taking place through the middle of the night when darkness and sin

(Satan) lurk about. It is even personified when Hawthorne mentions the scream and the devils making a plaything of the sound. Darkness has taken a toll on Dimmesdale's heart. The second use of darkness in chapter twelve is where Governor Winthrop finds Arthur Dimmesdale's glove on the scaffold. The Sexton says, "Satan dropped it there I take it, intending a scurrilous jest against your reverence. But, indeed, he was blind and foolish, as he ever and always is. A pure hand needs no glove to cover it" (Page 138). In response to the sexton Dimmesdale said, " 'Thank you, my good friend, at this point he was startled at heart; for, so confused was his rememberance, that he had almost brought himself to look at the events of the past night as visionary. 'Yes, it seems to be my glove indeed'"(Pg 138)! The use of darkness and light is being portrayed and also the use of black versus white. The darkness is represented in Satan and also the darkness of the glove, which shows a covering of something. In this case it is a covering of Dimmesdale's sin. The light is represented in the Sexton telling Dimmesdale that he has a pure hand, which needs no glove to cover it. In reality the sin is being covered already, and Dimmesdale tries to make this known by telling the sexton that it is indeed his glove.

There are various uses of darkness used in this chapter. For example: "Not but the meteor may have

shown itself at that point, burning duskily through a veil of cloud; but with no shape as his guilt might have seen another symbol in it"(Page 136). The darkness is represented in the thickness of the cloud. Dimmesdale, even though he is hiding his sin inside where no one can see it, knows it's there and he thinks that others should see it more clearly. He does not realize however, that the Puritan society can only see what is on the outside and not what is on the inside a direct contradiction to the fundamentals of belief.

Another technique used by Hawthorne is the contrast of inner guilt versus confession, and

its effects. "No eye could see him, save that ever-wakeful one which had seen him in his closet, wielding the bloody scourge"(Page 129), and "the shriek had perhaps sounded with a far greater power, to his own startled ears, than it actually possessed"(Page 130). In this paragraph, Hawthorne shows how Dimmesdale is being tortured with his guilt so much so that he can no longer hold it in. He does the only thing he can, he lets out a shriek in the night in hopes that people will come forward to witness, for the first time, his sin. Dimmesdale still has not come to the reality that he is still in darkness and is not ready to completely confess his sin, for the very thing that sin represents is darkness.

In Dimmesdale's coming forth at night one should assume that he is not ready to do what it takes to relieve this inner guilt welling up inside him, even though he thinks he is. However, Arthur Dimmesdale's confession is not as clear and resounding as he wants it to be. His shriek in the night was only loud to him because he partly wanted to confess, and he perhaps thought that in standing on the scaffold he was taking a huge step. When a person gets to this point, they have two options according to Hawthorne. Either go all the way in confessing or go half-heartedly into it, and if this path is taken, it is more likely to stay hidden. Dimmesdale, himself, does try keeping it hidden even longer since no one found him there that night. However this should be viewed as a failure of Dimmesdale's courage lacking for necessary confession, rather than character for repentance.

Another use of inner guilt versus confession is used when Dimmesdale is on the scaffold with

Hester Prynne and Pearl. "The minister felt for the child's other hand, and took it. The moment that he did so, there came what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life, other life than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart, and hurrying through all his veins, as if the mother and child were communicating their vital warmth to his half torpid-system" (Page 134).

At this point in the chapter, Hawthorne expresses that Dimmesdale was on the verge of true repentance and confession. He even caught a glimpse of what it would be like if he did confess, if only a short-lived relief from the burden he carried. However, his courage was not where it should have been. This brought him into the depths of his inner guilt. If Dimmesdale had done what Pearl wanted him to do and confess in the daylight, then at this moment in time, Dimmesdale would be relieved of all guilt and come to repentance. Since he could not do this, his only option was to die with deep sorrow and grief in his heart, or so it seemed.

When people do not rely upon God for rescue from their temptations and refuge in their struggles, they seek deliverance in other things. It was not uncommon for people in that day to look at signs in the skies for their answers. This particular night was no different than any other; for "a blazing spear, a sword of flame, a bow, or a sheaf of arrows, sun in the midnight sky, prefigured Indian warfare. Nothing was more common, in those days, than to interpret all meteoric appearances, and other natural phenomena,