Who Do the Puritan’s Want You to Be?

Andrew Donahue

Ms. Rodd

Honors English 10

30 March, 2016    

Who Do the Puritan’s want You to Be?

The Puritan Society tends to create false identities and symbols for characters in the novel, “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The false identity that the society creates for Hester and Dimmesdale contributes to Hawthorne’s critical view of the Puritan Society. The Puritan community’s ability to create a false identity for a character is the exact action that will lead to the tension between the society and the individual. Relating these characters to symbols is also a very common occurrence in the novel as Hester is related to a symbol of sin and Dimmesdale is related to a god-like symbol.  Throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author describes the tension between society and the individual by exposing the different identities that the Puritan’s create for Hester and Dimmesdale in the book.

The Puritan society views Dimmesdale as a positive, god-like symbol. This is proven throughout the novel to be a false assumption because it turns out that Dimmesdale was the other half of the Adultery crime that Hester Prynne committed. Dimmesdale himself, has tried many times to tell the society that he is not who they think he is. The Puritan Society, creating his false identity continues to believe that someone like Dimmesdale cannot possibly a criminal. Although the Puritan Society had “heard it all, [they] did but reverence him the more” (Hawthorne 140). The society in this case is making these false identities for characters like Dimmesdale. Although they have been clearly told that what they are claiming this man to be is not true, they continue to hold him on the high standard that Dimmesdale has always been on. Hawthorne’s message on the Puritan Society is that the society overpowers the individual in creating identities that do not hold up to be true. Members of the society put this man on a higher level than their own selves. After his own followers were told about Dimmesdale’s ugly past, they continued to believe “that he would go heavenward before them, and enjoined it upon their children” (Hawthorne 138). Dimmesdale’s own “aged members of his flock”, his friends, still could not come to the fact that this godly man is a criminal just as equal to the woman that they had shunned out of the society. Not only did Dimmesdale’s own friends continue to deny his plead of guiltiness, but they would continue to spread it to their children as well. The Puritan Society continues cycling this false identity through generations to come. The community is too much for Dimmesdale as he continues to attempt letting them know his secret. Hawthorne continues to criticize the society while Dimmesdale proves his real identity. While in the forest with Hester, Dimmesdale admits that his own letter “burns in secret! Thou little knowest what a relief it is… to look into an eye that recognizes me for what I am” (Hawthorne 183). Aware of Hester’s knowledge about his crime, Dimmesdale complains how Hester is one of the only humans to see him as he really. Creating the false identity, the Puritans do not recognize Dimmesdale’s true self, as they create the opposite form instead. While Hester is seen as a symbol of sin, the same crime being committed by Dimmesdale does not change the fact that he is viewed as a saint-like figure by society. Dimmesdale cannot stand being treated as someone that he is not, creating a great tension between himself and the Puritan society as a whole.

While the fictional identity of Dimmesdale was created in a positive view, the Puritan’s create Hester as a symbol of sin. This negative identity is based off the one mistake that Hester committed and that was the crime of adultery. After the crime was committed, the Puritan Society set Hester up as a symbol of sin for everyone residing in Boston Massachusetts. Members of the community symbolically say that Satan resides inside Hester and that they “…should take in hand to drive Satan out of her with stripes” (Hawthorne 68). The Puritans create Hester’s character to be a satanic person because of the single crime that she committed. Puritans have failed to understand that one mistake does not define a person or make one less as a person. Hester shows this by giving back to the society even after her wrong-doing and the disgusting treatment of the community as she was “quick to acknowledge her sisterhood with the race of man, whenever benefits were to be conferred” (Hawthorne 157). Hester is proving this relationship to be very one sided as society and individual are not acting on the same page. Hester seeks to remain a kind member of society while the community wants no part of Hester. This tension between the society and individual is what Hawthorne is striving to get readers to see. Hawthorne views these people as very judgmental human beings and he shows this by exposing the Puritanical tendency to create identities for characters based off of what the Puritans want them to be. As the tension begins to rise towards the end of the book, Hester decides to act upon her previous treatment by the community. Losing respect for the Puritan society, Hester eventually “undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and… threw it to a distance among the withered leaves” (Hawthorne 198). After not receiving the respect given to the society, Hester chooses to let her own wants overcome her actions. Wanting to run away with Dimmesdale was too much of a priority to be focused on pleasing a group of people that have disrespected her greatly. Creating the negative identity for Hester caused the tension between the society and the individual. Taking off the letter “A” was a big step for Hester because it now allows her to be free from the society’s judgmental views.