Skip to main content

Sin and Redemption



Religion can make one a devil.  Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter (1850), shows how.

Roger Chillingworth, a sombre scholar, marries a pretty woman, Hester, much younger in age.  During his long absence she develops an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale, a pastor.  When a child is born to Hester in the protracted absence of her husband, she is labelled an adulteress and punished.

All this happens in the 17th century Boston, then a Puritan colony.  The Puritans were a kind of religious fundamentalists.  They followed the letter of the law.  Love, mercy and other such tender feelings had no place in the Puritan worldview.  People should abide by the law at any cost.

Hester is punished to wear “the scarlet letter” on her bosom throughout her life.  The letter A, for Adulteress, is emblazoned on her chest, and she has to spend some time on the pillory everyday displaying herself for the edification of the public.  

Dimmesdale is struck with guilt feeling and remorse.  But he is a Puritan at heart, and a pastor to boot, and hence cannot transcend the straitjacket of the law.  He lacks the courage to own up his guilt in public and accept his human failing as well as his love for Hester. 

Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, who has returned wants to avenge the ignominy brought on him by his wife and her lover.  But he won’t kill them directly.  He knows that the scarlet letter is enough of a punishment for Hester.  His intention is to seek out the man who brought the ignominy on him and punish him with the typical Puritan cruelty.  It takes him a while to know that Dimmesdale is his enemy.  And Dimmesdale is already wasting away because of his sterile guilt and remorse.  The guilt and remorse have produced a stigma on Dimmesdale’s chest in the form of a scarlet letter.  If Hester is wearing an artificial scarlet letter on her dress, Dimmesdale is wearing a painful physical stigma on his chest. 

Dimmesdale goes through excruciating psychological and physical pain before he is able to make his confession in public.  The confession kills him. 

Hester goes on to become a character loved by the people as she turns to social service.  The scarlet letter ‘A’ slowly loses its stigma.

Chillingworth dies within a year of Dimmesdale’s death.  He does not have a purpose to live for anymore.  His only purpose had become taking revenge on the man who had assaulted his wife’s marital fidelity.  And he was firmly convinced that he was fulfilling a religious duty by pursuing his vindictive aspiration.  He does not understand the implication of his wife’s observation, “... the hatred ... has transformed a wise and just man to a fiend!” 

Stringent adherence to the law can transform a wise and just man into a devil.  That’s one of the themes of the novel.  Neither Chillingworth nor Dimmesdale –  both of whom are very religious – understands the lessons of compassion and forgiveness that Jesus, their God, had taught.  In fact, no religious fundamentalist understands the spirit of his/her religion.  Fundamentalism is more about following rules and regulations than understanding the values of the religion and internalising them.

The narrator of the novel tries to present a moral in the last pages.  “Be true!  Be true!  Be true!” says he.  “Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”  Live with transparency.  Be true to yourself.  Dimmesdale achieved that toward the end.  But it was too late.  His religion had already become a terrible burden for him by the time he understood its spirit rather than its legal scaffoldings. 

Did Hester learn the lesson?  Given the society in which she lived and the upbringing she had, she could only think of herself as sinful and hence in need of redemption through penitence.  She continued to live as a penitent.

How would she live were she living in today’s society?  She would have accepted her error, learnt the lesson, and then gone on to live a life of dignity.  Falling is not the tragedy, refusing to get up and walk on is.

Error is natural to mankind.  Each error should teach us the lessons they contain and help us to cultivate sympathy and understanding of others, help us in our personal growth.  Religions often fail to teach this with their unhealthy focus on man’s sinfulness and suggesting rituals as the remedy.  Understanding is the secret of spiritual health, not rituals or prayers.


Top post on IndiBlogger.in, the community of Indian Bloggers

Comments

  1. I've always wanted to read The Scarlet Letter, but never got a chance. I should pick up a copy soon..
    As for the discussion on religion, you're right that too much adherence to laws can turn a man into a devil. But originally, no religion or scripture was a "rule book", as I am sure you are already aware. All of them taught forgiveness and mercy, but the people who took it upon themselves to propagate their respective religion bent and twisted the rules and the rest is history!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Sreesha, the problem is not with the scriptures but with those who interpret them and codify them into rules. I am not a religious believer and don't set store by the scriptures of any religion. There's much in them that is self-contradictory and even puerile. But there's more than that too: there's mysticism, for instance. I interpret the scriptures in my own way, just as I do with literature.

      Delete
  2. I have read the book and loved it...Loved your post too...

    ReplyDelete
  3. [ Smiles ] Hmm. Maybe, it is time that I read "The Scarlet Letter."

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wonderful read. The story and the lessons are truly rich and you have presented it very well !

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, I truly believe in making mistakes and learning from them. I think it's the best way to lead an enriching life...at least you won't be bored :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's nice, Pankti. You remind me of Oscar Wilde who said that feeling good and behaving well don't go together.

      Delete
  6. Hawthorne shocked me with these words: "But this had been a sin of passion, not of principle, nor even purpose"
    I could never understand, young and full of lofty principles that I was how a sin of passion cannot infringe on the principles of a person. How can passion be a separate entity? Doesn’t passion arise from the person that you are… that same passion that wrought your principles?
    It took a lot of growing up to understand Hester and the Minister. How “She could no longer borrow from the future to ease her present grief.”
    The Scarlet Letter is a beautiful book. Thank you for bringing back powerful memories and discussions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When I read this novel some 20 years ago I didn't appreciate it as much as I did this time. You're right: it takes some growing up to understand "Scarlet Letter" and the author's philosophy.

      Delete
  7. The very first English novel I read!. In my college( coming from vernacular schooling, it was a lucky introduction to English fiction, which grew over the years). I was very impressed, and the novel never left my memory.

    Reading your review made me like the novel more. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm delighted to have brought you that feeling, Pattu.

      Delete
  8. The 'Scarlet Letter' sounds interesting...Would go and hunt for it tomorrow at the office library..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One of the 19th century classics, it can ennoble you. Best wishes.

      Delete
  9. I will have to catch this book!
    I've nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award here - http://stiryoursouls.blogspot.in/2013/12/lights-camera-versatile-blogger-award.html
    Do have a look! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. After reading this post I will surely like to read this book.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Coming-of-Age Poems

Lubna Shibu Book Review Title: Into the Wandering Multiverse Author: Lubna Shibu Publisher: Book Leaf , 2024 Pages: 23 Poetry serves as a profound medium for self-reflection. It offers a canvas where emotions, thoughts, and experiences are distilled into words. Writing poetry is a dive into the depths of one’s consciousness, exploring facets of the poet’s identity and feelings that are often left unspoken. Poets are introverts by nature, I think. Poetry is their way of encountering other people. I was reading Lubna Shibu’s debut anthology of poems while I had a substitution period in a section of grade eleven today at school. One student asked me if she could have a look at the book as I was moving around ensuring discipline while the students were engaged in their regular academic tasks. I gave her the book telling her that the author was a former student in this very classroom just a few years back. I watched the student reading a few poems with some amusement. Then I ask...

How to preach nonviolence

Like most government institutions in India, the Archaeological Survey of India [ASI] has also become a gigantic joke. The national surveyors of India’s famed antiquity go around finding all sorts of Hindu relics in Muslim mosques. Like a Shiv Ling [Lord Shiva’s penis] which may in reality be a rotting piece of a Mughal fountain. One of the recent discoveries of Modi’s national surveyors is that Sambhal in UP is the birthplace of Kalki, the tenth incarnation of God Vishnu. I haven’t understood yet whether Kalki was born in Sambhal at some time in India’s great antique history or Kalki is going to be born in Sambhal at some time in the imminent future. What I know is that Kalki is the final incarnation of Vishnu that is going to put an end to the present wicked Kali Yuga led by people like Modi Inc. Kalki will begin the next era, Satya Yuga, the Era of Truth. So he is yet to be born. But a year back, in Feb to be precise, Modi laid the foundation stone of a temple dedicated to Kalk...

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

The Life of a Courtesan

  Book Review Title: The Last Courtesan: Writing my mother’s memoir Author: Manish Gaekwad Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2023 Pages: 185 Writing the biography of one’s mother who was a courtesan is not quite a pleasant task. Manish Gaekwad undertakes that arduous task in this book and does a fairly eminent job with it. ‘Courtesan’ may not be quite the exact translation of ‘tawaif,’ which is what Rekha, Gaekwad’s mother, was. A courtesan is essentially a sex worker whose clients are wealthy men. But a tawaif is primarily an artiste, a singer of ghazals as well as a dancer. Sex is part of that job, no doubt. When a woman sings lines like Apna bana le meri jaan / Haye re main tere qurbaan [Make me yours, my love / I am your sacrifice] to a man, sex becomes a natural climax of the show. Rekha is a tawaif. She tells her own story in this book. The author writes the narrative as if his mother is telling him her life’s story. Towards the end of the narrative, Rekha asse...