Duality In Richard Chase's 'The Scarlet Letter'

Improved Essays
In Richard Chase’s “The Ambiguity of The Scarlet Letter,” he suggests that The Scarlet Letter is ambiguous and unclear, drawing upon the duality of Hawthorne's life and writing to defend this. He also argues that the novel bears both a feministic theme and an anti-feministic Puritan theme. Lastly, he states that the novel serves as an allegory to Puritan society and to the Mechanistic struggle, which is the fight for dominance between Absolute Good and Absolute Evil. Chase argues that The Scarlet Letter is like a picture, consisting of dramatic and unconnected scenes, which “seem frozen, muted, and remote” (Chase 146). He explains the novel is operatic, as its events consist of the same characters in seemingly insignificant locations, over a period of several years and with little transition between. Moreover, he states that The Scarlet Letter mirrors Hawthorne's own life, citing Malcolm Cowley, an American poet and literary critic, to make this connection: “Cowley traces it to Hawthorne's sense of 'doubleness,' the result of a certain strain of narcissism and the long seclusion of Hawthorne's youth and young manhood. Temperamentally, as Cowley says, Hawthorne was paradoxically 'cold and sensual, sluggish and active, radical and conservative’” (qtd. in “Ambiguity” 146). Here, Chase explains that The Scarlet Letter is ambiguous due to the dichotomy of Hawthorne’s life. For example, the scarlet letter A is originally thought to mean adultery, although the author does not explicitly mention this in the novel. As the story progresses, it inherits more interpretations, such as in “Another View of Hester” when the narrator states, “[M]any people refused to take the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 177). Later, its meaning changes again to “angel” when the Bostonians see a meteor pass overhead and interpret it as a sign that their recently deceased governor has reached heaven. Chase again shows vagueness of The Scarlet Letter when explaining the novel’s feministic theme. …show more content…
He states that Hester’s thoughts and actions violate the Puritan principals that govern life for the Bostonians, saying that “Hester becomes a radical. She believes that sometime ‘a new truth’ will be revealed and that ‘the whole relation between man and woman’ will be established ‘on a surer ground of mutual happiness’” (147). He explains that Hester believes sexism will be removed from society in the future, supporting this assertion by showing that feministic traits are displayed in Hester’s thoughts. In contrast, the novel also displays anti-feministic beliefs. For instance, the narrator describes the women outside the prison: “Morally, as well as materially, there was a coarser fibre [sic] in those wives and maidens of old English birth and breeding than in their fair descendants … for, throughout that chain of ancestry, every successive mother had transmitted to her child a fainter bloom, a more delicate and briefer beauty, and a slighter physical frame” (Hawthorne 57). This contradicts the novel’s feministic theme, as Hawthorne compares the women of the novel to the women of the 1800s were “more delicate” than their ancestors. The opposing themes of feminism and anti-feminism further exemplify the ambiguity of The Scarlet Letter. In his essay, Chase cites the poet and critic, Yvon Winters, to support his argument of the novel’s ambiguity. Winters states that The Scarlet Letter is a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    F. O. Matthiessen argues that Hawthorne’s use of symbolism developed differences in people’s interpretations of the symbols. Matthiessen described it as “the device of multiple choice” meaning the reader can choose, based on his interpretation, what the symbol means to them. According to Matthiessen Hawthorne does not fully explain any of the symbols in The Scarlet Letter, he only leaves vague clues which lead the reader to interpret the symbol on their own. Therefore, many theories about the actual meaning arise and “with that Hawthorne leaves the reader to choose among these theories.” Moreover, Hawthorne himself does not accept his allegory even though he still finds it valid due to its psychological exactness.…

    • 135 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Arjun Srivatsa Chad Hayden 12 October 2015 The Scarlet Letter Essay (2015 FRQ 3) The Scarlet Letter is a novel centered on contrasts. Contrasts between outward reputation and inner guilt, puritanical law and true sin, and intentions and actions, create a dynamic of hypocrisy, a hypocrisy that infects and slowly debilitates all those involved. Specifically, acts of cruelty are used as vehicles through which Hawthorne delivers his indictment of duplicity and hypocrisy.…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Concrete of Ambiguity Making judgements is an inherent part of human nature. We are programmed into making assumptions, our minds riddled with stereotypes and ideas as to what arbitrary things have to say about someone. But as society grows and evolves, as does the way it conditions use, and as we ourselves grow, so do the ways that we perceive things, and add our own experience to that which society has taught us. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the ways in which individual characters, along with the mob mentality of society as a whole, give a power to the objectively meaningless concrete of the scarlet letter, transforming it into an abstract vehicle that is able to define subjective truths about Hester. Hawthorne…

    • 1862 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In Emily Budick’s “Hester’s Skepticism, Hawthorne’s Faith; or, What does a Woman Doubt? Instituting the American Romance Tradition”, she discusses how Hawthorne created the American romance tradition in The Scarlet Letter by breaking down Puritanical control of society through the unknown lineage of Pearl. She states, “In Hawthornean romance, doubt is the condition of our lives in this world. Faith is the willingness to entertain and keep alive our skepticism alongside our commitment to thinking and acting determinately” (Budick 84). Budick claims that due to the indeterminate and changing nature of the answers to both the question of Whose child is Pearl? and What does the letter mean?…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Mysterious Being! The first chapter of “The Scarlet Letter” sets in motion the rest of the story in a few aspects including; the setting, an imagined world, and hidden in the text, is Mother Nature. Something that one may overlook throughout simple daily life is the gift, protection, and unforgiveable powers of nature.…

    • 1781 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The young women’s tone is much gentler and softer rather than the ladies insisting a harsher punishment. This supports the narrators previous description of the women of older generations being harsh and firm than the contemporaries of Hawthorne who developed to be quite the opposite. Altogether, Hawthorne uses his diction in his comparison between women of two different generations to directly characterize the women in the crowd of the beginning of chapter two in The Scarlet…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By stepping back to the macro level, there is always two folds to a situation. The Scarlet Letter, a classic American novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne that was published in 1850, explores this idea of duality. It is a culmination of the experiences of Hawthorne's life, who grew up in a household steadfast to the Puritan predominant beliefs of being sinless, pure and divine; although fallacious, these were the underpinnings of the Puritan society back in the 16th and 17th centuries. In The Scarlet Letter, we delve into the world of Hester Prynne - the protagonist of the story - and explore the Puritan society of Boston, Massachusetts in the middle of the 17th century. The story develops with Hester, a woman who has committed a grave sin, and is…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    This symbolism also reveals the theme of appearance versus reality as a way to accentuate the symbolism of the character’s names. Hawthorne also gives these names to his characters in order to develop the symbolism of other scenes in The Scarlet Letter. As a result, many interpretations of the scenes and plot are provided to illustrate the difference between the points of views present in the novel. Each major character’s name in Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter presents various ideas that contribute to the overall understanding of the symbols and…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hester had to go through the problems of living in a strict Puritan patriarchy society. She proved her peers wrong by living her life like a saint and raising her daughter Pearl to become a successful, bright woman. At every choice Hester made, she stood by them and acted on what she thought what was best instead of being controlled by others. The novel portrays a feminist story because it highlights a woman who lives life against all…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The puritan worldview is taken up sternly by Hawthorne in the scarlet letter because he emphasized on the gender inequality through society’s reaction to the sin that Hester and Dimmesdale committed. Hester committed an adulterous act with…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Richard Chase argues that Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is to be taken as a work of fiction or a myth of sorts, and not as a social commentary on political issues. Chase thoroughly describes the allegorical symbols in the novel and considers it as an “artview of the world”, but still touches on the political problems discussed in Hawthorne’s book. He agrees that “...there are elements of social comment in The Scarlet Letter...” like feminism for example.…

    • 144 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Gabriel Kocer SLEssay English 11 Period 4 16 November 2017 Wilted Roses A rose, begins its life growing to be a beautiful and vibrant flower pleasing to the eye. As the rose grows older and loses the sunlight, it darkens and its petals begin to fall. During everyone’s life we are seen as both fazes of the rose, there are moments in our life where we do good and are seen as the striking rose, but there are also times in our lives where we sin and fall short of greatness appearing as the darker and less attractive rose. The setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter begins in the Puritanical 17th century in Boston, where Hester Prynne, the protagonist, is our focus for the adultery she has committed.…

    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The perceived righteousness or reprehensibility of adultery by an individual subsists where that individual chooses to comply or dissent from the ubiquity of society. The perception of morals proffered in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is “shadowed forth,” as is stated in the words of one of Hawthorne’s contemporaries. (“Review of ‘The Scarlet Letter”’) In the novel, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale battle the respective shame and guilt imposed by a judgmental Puritanical society and an evil doctor and former acquaintance of Hester, Roger Chillingworth.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the echo of the American identity individualism can be considered as one of the loudest componets. However that was not always the case. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter the division between the community and the individualism is discernible. In this essay I will explain how the puritan society contrasts with the main heroine’s personality and how the two characters who sinned differ in the path they took upon.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hester is now no longer looked upon as an equal Puritan woman. People began judging Hester, and they make her a social outcast for the crime she commits. At the end of the novel, Hester is talking to the counsel, and the book states, “She assured them, too, of her firm belief, that, at some brighter period, when the world should have grown ripe for it, in Heaven 's own time, a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness" (Hawthorne 239). Feminism stands up for women who are treated unequally such as Hester was in her own society. Hester knows that society is unfair, but she is hopeful that the world will change one…

    • 1067 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays