The Scarlet Letter, A Romance-Novel

ABOUT THE NOVELIST

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was an American novelist, dark romantic and a short story writer whose works predominantly focused on history, morality and religion. 

Hawthorne was born in 1804 at Salem, Massachusetts, in a Puritan family that had migrated to New England in the early seventeenth century. His father was a sea-captain and his mother belonged to an ancient family called the Mannings. He lost his father at a tender age of four and at the age of nine became lame for a while during which he spent most of his time studying books, particularly those of Shakespeare, Spenser and Bunyan.

He was very much interested in studying religion and Christian symbolism is also pronounced in most of his works. He also massively read the annals and old records of New England in order to come to terms with the past.

Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College in Maine at which he befriended many friends most notably Horatio Bridge who helped him in publishing his first collection of stories “Twice Told Tales” (1837) and Franklin Pierce who later became the 14th President of the United States of America and through which Hawthorne managed to get the post of consulship at Liverpool in England.

Hawthorne published his first work of fiction “Fanshawe” in anonymity and at his own expense but never admitted publicly his authorship of the book. Hawthorne led a secluded life at Salem and remained preoccupied by soaking himself in the history of colonial New England.

Hawthorne, first fallen in love later married Sophia Peabody and due to his meagre earnings from writing sought a job in the Custom House at Boston and at Salem to support his family.

He also participated in the experimental communal living at “Brook Farm” in 1841 with his wife but later withdrew realizing the impractical and unrealistic pursuit of a Utopia.

The difficulty of his situation furthers with the sustenance of his family and the endurance of the ill health of his mother who eventually died. It is during this time in which he wrote the novel The Scarlet Letter,  a time when he was deeply depressed and heart-broken. He described the novel as , “a hell-fired story embodying all his pent-up emotions.”

The publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850 brought Hawthorne immediate success but his financial situation remained quite the same.

However, the novel brought Hawthorne widespread recognition and critical acclaim from every source possible with Herman Melville dedicating his magnum opus Moby Dick entirely to Hawthorne, thus showing his deep fascination towards the masterpiece of sin and redemption.

Similarly, Henry James made a pioneer study on Hawthorne as a master of American fiction.

When, Hawthorne, started residing in Concord, the famous colony of writers in New England, he came in contact with the thinkers of Transcendentalism such as Emerson and Thoreau. This school of philosophy laid stress on the divine in Man and in the infinite capacity of man for bettering his self. 

Hawthorne, though was influenced by Transcendentalism but was not a Transcendentalist himself. Evidence of this could be found on the last chapter of The Scarlet Letter when he says, '''we are sinners all alike.''

In 1864 , Hawthorne, died quietly in his sleep and was buried in a grave named “Sleepy Hollow” near his Concord home.

IMPORTANT WORKS 

• Fanshawe (1828) 

• The Scarlet Letter, A Romance (1850) 

• The House of Seven Gables, A Romance (1851) 

• Blithedale Romance (1852) 

• The Marble Faun (1860) 

• Septimus Fellon (1872) 

• The Dolliver Romance (1876) 

• Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret (1883) 

• The Ancestral Footsteps (1883) 

THE SCARLET LETTER AS A ROMANCE-NOVEL 

A romance-novel is a type of fiction in which two other types of fiction namely “Romance” and “Historical- Romance” are fused together. 

Romance

By definition, a romance is a “fictitious narrative in prose or verse whose subject matter is to unravel the incidents which are marvellous and uncommon.”

Historical-romance 

A historical-romance is a type of fiction writing wherein the plot of the story takes place in a setting located in the past. This genre of fiction was popularized by Sir Walter Scott in the early 19th century.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Not A Novelist But A Romancer 

From the very beginning, Hawthorne, has described himself as a romancer than a novelist, a term which is according to Sir Walter Scott are kindred to each other. Hawthorne, however, admired the realistic novel of eighteenth century England in which the incidents are arranged in a systematical order leading to a profound concentration and intensification of meaning. The focus of these novels was on the ordinary life of men and women living in a settled society. Also the characters of them are acted and interacted with each other in such a manner that the conflict of the story was resolved at the end. 

These novels are the embodiment of the confidence and robust optimism of an Age of Reason. 

Apart from the realistic novel of 18th century England, Hawthorne was also influenced by the historical-romance of Sir Walter Scott and consequently wanted to reconstruct the colonial past of New England as authentically as Sir Walter Scott did for Scotland. 

The Scarlett Letter: A Hybrid of Historical-Romance and Realistic Novel 

Despite being immensely influenced by the two types of fiction writing viz. realistic novel and historical romance , Hawthorne, succeeded in developing a new form of fiction writing namely “romance novel” which became a native tradition of American fiction thereafter. 

Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter is different from a realistic novel such that, unlike a realistic novel which was preoccupied with manners of various groups in a largely settled society and with the ultimate achievement of success, in The Scarlet Letter, however, Hawthorne was preoccupied with the struggle of good and evil in the protagonist’s soul in a strange continent where wilderness is much larger than the settlements.

In such an unsettled continent the protagonist could feel nothing but utterly alienated and had an overwhelming sense of endurance of the unfolding of the drama of sin and redemption, alone.

Similarly, Hawthorne’s romance is different from Scott’s historical romance in such that while Scott’s focus was primarily upon glorifying and celebrating the past and the protagonist, Hawthorne’s attitude towards the New England puritanism was both critical and sarcastic.

Hawthorne, examined trenchantly the myopia, intolerance and cruelty of the puritans in the mid-seventeenth century New England through his major protagonists who are forced to live in alienation, away from the community of the early settlers in Boston. 

The Scarlet Letter, A Romance: Wherein Actual and Imaginary are Dovetailed

As a romance-novel ,Hawthorne’s ,The Scarlet Letter, ends with gloom and despair. There is no happy resolution of the conflict and the major characters live in a dark and cheerless world.

In the novel, the extraordinary, marvelous and the strange experiences are vividly pictured. The supernatural and mysterious elements creates a kind of awe and grandeur to the sombre tale. 

Similarly, the protagonist are more than realistic and lifelike. They are larger than life and embody certain states of mind. For instance while Dimmesdale represents the repentant sinner, Chillingworth stands for the unrepentant sinner. 

Hawthorne, by and large, was able to create through his dark brooding imagination, “a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairyland, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other.” 

As a romancer, Hawthorne, was able to encompass both the Actual and the Imaginary in his narrative. While the Actual is transformed into something strange and dreamlike, the Imaginary is made concrete through symbols. 

For instance them scarlet letter “A” fixed on the bosom of Hester Pryne which becomes a sacred object, a signifier of the life and destiny of a sinful woman in Puritan-dominated New England.

Conclusion

It is in this way that Hawthorne, inspired by both the realistic novel of 18th century England and the historical romance developed by Sir Walter Scott, established the native tradition of American fiction in which both reality and romance, the ordinary and the marvelous, the natural and the supernatural are artistically fused. And this form of American fiction is being described as a romance-novel.