Not-So Easy A

            When I first saw that The Scarlet Letter was on our reading list, I have to admit I was a little excited. Was I excited because it’s an American classic? Was I excited to delve into the challenging language of Hawthorne? Well, not exactly. I was excited because of The Scarlet Letter’s connection to one of my all-time favorite movies, Easy A.

            If you haven’t seen Easy A, I’ll give you a little plot summary (then you should go find it online ASAP). Easy A is about a typical high school girl named Olive. Like us, Olive is reading The Scarlet Letter in her English class. Unlike us, Olive lies about losing her virginity (even though she was actually just singing "Pocket Full of Sunshine" in her shower all weekend). 

          

Soon, the rumor spreads like wildfire, upsetting the conservative Christian group in her school. Eventually, Olive’s little white lie spirals into a more elaborate one. She finds herself lying on behalf of bullied students, saying that she slept with them to help them gain popularity. Her reputation goes from bad to worse. Olive embraces this initially—she even embroiders a scarlet A on her chest—but soon, things begin to go awry. Olive is left friendless, and she has hurt many of the people closest to her. In order to resolve her complicated dilemma, Olive comes clean to the entire school on a webcast.

            Although these two stories seem to have very little in common, I could definitely draw some similarities between the two. Despite their vastly different circumstances, Olive and Dimmesdale have similar justifications for lying about their transgressions. Olive genuinely believes that she is helping her bullied classmates by spreading these false claims. Likewise, Dimmesdale might see his actions as a way to protect his people. He seems to think in accordance with the Parson from the Canterbury Tales: “If gold rust, what then will iron do?” If Dimmesdale, the venerable minister, were to be revealed as corrupt, what would that mean for the general populace?

I found another interesting similarity between these two very loosely connected works in the conclusion. Much like Olive, Reverend Dimmesdale also has an important catharsis (granted, Olive doesn’t die after hers, but it’s the same idea). In his last sermon, Dimmesdale admits to his wrongdoing and deceit of the past seven years. “Is not this better…than what we dreamed of in the forest?” he asks Hester (227). Truthfulness is a final release for Dimmesdale, the only possible conclusion to his tragic story. Honesty frees him from torture, much as it releases Olive from her predicament. Once Dimmesdale owns up to his sins, Chillingworth loses all his power. To bring back the “leech” metaphor from a previous chapter, Chillingworth is basically a varmint thriving off the blood of Dimmesdale’s own guilt. “Thou hast escaped me!” he exclaims repeatedly (228). As soon as Dimmesdale confesses, Chillingworth is left without his source of life. Finally, Dimmesdale is free from his torture, “a spell was broken” (229). This refreshing truthfulness frees Pearl as well, her “errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled” (229). And just like Dimmesdale, Olive is freed by her confession as well. Perhaps she finished the book and learned her lesson. 

Secrets

Reading Chapters 18-20, the one thing that really stood out for me was the brook. The brook serves as a symbol of a heart that has been overwhelmed with secrets and can no longer keep them. Hawthorne describes the brook as having “gone through so solemn an experience that it could not help but talking about it.” While in the woods, Pearl notices the babble of the brook and even wonders what it is saying. “What does this sad little brook say, mother?” The brook is where Hester and Dimmesdale openly discuss their secrets, and so the brook becomes the keeper of their secrets. In a way, the brook symbolizes Dimmesdale’s heart and how it has become so damaged by the secrets and sins that he hides from the world.  The difference between the brook and Dimmesdale is that the brook is honest and reveals the truth as it is. Hawthorne describes the brook as flowing “over a bed of fallen and drowned leaves,” having huge rocks that “covered over with gray lichens,” and even having “eddies and black depths at some point.” Dimmesdale, on the other hand, shields his secrets in his sermons to the townspeople. The Puritans, however, are unable to recognize what Dimmesdale is hiding. Therefore, the brook acts as a contrast to Dimmesdale’s heart and also portrays a barrier that exists between the recognizable and unrecognizable.

So here is a little poem I wrote about the secrets that Dimmesdale keeps:

Roots lingered underneath

glossed with grime

Unable to breathe

Unable to climb

Above the murky mess

perched a fine flower

an unwrinkled dress

an unpolluted river

But a curious fellow

saw in the flower something sly

so he dug below

and unveiled a lie

Too Good To Be True?

            As I read chapters 18 to 20, I felt that there was something amiss. All seemed well– Hester no longer bore her Scarlet A, Dimmesdale and Hester had been reunited, and they had plans for a new life. However, I feel as if Hester and Arthur have both changed drastically from when they first met each other. What caused me to think about this was their apparent change back into their old selves. Hester let down her hair and let a smile creep upon her face once more and Dimmesdale went skipping around town eventually bursting with new inspiration for a sermon. But we see Dimmesdale also being drawn back into the darker side of life as he exchanges words with the Mistress and desires to teach young children bad words. This is not the esteemed and pious Dimmesdale that was first described to us.

           Additionally, Hester has gone through tremulous times. Even though she no longer bears her scarlet A, that does not mean she is changed back to her previous self. At one point the narrator describes her as"… her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, —stern and wild ones, —and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss"(180). She is strong indeed but her growth has come out of the shunning from the towns people, and such solitude and impudence does not come without any effect on someone. Hester is no longer fit to the structured and free-loving family life. It is something she has never experienced and is almost the opposite from how she has lived the past 7 years. Then there is Chillingworth. We know if he gets wind of this plan that he will do everything is his power to exact his revenge on the two since he just cannot move on with his life.

           I am having a hard time accepting that all is going to be well. Especially since Hawthorne seems to have an affection for the destructive and darker aspects of a novel. The characters in this novel have a tendency to fall into sin rather than morality. However bizarre this change of events has been it has only made me more intrigued with the outcome of the novel. Will Hester and Dimmesdale have this happily ever after?

Back to Brook

Mrs. Lemon told us the brook would flow back into our reading, so I was prepared. I was not disappointed with what the brook had to offer this time around.

The brook first made its reappearance in chapter 18 when Hester rips off that scarlet letter and neary throws it into the brook. You go girl. Things are looking up until we get to chapter 19, when the family reunion between Pearl, Hester, and Dimmesdale doesn't go quite as planned.

Hester assures Dimmesdale that Pearl will be overjoyed to see him, saying "She loves me, and will love thee" (Hawthorne 186). As is often the case with children, Pearl does the polar opposite of what her mother needs for her to do. Rather than cross the brook into the arms of her awaiting mother and father, Pearl begins to shriek and have what the Gibson family would refer to as a "total come-apart." Dimmesdale immediately the significance of the child being on the opposite bank of the brook: "I have a strange fancy, that this brook is the boundary between two worlds, and that thou canst never meet thy Pearl again" (Hawthorne 187-88). This line from Dimmesdale felt very ominous, and it left me wondering if this family will ever have a happy ever after. Hester soon sees the real reason for Pearl's tantrum-- the scarlet letter. Although Hester cast off the letter and decided to breathe the free air, she realizes that "Pearl misses something which she has always seen me wear" (189). Hester puts back on her emblem of torture, and little Pearl is appeased. I can only imagine how uncomfortable this whole scene was for the dear Reverend Dimmesdale.

Although the brook comes close to sweeping away the scarlet letter along with the pain that Dimmesdale and Hester have felt for seven years, it remains as a divide between the two. Hester must cross back over the brook, from the natural world of happiness in the forest with Dimmesdale to the strict moral standards of Puritan society. Dimmesdale too has not yet escaped the clutches of Puritan society, and the happy(ish) family decides to wait a few days before boarding a ship bound for Europe.

These chapters confused left me with more than a few lingering questions. Will Hester and Dimmesdale have their happily ever after? Is Pearl human? Will Chillingworth expose Dimmesdale before he and Hester leave town? What on earth is Dimmesdale going to say in his newly written election sermon?

We'll see which way the brook decides to flow.

Improbable

         In reflecting on chapters 18-20, I decided to write a found  poem on the last few pages of chapter 18. Why? Because during this chapter I felt like I wasn’t reading the same book anymore. The happiness of the Hester and Dimmesdale was completely uncharacteristic, and it seemed as if I was reading a fairytale. This made their happy moment seem surreal and overly dramatic. In fact, this chapter was so much like a fairytale that animals were interacting with Pearl while she had flowers in her hair. “A partridge, indeed, with a brood of ten behind her, ran forward threateningly, but soon repented of her fierceness, and clucked to her young ones not to be afraid” (184). When reading these descriptions of nature and of Pearl, this was the image that immediately appeared in my mind:

Now we are left to ask just how realistic this scene was. Will Hester and Dimmesdale really get their happy ending?

I will leave us with a found poem that I created from the end of chapter 18.

Improbable 

Love must always create sunshine.

She will love thee dearly,

Pearl! Pearl!

Yonder she is,

A streak of sunshine,

A bright-apparelled vision,

Splendor.

Adorn thyself, beautiful child.

Flowers decorated her hair.

A pigeon uttered a sound.

A fox looked inquisitively.

A wolf offered his savage head.

But here the tale has surely lapsed

Into the improbable.

Roger Needs to Put the "Chill" in Chillingworth

How heavy does a secret lay on a man's soul? That seems to be the real question, as we encounter both Chillingworth and Dimmesdale in these chapters. Both are being turned into something else as they sequester their secrets from the world. Does a guilty conscience or a hidden part of you really change your outward appearance?

From Dimmesdale's entrance into the forest, we can see that he is not the man he used to be. Hester describes him as, "haggard and feeble, and [betraying] a nervous despondency in his air..." (Hawthorne 170). He seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders, but is it his Reverend-ly duties or the power of the secret he holds that causes this change? It reminds me of a part of Egyptian mythology: in the Underworld, judgment is determined by the weight of your heart. The more bad things you have done, the heavier your heart is. If your heart is heavier than what sits on the other side of the scale, the Feather of Truth, then a monster of the Egyptian afterlife named Ammit eats your heart and you are doomed to the Egyptian equivalent of purgatory forever. No wonder Dimmesdale seems so terrified and weak--if he believed in that Egyptian afterlife, he would dread his judgment day for fear Ammit would eat his heart.

Now, Roger Chillingworth. This is where it gets interesting. At the beginning, he doesn't seem like a super sinful guy. I get it, while you were away, your wife cheated on you (in her defense, she thought you were dead, but I digress). But as the chapters roll on with Chillingworth, he is revealed as a bad person. He is even described as morphing into a figure of the devil himself, he is so eaten up with hate inside. He holds two secrets: that he is actually Hester's husband, and that Dimmesdale is the man Hester had the affair with. Chillingworth is so eaten up with hatred and these secrets that he doesn't even seem human anymore. Every time we see him, his anger gets worse and worse until he becomes the epitome of darkness in this small Puritan town. And one of these secrets isn't even his! Still, he continues to hide it, and for what purpose? To torture his wife and her lover even more than he already has. Relax, Chillingworth. You're only burying yourself under the weight of sins in your soul. But he believes it is what was in root all along, not a choice he is making. If he can't let go of this anger and need for revenge, it will eat at him until he goes full monster, or disappears all together.

So the answer to the question is: heavy. Very heavy.

The Dark Forest

I have a confession. If I'm being honest, Nathaniel Hawthorne trips me up sometimes. The language, the seemingly never-ending descriptions. But hey, you do you, Nate (whether I understand or not). Despite my frustration and having to read certain passages twice, I attempted to make some sense of it.

In chapters 14-17, I took note of Hawthorne's intentionality in using nature as a dominant force. Despite standing in stark contrast to Puritan society, nature provides us with an important understanding of deeper meanings and underlying issues in the novel. Nature seems to express the mood of each scene and the emotions of the characters. For example, in chapter 16 Hester enters into the nearby forest with her daughter, Pearl. The child explains that the sunshine runs from her mother, and this noted observation is oddly similar to the townspeople's attitudes and actions regarding Hester and her "unforgivable sin." Throughout literature and The Scarlet Letter in particular, light often symbolizes truth. Thus, we are lead to believe Hester finds the forest so familiar and strangely comforting because she is avoiding or hiding the truth altogether - whether it is from Dimmesdale or herself. While the dark forest symbolizes the sinful wickedness of Hester's past, Pearl - the light of Hester's life - mirrors innocence by catching a sliver of light upon her small frame. Along with this idea, the forest permits sin and earthly troubles to blossom, and this same idea reflects Hester's new, yet aged mood.

As nature is both unpredictable and ever-changing, the forest gives Hester a newness of life upon discussing her consecrated love affair with Dimmesdale. It seems to me that despite such unpredictability, nature proves to be a place of acceptance for Hester - a feeling she has not been exposed to for quite some time. Seeing as the forest is secluded from the rigidity of Puritan society, Hester and Dimmesdale are finally able to have the chat they should have had a long time ago. Like maybe when Hester's pregnancy wasn't national news. They discuss plans to flee to Europe as a family. I know. Even the demon-child is invited to tag along with the "once lovers." (Quick side note. Since when were Hester and Dimmesdale a thing again? Hope that goes well for the squad.)

Essentially, nature is a manifestation of the wide array of feelings our friends like Hester and Dimmesdale experience and their associated moods. After all, the forest is home to the Black Man, but it is also a place of utter liberation for Hester. The forest represents a natural world while the village in which it encloses emphasizes strict law. One of the reasons why I appreciate Hawthorne so much is his ability to change the meaning of a previous idea or setting. Nature has the ability to mean anything and everything - especially for Hester, a woman who has face quite the whirlwind of experiences and oppression throughout her own life. Shoutout to Nathaniel.

I'll leave my fellow readers with a found poem from last night's reading. The poem expresses the darker role nature plays within the novel, a slight glimpse into the character's (primarily Hester but a dash of Pearl too) thoughts regarding nature, and the overall setting. So here it goes.

Onward into the mystery of the primeval forest
Stood so black and dense,
Chill and sombre,
A gray expanse of cloud
Slightly stirred by a breeze.
A gleam of flickering sunshine
Seen along the path.
The sunshine does not love you.
Let me run and catch it.
The sunshine vanished.
Thou meetest him at midnight.
Here in the dark wood.
Scenes shadowed as heavily with gloom.
But she danced and sparkled,
Putting aside the branches.
Through the trees,
Some very mournful mystery had departed
In the intense seclusion of the forest.
Relieved from the gray twilight,
The clouded sky,
And the heavy foliage.
His pathway through life was haunted,
Chill as death.
No golden light had ever been so precious
As the gloom of this dark forest.