"Depravity Dressed up in a Fascinating Garb": Sentimental Motifs and the Seduced Hero(ine) in The Scarlet Letter Author(s): Erika

M. Kreger Reviewed work(s): Source: Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Dec., 1999), pp. 308-335 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2903143 . Accessed: 29/03/2012 18:11
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"Depravity Dressed Up in a Fascinating Garb": Sentimental Motifs and the Seduced Hero (ine) in TheScarlet Letter
ERIKA M. KREGER

of impulse,regardless all moraltruths whichcontainthegeneralized experience of the race."' In TheScarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthornehad givenreviewers whatthey wanted:a book that and encouraged self-restraint adherence to conventionalcomvalues and yetdid not directly munity addressreaderswithindidactic remarks.His ambiguously narratedromance trusive, struckthe difficult balance needed to please mid-nineteenthcommentators century who,thoughtheyjudgeda novel'sworth condemned authorswho made by itsmoral code, increasingly thatmoralexplicit.
of (C 1999 byThe Regentsof the University California I Rev. of TheBlithedale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne,Graham Magazine,41 by '

ethics .

J HE mostmoralbook oftheage," Graham's Magazine dubbed The ScarletLetter (1 850) in a September 185!2reviewof TheBlithedale Romance. The reviewer wenton to assertthatthe earliernovelwas "especially valuable as demonstrating superficiality thatcode of the of
.

. which teaches obedience to individual instinct and

(1852), 333-34. This review, along withmanyotherscited in thisessay,is quoted in Nina Baym,Novels, Readers,and Reviewers: Responses Fictionin Antebellum to America (Ithaca: Cornell Univ.Press,1984).

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When we place TheScarlet Letter the contextof the literin arydebates of the 1840s and 1850s, it becomes apparent that Hawthorne'snovel inhabitsa conventionalmoralpositionthat affiliates with,ratherthan distinguishes from,the bestit it sellingdomesticnovels of the era. Such a reading-although it clearlybreakswiththe long criticaltradition lauding the of "radical" characterization Hester Prynneand placing The of Scarlet Letter a canonicalpedestalabove otherearly-American on works-builds upon recentcritical discussionsthathave made a convincingcase for the novel's conservative relationshipto nineteenth-century social politics,and have demonstrated the value of positioning Hawthorne's workalongside "popular"antebellumwriting.2 In The Scarlet Letter Hawthornecarefully guides his audience to the "right" ethicalconclusion throughhis depictionAll both physicaland emotional- of his centralcharacters. of these characterizations underscorethe narrative's conservative lesson about the need forself-denial and social responsibility; the portrayal ReverendDimmesdale, however, of would have had particular forceas a cautionary tale forHawthorne'sconin When we consider TheScarlet Letter relationto temporaries. antebellumdiscussionsof fictionthatcontrastedoutdated seduction stories withworthy "new"novels,it becomes clear that
2 For an extensivebibliography Letter, Jamie see of feminist work on The Scarlet and the ScarletMob of Scribblers," Barlowe,"RereadingWomen: Hester Prynne-ism American Literary History, (1997), 197-225. Barlowe notes thatmanyfemale critics 9 nonradical relationship [Hester Prynne]and to the to have argued for "Hawthorne's have offered feminist issuesof the time" (p. 21 1). I would add thatsome male critics of Letter" similarreadings,most notablySacvan Bercovitch(see The Office "TheScarlet to [Baltimore: JohnsHopkins Univ. Press, 1991]). On Hawthorne'ssimilarity women the 2 writers his era, see Baym,"Rewriting Scribbling of Women,"Legacy, (1985), 11; Revolution theWord of Modernism: Women Writers the and and Suzanne Clark,Sentimental (Bloomingtonand Indianapolis:Indiana Univ.Press,1991), p. 26. For broaderdiscussions of Hawthorne'sconnections to popular literature, see Richard H. Brodhead, America (Chicago: in Cultures Letters: Scenes Readingand Writing Nineteenthof Century of Univ.of Chicago Press, 1993); RobertK. Martin,"HesterPrynne,CestMoi: Nathaniel Hawthorneand the Anxietiesof Gender," in Engendering Men: The Question Male of Feminist ed. Criticism, Joseph A. Boone and Michael Cadden (New York: Routledge, 1990), pp. 122-39; and Mona Scheuermann,"The AmericanNovel of Seduction:An in Letter," The Nathaniel Explanation of the Omission of the Sex Act in The Scarlet Hawthorne Journal, 1978, ed. C. E. Frazer Clark,Jr.,et. al. (Detroit: Gale Research, 1984), pp. 105-18.

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the Dimmesdale exemplifies sociallyunacceptable qualitiesaswhileHester embodies the sociatedwiththe earliernarratives, ideal developed in thelaterones. The youngminister's cultural link him to the weak heroines and and hypocrisy passivity novels repeatedly deceptivevillainsof the eighteenth-century Warpublic commentary. condemned and ridiculedin pre-Civil possesses the strength, Hawthorne's"fallenwoman,"however, to and positiveinfluenceattributed the heroines selflessness, housekeepersof ofdomesticnovels (as wellas to theexemplary In century. thisessayI hope to conductbooks) in thenineteenth the pair was created and clarify contextin which this "sinful" examiningthe antebellumdiscourseon moreceived,by first betweeneighthen distinguishing rality and gender in fiction, and finally novel conventions, teenth-and nineteenth-century Hawthorne'sdepictionofArthur Dimmesdale and positioning HesterPrynne characters from "sentimenthe alongsidesimilar and domesticfiction. tal"genresof seductionnarrative In order to place The Scarlet Letter its correctliterary in we context, should note thatHawthornederivedhis plot from American adaptations of the novel of seduction. This genre British novelswhereinthe originatedwitheighteenth-century seduction either does not happen (as in Frances Burney's Evelina[1778]) or is long delayed (as in Samuel Richardson's focus by placing the seductionearlyin the tale and narrative then exploringitsconsequences. Numerouspopular novelsof the early national period, such as William Hill Brown's The
Clarissa [1747-48]). American authors, however, shifted the

ratherthan the causes, of the heroine's fall.As Mona results, Letter's Hawthornehas takenTheScarlet Scheuermannsuggests, structure-illicitsex earlyin the novel followedby "particular examination of the attendantpsychologicalimplicationsfor Yet Hawthorne is not simplytaking part in a continuhe ing Americantradition; is, rather,choosing to employselected elements of plot and characterfroma formthat had
the participants (pp. 106-7).
. . .

Power of Sympathy (1789), Susanna Rowson's CharlotteTemple (1794), and Hannah Foster's The Coquette(1797), all chart the

from his own American forbears"

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fallenout of favor. Helen WaitePapashvily, Following CathyN. Davidson pointsout that"after approximately 1818, the seducin tionplotvirtually disappears"from novelswritten the United States,"and,withthe graphicexceptionof TheScarlet the Letter, in 'fallen woman' does not figureprominently the design of nineteenth-century Americanfiction."3 Readers,of course,remained familiar witheighteenth-century seductiontales;in the mid 185os Charlotte Templewas a popularclassicat thecheap "still book-stallsand with travellingchapmen."4 Yet nineteenthcenturyreviewers and novelistsregularly expressed theirdisapproval of such melodramas, which portrayedwomen as gullible victims.Certain conventionalimages associated with eighteenth-century novels,therefore, would be likelyto conin and moral laxity the jure up negativenotionsof selfishness mindsof readers.Hawthorne's in TheScarlet use Letter motifs of from the novel of seduction,whetherconscious or unconscious,encouragesreadersto condemnDimmesdale'shypocrisy ratherthan sympathize 'withhis sufferings, therebyreinforcing the novel's conservative moral. In both body and mind, Hawthorne'shapless minister the patternof the physically fits drooping,ethically weak,seduced heroine whom mid-century of discussions fiction taughtaudiences to disparage. When examiningHawthorne'suse of iconography associated withthe seduced heroine,however, should beware of we of judging such a characterization just anothersymptom his as for d mob of scribbling women"writers antipathy the "d of his own era.5 Such a conclusion conflatesthe eighteenthdomesnovel of seductionand the nineteenth-century century ticnovel,twodistinct forms thatmoderncritics oftengroup to3 Davidson,Revolution the and Word: Riseofthe The Novel America in (NewYork:Oxford Univ.Press,1986), p. 135. 4 EvertA. Duyckinck and George L. Duyckinck, Cyclopedia American of Literature, Embracing Personal Critical and Notices Authors, Selections Their of and from Writings, the from Earliest Period the to Present Day. . . , 2 vols. (New York:CharlesScribner,1856), I, 502. 5 On the problematics of modern critics'relentless quotation of thesewords,see p. Baym,"Rewriting," 4. Hawthorne'sphrase originally appeared in a 19 January 1855 1 to letter his publisher, ed. WilliamD. Ticknor(see Hawthorne, Letters,853-I856, The Thomas Woodson, et al., vol. 17 of The Centenary Editionof the Works Nathaniel of Hawthorne [Columbus:Ohio StateUniv.Press,1987], p. 304).

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getherin the single,ill-defined, much-maligned yet category of "sentimental" fiction.6 Twentieth-century readers,taughtto workin oppositionto thewriting his conplace Hawthorne's of temporaries, have not alwaysobserved that The Scarlet Letter sharesa commonmoralframework pattern imagery and of with manyworksbyantebellumfemalenovelists. Like thesewomen Hawthorneuses his charactersto emphasize the dewriters, structive consequences of allowingpersonal desire to overrule law. community This ethical standpointreflects social values most ofthe tenadvocatedin the antebellumpublic discourseabout fiction. As the 1852 Graham's reviewer Hawthorne'scontemindicates, Letter a corrective as to porarieswere likelyto view TheScarlet calls the damaging individualistic "code of what the reviewer ethics"that was "predominant theFrenchschool ofromance" in (p. 3 33). The Grahams reviewerjudged The ScarletLetter, with itsunequivocalpunishment sexual transgression, be supeof to rior to the kindsof Frenchbooks thata Peterson's Magazinerehad earlierdenounced as "covertly "7 viewer injuriousto morals. of Reviewers repeatedlycomplained of the cheap translations European fiction thatdominatedtheUnitedStatesbook market in the 1840s. VictorHugo was rankedamong theworst offendReview ers; his novels,theAmerican proclaimedin March 1846, show"thewhole foundations the social system of uprootedand In overturned."8 contrast, March 1850 reviewin the Literary a voiced itsapprovalof TheScarlet a World Letter, book thatappar"Then forthe ently keptsociety's ethicalstructure right-side-up: moral.Though severe,it is wholesome."9
see use and negativeconnotationsof the term"sentimental," On the ahistorical A in by Fiction: GuidetoNovels and aboutWomen Clark,p. 2o; and Nina Baym,Woman' America,820-70, 2d ed. (Urbana and Chicago: Univ.of IllinoisPress,1993), p. xxix. I 7 "Review New Books,"Peterson' of Magazine,10 (1846), 179. 8 "RecentFrenchNovelists," American 3 Reviezv, (1846), 239. 9 Rev. of The Scarlet World, Letter: Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne,Literary A by but Letter garnergood reviews, it also sold well. 6 (1850), 324. Not onlydid TheScarlet Englishand As Susan Gearypointsout, between 1849 and 1858, "ofthe twenty-three Americannovels [thatTicknorand Fields] published .. ., only twomade it over the Letter) and in the 185os,editorsconsidered "; 10,000 mark(one ofwhichwas theScarlet "a book thatsold bythetensof thousands"to be a bestseller ("The DomesticNovel as a of Bibliographical CommercialCommodity: Makinga Best Seller in the 1850s,"Papers the Letter The qualifiesas a Society ofAmerica, [1976], 368, 370). Bythisdefinition, Scarlet 70
6

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Such severemoralsappealed toreviewers assumedthat who the main audience forfiction femaleand who deemed dewas pictions of social rebellion particularly dangerous. These reviewersexpressed theiranxietiesin complaints-such as the in one made by a Knickerbocker Magazine contributor February 1839-that "depravity dressedup in a fascinating garb ... constitutes greatestobjection to books otherwisedelightthe ful and useful."'10 a Similarly, North American Reviewwriter's rantuses imagery fearsthat"immoral" reflecting fiction might feminizemen and corruptwomen: "After readingone of Bulwer's novels,we have a feelingthat mankindis composed of scoundrelsand sentimentalists,11 that the world is effete. and and seduction are gracefully adorned in alluringsentiments, 12 and saunter, witha mincing gait,to thepitthatis bottomless." like Bulwer-Lytton Accordingto thisreviewer, novelist a who did not adequatelypunishcharacters engaged in sexually illicit behavior revealed an inability"to conceive characterat all" (p. 364). Such critiquesemployedrhetoric equatingboth novelistand novelwiththe "paintedwomen"whomantebellumrefearedfemalenovel-readers viewers mightbecome. Yet even authorswho did not adorn "adultery and seduction"with"alluring sentiments" were not guaranteedfavorable A reviews. book's ethical code mightdeterminethe way that some reviewers judged the work,but the proper moral stance was not always enough to wincritics' approval.A novelmustofferitslessonin theright way."Convenient could easily morality" be dismissed, discountedone novelreviewer just as a Graham's ist guilty not only of "writing book decidedlyinjurious"but a also of unsuccessfully "to attempting atone forall, bya page of 13 Even a book withconsistently at morality the finale." "good"
commercialsuccess even if it did not match the astonishing sales of The Wide,Wide or World Uncle Cabin. Tom's 10 Rev. of Rob ofthe Bowl:A LegendofSaintInigoes,[byJohnPendleton Kennedy,] KnickerbockerMagazine, 13 (1839), 162. 11When readingsuch comments, is important remember it to thatin themid nineteenthcentury word"sentimental" not always the was used negatively: reviewers praised "good" affecting sentimentality oftenas they as critiqued"bad" mawkish sentimentality. 12 "Novelsof the Season,"North American Review, (1848), 365. 67 13 Rev. of The Fatalist, Nicholas Michell,] Graham's Magazine,17 (1840), 144. [by

The atmosphere is that of a hot-house .

. in which adultery

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if moralswas apt to be foundwanting "themorality the story of JamesL. Machor explainsin his discussionof public responses toantebellum fiction, moralmessages wereexpectedto be "consistent and subtleratherthanovertand intermittent"; directincommentswere condemned.15 one North structive As American Review essayist noted,a seriousmoralcan "crushdown the narrativewithits weight," and the "fleetof religiousnovels,oppressedwiththeirleaden cargo,have shownmarvelousalacrity in sinking wherethey were neverheard of more."16 Clearly, antebellumnovelists who wished theirworkto be judged ethically sound and artistically superiorhad to negotiate a dense landscape of moral and aesthetic judgments.And it although these judgments were heavilygender-inflected, is importantto distinguishthe expectationsof Hawthorne's era fromthe stereotypes forward our own. Contrary put in to what some of us have been taught, Hawthorne'saudience did not automatically disapproveof the novel as a genre, and unlike manylate-twentieth-century readers,theyneitherequated popularitywith poor aesthetic qualitynor viewed American literatureas a particularly male-dominateddomain.17Antebellum reviewers did believe in an essentialbiological difference betweenmen and women thatnecessarily produced dis"masculine"and "feminine" tinctly writing.'8 these same Yet
14 Rev. of Insubordination: American An Story Real Life,by T. S. Arthur, of Graham's Magazine,18 (1841), 296. 15 James L. Machor, "Historical Hermeneuticsand AntebellumFiction: Gender, Response Theory,and Interpretive Contexts," Readers History: in in Nineteenth-Century American Literature theContexts Response, Machor (Baltimore: and of ed. JohnsHopkins Univ.Press,1993), p. 71. 16 Rev. of Margaret; Taleoftile a and Real and Ideal,Blight Bloom, SylvesterJudd,] [by North American Review, (1846), 103. 62 17 On the acceptability of novel reading, see Baym, Novels,p. 14. On flexible pp. 40-45; and see boundaries between elite and popular literature, Baym,Novels, in Susan Belasco Smithand KennethM. Price,"Introduction: PeriodicalLiterature Social and HistoricalContext,"in Periodical Literature Nineteenth--Century in America, ed. Price and Smith (Charlottesville: Univ. Press of Virginia,1995), p. 7. On public peras "Inception of writing a femaleoccupation,see Geary,p. 366; and Judith Fetterley, troduction," Provisions: Readerfrom in A NineteenthCentury American Women, Fetterley ed. (Bloomington:Indiana Univ.Press,1985), p. 6. 18 The 1848 review of in TheNorth American Review illustrates stereotypes male the and female writing put forthat mid-century. The reviewer mistakenly thinksthat a Bell" writeJane because "theclear,distinct, decisivestyle ... brother helped "Currer Eyre

is . . . too pertinaciously thrust into the reader's face."14 As

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openmore mighthave approached women'swriting reviewers mindedlythan a modern reader conditioned to expect any and overly antebellumnovel to be unrealistic female-authored emotional. In fact,in the 1850s some of the domesticnovels by women that we think of today as highlymelodramatic whilejokes about sillyscribblers were hailed fortheirrealism, writing male.19 Even callsfor"manly" thewriter oftengendered by privilegedqualities that mightseem "sentimental" today's standards.20
inputis revealedby"some uncona suggests male mind,"while the sister's continually womanthateveraspiredafter whichthestrongest-minded peculiarities, sciousfeminine not onlyto elaboratedescriptions refer manhood cannot suppress.These peculiarities of refinements but of ofdress,and theminutize thesick-chamber, to varioussuperficial mindwhichno man and emotionin a woman's feeling.... thereare nicetiesof thought can delineate" ("Novelsof the Season," pp. 356-57). Wide 19 In January 1853 a reviewpraisingthe realismof Susan Warner'sTheWide, American appeared in theNorth and and World Queechy AmyLothrop'sDollarsand Cents novel "a as Its Review. author (oftenidentified Caroline Kirkland)calls Warner'sfirst 76 Review, [1853], 12 2). The essayalso saysthatthese American story real life"(North of heroinesare but . the novelsreflect factthat"nowadays .. thereis no truth literaltruth; no longer 'mad in white satin'; troubles,to touch our hearts,must be every-day in themselves politicaleconomyand the conditroubles;heroes,who do not interest of tionof the masses,are unworthy good fortune"(p. 105). Althoughthejudgmentof praise to it different, is interesting see a reviewer would be very succeedinggenerations the lack of melodramain novelsthatare todayconsideredexamplesof extreme"sentiIn mentality." a similarreversalof modern expectation,a joking "Epigramon a Poor product that twentiethBut VeryProlificAuthor,"makingfun of the weak literary gendersitsauthormale.The female"sentimentalists," associatewith stereotypes century eighty pages ere the compelled byneed, / Writes epigramlaments:"Amodernnovelist, readers day is o'er; / Alas, poor man! I feel for him indeed, / But pityhis afflicted 33 Magazine, [1849], 140). more!" (Knickerbocker 20 An 1849 reviewof Dickens by E. P. Whipple is one example of a nineteenthtraitsthat modern readers thatactuallyprivileges call for masculinewriting century we as Whipple lamentsthatin the United States,"Novelists have stereotype feminine. in perilous abundance, as Egypthad locusts;some of them unexcelled in the art of ... of by preparinga dish of fiction a liberaladmixture the horribleand sentimental; withan American buta seriesofnationalnovels,. . . the productionof men penetrated with Firm the upon possessing"(rev.ofDealings plume ourselves spirit.. ., we can hardly Review, [1849], 405-6). The 69 American and ofDombey Son,byCharlesDickens,North mightmake to reference spiritedmen and the negativeuse of the term"sentimental" senbut in facthe wantsmore us thinkthatWhippleis callingforunemotionalrealism, He sitive characterizations. praisesthe "moralbeauty"of LittleNell and wantsthissort of characterto replace "libelled or caricatured"depictions of Americans (pp. 404, 406). The spirited"productionof men"he asks forrequiresthe very"sentimentality" "Arethere,then,no maassume he is critiquing: readermight thata twentieth-century terialshere for the romanticand heroic . . . nothingof sorrowforpathos to convert no no into beauty. .. no sweethousehold ties,no domesticaffections, high thoughts, sin, greatpassions,no sorrow, and death?" (p. 406).

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Nineteenth-century readerswho recognized the diversity of theirera's literature probably would have been surprised by thatsucceedinggenerations therangeofworks have lumped togetherunderthecategory "sentimental" of fiction. Hawthorne's audience made distinctions-betweenuplifting sentiment and mawkish emotion;betweenthe melodramatic tales of the previous century and the domesticnovelsof theirown -that have been obscuredbythe generalizations laterhistorians. unof To derstandHawthorne's relationto both his literary predecessors and critical we contemporaries, need to recoverthedistinctions betweenthe seductionnovelspopular in the earlynationalperiod and the women'snovels thatreached theirheightin the 1850s withthe success of Susan Warner'sThe Wide, WideWorld The eighteenth-century seduction novel-both the English formcharacterized Clarissaand the Americanvariation by women as vulnerableand typified Charlotte by Temple-portrays in need of male protection. Rowson's novel illustrates basic the plot of the Americanbooks, whereinan innocent heroine is tricked a cruelseducerand thenabandoned to suffer, by repent, and die. Highlyemotional,these novelsacknowledgedfemale passion, but despite the tragicconsequences, the authorsdid not blame theirheroines forhavingand expressingemotion. Rather,seductionnovelsoftenimplicitly critiquedthe culture and suppressed A thatconstrained personalfeelings. novelsuch thereaderto sympathize as Charlotte withthe Temple encourages and to condemn the unfeeling flawedand fallentitlecharacter natureof her seducer and the society thatempowers him. Unlike these eighteenth-century which emphasize works, the heroine'spassion and suffering, domesticnovelsreject"depictionsof overemotional, helpless heroines" (Baym,Woman's Fiction, xxix). In antebellum "woman'sfiction"-the genre p. thatBaymdefinesas "novelsof contemporary byand about life American women published between 182o and 1870"-we in meet competentprotagonists who "survive a difficult world" (Woman'sFiction, These booksabandon theseductionplot p. ix). and insteadfollow progression a youngwomanwho,withthe of out familialor financialresources,must educate herselfand finda secure place in the world.Althoughonlya minority of
(1850) and Maria Susanna Cummins's The Lamplighter 854). (1

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inantebellum novels employed this plot, it was particularly af"one formulablockbuster fluential because at mid-century ensuringthatthe reading teranotherdominatedthe market," withthe model of womanhood public would be veryfamiliar Fiction, xi). p. books depicted (Woman's thatthese Woman's fiction-in its critique of weakness and hyand self-discipline-rejects pocrisyand its praise of fortitude the moral models and reinforces literary eighteenth-century that The writers critics. values advocatedbynineteenth-century innocence" Baymstudiesavoided "the spectacle of victimized that "deniedjust whatwoman'sfictioninsistedon: thatinnop. Fiction, xxix). cence was compatiblewithagency" (Womans a offered similarcritiqueofweak female Antebellumreviewers A Review for essayist, example,comAmerican characters. North characterlessand insipid" women in plained of the "utterly James Fenimore Cooper's novels, works that failed to show woman's "real power,her influenceover the course and issue the Christian Examinerridiculed the of events."'" Similarly, withher "useless sensibilities, "common-placenovel-heroine" or enthusiasm, creatureof circumstance the and unrestrained 22 emotion." with Hawthorne'sreaderswould have been veryfamiliar such commentariescondemningoutmoded characterizations type and praising"new"novelsdepictinga different ofwomanhave pointed out thatHawthorne hood. Severalmoderncritics in took notice of these shifts public opinion. Stephen Railton success,aimed hopingforfinancial emphasizesthatHawthorne, at TheScarlet Letter "thesame kindofaudience thathad read his years in such 'middlebrow' tales and sketchesfor twenty-five we as 'S." publications Godey 23Although itseemsobvious, should thatunlike today'sreaders,thisaudience would not not forget have come to the book predisposedto admireHester,steeped femaleprotagothat"she is the onlysignificant in the tradition picked up Rather, they literature."24 nistin nineteenth-century
21 Rev. of Gleanings Europe, Review, American FenimoreCooper,] North [byJames in 46 (1838), 8-9. 22 Rev.ofMonaldi:ATale, 31 ChristianExamine', (1842), 379. byWashingtonAllston, 23 "The Addressof TheScarlet p. in in Letter," Readers History, 159, n. 3. 24 Barlowe, p. 208; see also Railton,p. 140.

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the novel prepared to place her among the manyliterary heroines of both theirown and previousgenerations. When he addressed thisaudience of experienced novelreaders, Hawthorne chose to avoid reformfiction's explicit moralizing;but he still managed to convey a "severe" yet "wholesome"mainstreamVictorianmoral. Numerous critics have remarked that Hawthorne achieves his effectthrough tableaux,25 visual images carrying clear connotationsfor his audience, and I would add that these tableaux alternately seductionnovel and nineteenthevoke the eighteenth-century century woman's fiction. Hawthorne employs images that middle-classculture had already taughthis readers to interpret. "The iconicity these tableaux"not only"adds emblemof aticrichness whileassuring verbaleconomy," RitaGollinand as John Idol, Jr.,point out, but these tableaux also become "esthe sentialto Hawthorne's mode ofdepicting human condition in relation to the past" (p. 54). Evocativeimages associated with earlier literary formsdirect readers' moral judgments. Hawthorne'speers would likelyhave considered the Puritan townspeople, who take so long to recognizeDimmesdale'shyand Hester'svirtue, be "a terrible to audience" thathas pocrisy misread the signsrevealed in the couple's bodies and actions makesit (Railton,p. 142). But Hawthorne's pattern imagery of thatthe real audience of TheScarlet Letter would make unlikely the fictionaltownspeople'smistakeof sympathizing with the and sickly minister. HawthornedescribesDimmesdalein terms, places him in scenes, associated withdisparaged eighteenthcenturycharacters.The minister's body and soul reflectthe worstof the seductiongenre (as it wasjudged in the antebellum era): physically is as weak and droopingas the seduced he he and heroine,and morally is as hypocritical deceptiveas the negativeassociations thesequalof seducingvillain.The strong conclusionseven without itieswould guide readersto definite an overtauthorialintrusion tellingthemwhatto think. From the moment he is introduced,Dimmesdale is deis picted in feminineterms.The young minister "a person of
25 See Rita K. Gollin and John L. Idol, Jr., Nathaniel Prophetic Pictures: Hawthorne's and Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1991); and Knowledge UsesoftheVisualArts(Westport, Clark,pp. 26-27.

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and impendingbrow, aspect,witha white,lofty, verystriking unlesswhen eyes,and a mouthwhich, melancholy large,brown, expressing compressedit,was apt to be tremulous, he forcibly and a vast power of self-restraint."26 both nervous sensibility blue-eyed manly, cheek,thefrank, Dimmesdalelacks"theruddy p. Fiction, xxxvii). era the male" in Hawthorne's (Baym,Woman's will And thenarrative soon make us questionthe townspeople's A possesses great self-restraint. perceptionthattheirminister whichsaw standards, by feminized nineteenth-century is clearly betweenwomen'smore graceful, fixed... contrast a "relatively outlineand ... men'smore blockyshape" tendril-like yielding, Fiction, xxxvii). For Hawthorne'scontemporaries p. (Womans the "the male body implie[d] volume or density, woman'sairy Fiction, xxxvii).Dimmesdale,who quesp. ethereality"Woman's ( tions whetherhe has any substance at all-"what was he?Letter, a substance?- or the dimmestof all shadows?"(Scarlet density. lackssuch "manly" p. 143)- certainly of Those schooled in the tradition Ann Douglas's TheFemantebellum of feminatedepictionis typical the disempowered in function" societywho-having lost all "practical minister "accommodates and imitates"middle-classwomen in hopes Inof sharingtheir perceived "emotionalindispensability."27 T. Walker Herbert argues that Dimmesdale possesses deed, who of the characteristics the malignedantebellumclergymen domain to "attainedsocial power by exploitingthe womanlynumerBut,in fact, foundthemselves consigned."28 whichthey claims and the ous scholarshave complicatedboth Douglas's "separatespheres"ideologyupon which theyare based,29of26 NathanielHawthorne, Letter, WilliamCharvatand FredsonBowers, ed. TheScarlet Edition(Columbus: Ohio State Univ.Press, 1962), p. 66. et al., vol. 1 of TheCentenary to Further references thisworkappear in the text. Culture 27 Ann Douglas, TheFeminization Amierican of (New York:AlfredA. Knopf,

gaze . . . [that] denoted intelligence and trustworthinessin

p. "man of ethereal attributes" (ScarletLetter, 142), Dimmesdale

inization ofAmericanCulture (1977) might assume such an ef-

1977),pp. 77, 117. (Berkeley MiddleClassFamily 28 Dearest and Makingofthe Beloved: Hawthornes the The Press,1993), p. 195. and Los Angeles:Univ.of California 29 On thelimitations "separate see of spheres"discourse, Linda K. Kerber,"Separate of Journal Woman'sPlace: The Rhetoricof Women'sHistory," Spheres,Female Worlds, History, (1988), 9-39; and Laura McCall, "'The Reign of BruteForce Is 75 American

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feringgood evidence to suggestthat effeminacy not the was primary qualityassociated withnineteenth-century ministers, either in popular literatureor in daily life. In depictions of in ministers Americanliterature priorto the publicationof The Scarlet Letter, thereare fewclergymen who share Dimmesdale's As sensitivity.30Joan D. Hedrick pointsout, ministers werejust as likely be viewedas rigidand patriarchal droopingand to as in disempowered.31 Hawthornehimself, hisjournals and in his mostfrequently other fiction, churchmenas depictsscholarly figures who failto understandemotion.Dimmesdale'speers in are such figures.The most frequentantebellum ministerial seem to be the cold intellectualor the bumbling stereotypes fool (the type that nineteenth-century newspaper columnist Fanny Fern was thinking when she wrote in "Notes upon of Preachersand Preaching":"I don'tbelievein a person'seyesbeing so fixed on heaven that he goes blunderingover everybody's corns on the way there.")32Although often severely do flawed,such literary clergymen not fitthe weak model of Dimmesdale.33 While Dimmesdale lacks the rigid strength attributed to mostministers early-American in literature well as the denas of male sity the nineteenth-century physical paradigm,his simto of novels ilarity the femaleprotagonists eighteenth-century
Early Now Over': A ContentAnalysis Godey's of Lady'sBook,1830-1 86o," Journal ofthe LitRepublic, ( 1989), 220, 236. See also the September1998 special issue ofAmerican 9 Literature, erature edited byCathyN. Davidson,"No More Separate Spheres!" (American
30 See Donald WesleyCowart,"'A Minister Will Not Be': HistoricalMinisters in I theWorks NathanielHawthorne"(Diss., Univ.of South Florida,1995); David Glenn of in Davis, "The Image of the Minister AmericanFiction"(Diss., Univ. of Tulsa, 1978); in and RichardHugh Gamble,"The Figureof the Protestant Clergyman AmericanFic1972). tion"(Diss., Univ.of Pittsburgh, 31 See Harriet A Beecher Stowe: Life(New York:OxfordUniv.Press,1994), p. 278. 32 "Notesupon Preachers in As and Preaching," herFolly ItFlies;"HitAt" (NewYork: G. W. Carleton,1868), p. 89. 33 For example, none of the ministers depicted in the popular novels of James FenimoreCooper,JamesKirkePaulding,WilliamGilmoreSimms,or HarrietBeecher The ficStowe are markedby insubstantial physiquesor overdevelopedsensibilities. of tionalclergymen theseauthorsare closer to the model of FatherMapple, the hardy and masculineformer sailorofHerman Melville's Moby-Dick 85 1), thanto thedroop(1 ing formof Dimmesdale.

The ScarletLetter-viewed by Hester as "iron" men (p. 141)-

70 [1998]).

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Dimmesdale'sphysicaldecline in the conventionaltermsused As to depict seduced heroines wastingaway aftertheyfall.35 "the'decline' became a fashionable HerbertRoss Brownstates, attributeof the daughtersof sensibility"; eighteenth-century conduct manualspraised "attractive pallor" and "cautionedfemales that the possession of even an average share of vitality
34 Susanna Haswell Rowson,Charlotte Temple, CathyN. Davidson (New York:Oxed. to references thisworkappear in the text. fordUniv.Press,1986), p. 1o8. Further 35 Dimmesdale also has what Susan Sontag describes as the "extremecontrasts: associatedwithtuberculosis as (see Sontag,Illness Metalpor whitepallor and red flush," [NewYork:Farrar, Strausand Giroux,1977], p. 11). Atone pointDimmesdaleexhibits a of Letter, 120). These shiftp. "first flushand thena paleness,indicative pain" (Scarlet characterize the seduced heroine-such as SallyWood's ing skin tones also routinely protagonistin Ferdinand and Elmima (1804), to whose "complexion dazzlinglyfair" "added the brightest is frequently glow of carnation"(Sarah SaywardKeatingWood, A Ferdinand Elmira: RussianStory and [Baltimore:Samuel Butler,1804], p. 21). Tubernovel's emphasis on passion. As Sontag excular qualities fitthe eighteenth-century was imaginedto be an aphrodisiac,and to conferextraplains, "having[tuberculosis] "fever . . was a sign of an . ordinary powersof seduction"(p. 13). The consumptive's is inwardburning:the tubercular someone 'consumed' byardor,thatardor leading to the dissolutionof the body" (Sontag,p. 20). But forthe antebellumaudience such asand sociationswould onlyheightenthe sense of failed self-regulation weak morality.

minister's cheek" (ScarletLetter, 120), but he also describes p.

His is striking. pale cheeks, drooping form,blearyeyes, and qualitiesbut the melancholyaspect are not merely"feminine" of specificphysical markings the seduced heroine,a formthat commentators as degraded. When we saw nineteenth-century first meet Dimmesdale,a requestforhim to speak "drovethe blood fromhis cheek, and made his lips tremulous"(Scarlet describesthe minister's "large Letter, 67). Later,the narrator p. dark eyes [that] had a world of pain in their troubled and we melancholy depth" (p. 113). As the novel progresses are repeatedlyremindedthat"his cheek [grows]paler and thinner, and his voice more tremulous" (p. 122). This "tremulously sweet,rich,deep, and broken"voice, which "broughtthe lis(p. tenersinto one accord of sympathy" 67), has exactlythe as same effect the qualities thatRowsongivesthe prototypical seduced heroine,Charlotte Temple,whose eighteenth-century "tremulousaccent, [and] tearfuleye, must have moved any heartnot composed of adamant."34 Hawthornenot onlyemphasizes"thepaleness oftheyoung

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and animal spiritswas somethingless than fashionable and more thanfeminine."36 Once Charlotte Temple beginsher dewantof rest,and her eyes... cline, "hercheekswerepale from were sunk and heavy"(Charlotte Temple, 95). In the end, the p. "unhappygirl"is left"to sinkunnoticedto the grave,a preyto and penury," and the readerwitnesses "high her sickness, grief, and "pale, emaciated appearance" (p. 98). Simi"fits," fever," larly, Dimmesdale's "form grewemaciated,"and like the heroine whose bearingreflects knowledgeof her inevitabledoom, "hisvoice,thoughstillrichand sweet, had a certainmelancholy prophecyof decayin it" (ScarletLetter, 120). p. Although the Puritan townspeopleview Dimmesdale as and feel thathis suffering virtuous enhances his powersofsympathy, novel'sreaderswould likely the have consideredthe sitAs uation more critically. AlisonEaston argues,in Hawthorne's of time,as in his novel,"thecapacity humansto be receptive to others'emotions" notjudged an absolutegood untoitselfwas evil take Chillingworth's "sympathy" example-"to be 'senfor sitive' (a word used nine timesabout Dimmesdale) is a twoDimmesdale's "sensibility nerve" and of edged instrument."37 intuition" "spiritual (ScarletLetter, 130) are not noble qualip. ties unless theybenefitothers.If "his power of experiencing and communicating emotion,[are] keptin a stateofpreternatural activity" 141) by self-absorbed emotional excess, and (p. he convinceshis parishionersof falsehood ratherthan truth, as seduced heroine. thenhe is as contemptible theoverwrought of Such characters-like the protagonist SallyWood'sJuliaand theIlluminatedBaron [ 18oo] who admits,"I indulged myafflicthe tions; I even nursed them"38-exemplify wasted emotion as criticized. thatmid-century reviewers Although, Hester says, which [other] men lack!" (Scarlet Dimmesdale "hastsympathies
p. Letter, 113), he may still be open to what D. A. Miller calls

the "mortifying charges" of "sentimentality, self-indulgence, .... [brought]againstanyonewho dwellsin subjecnarcissism

36 1940),
37 I TheSentimental Novelin America, 789-I860

(Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press,

p. 125-

TheMakingoftheHawthorne Subject (Columbia: Univ. of MissouriPress, 1996), N.H.: Charles Peirce, 18oo), p. 233. Baron (Portsmouth, Juliaand theIlluminated

P. 231.
38

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tivity longer or more intensely than is necessaryto his proper functioning the agent of sociallyusefulwork."39 as Certainly manyantebellumcommentaries complained of those who indulged impractical sensibility, ridiculing-as the author of an did-the "Delicate Ladies" whose "exquisitesensibilities" and "keen sympathies unfit themforaction,"who "whileawaytheir Like the self-absorbed heroine whose exaggeratedemotion leaves her vulnerable to a lustfulman's manipulations, Dimmesdale,whose "thought and imagination were so active, and sensibilityso intense" (ScarletLetter, 124), is leftopen to p. evilinfluences. The minister's "orderofmindthat introspective impelled itself powerfully along the trackof a creed, and wore itspassage deliberately deeper withthelapse oftime," eats away at his strength 123). He is reduced to a "poor,forlorn (p. creature"(p. 141), castin therole ofthevictimized at themercy girl of the conscienceless seducer played by Chillingworth. Like CharlotteTemple,who "fainted into the armsof her betrayer" at the crucial moment and so was carried offunconscious to
days and . . . pay worship to the god of Self, whose devotees theyare."40 1849 Knickerbocker Magazine essay titled "A Chapter on Women"

her "fall" (Charlotte Temple, 48), so Dimmesdale is in "a deep, p.

in when Chillingworth deep slumber" "advanced directly front of his patient,laid his hand upon his bosom, and thrust aside and is betrayer, his assaultof the sleepingminister "a parodyof his meetBythetimethatDimmesdaleemergesfrom forest ing withHester,we mightread him as seduced several times and over-having begot Pearl,been violatedbyChillingworth, that yieldedto Hester'sradical ideas. So perhaps it is fitting he should then suffer next stage of the seduced heroine's dethe cline: madness. Eighteenth-century heroines,such as Eliza in TheCoquette, almostalways weakand mentally become physically unstableafter theirseductions.In the conclusionsof thesenov39 The Noveland the Police (Berkeleyand Los Angeles: Univ. of CaliforniaPress, 1988), p. 193.40 "A Chapteron Women,"Knickerbocker 3 Magazine, 3 (1849), 294.

the vestment" (ScarletLetter, 138). Here Chillingworthis the p.

the sexual act" (Easton, p. 209).

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els the grief-stricken protagonist oftenboth ill and insane. is from So too is Hawthorne's"minister themaze,"as he suffers in delusionsand temptations prompting him to ask, "am I mad?" (p. 220). Like the seduced woman who, in the nineteenthcentury reading,has broughther mental and physicalsufferingsupon herself, Dimmesdale makes poor choices thatbring on his momentof madnessand exacerbatehis "decline." Hawthornemakes clear to his audience thatDimmesdale has made sociallyunacceptable decisions. He compounds his initial with sin in tells repeatederrors judgment.As thenarrator us, Dimmesdale "felthimselfquite astrayand at a loss in the of pathway human existence, and could onlybe at ease in some seclusionof his own. Therefore, faras his dutieswould perso mit,he trode in the shadowyby-paths"(p. 66). Antebellum as culture read such retreatfromcommunity suspect; seclusion encouraged the "exquisite sensibilities" those "Deliof cate Ladies" mentionedin "A Chapter on Women"who were . "unfit. . foraction."Such reclusiveness could weakenbothmen and women.As a North American commentedin Review essayist for January 1848, "therecan be no greatermisfortune a counthanforher men of letters live secluded fromthe active to try scenes of life;forno civilization be complete,where those can thatthink Those who movenotin concertwiththosethatact."'41 and lead a strictly contemplative existencebecome "enervated" lose "vigor mindand soundnessof thought"(p. 23). Accordof the thoughtful scholar should not be ing to this worldview, alone in thewilderness rather but walking alongside stumbling the common citizenin the marketplace. Nineteenth-century essayistsoften praised the communitarianimpulses of the people who populated such a town and industry, just square. These discussionsprized fortitude whatDimmesdale lacks at severalmomentswhen he givesinto in despair:"Therewas a listlessness his gait;as ifhe sawno reason fortaking one stepfarther, feltanydesire to do so, but nor would have been glad, could he be glad of any thing,to fling himself down at the root of the nearesttree,and lie therepas4"

Review,66 Rev. of Delle SperanzedItalia, by Cesare Balbo, NorthAmerican

(i848)', 23.

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Letter, 188). This image of a wilted p. sive for evermore" (Scarlet figurebeneath a treewould again have conjured up associations with the seduced heroine, whose "drooping jointless body ... [stood] for indolence or cowardice" to antebellum readers who judged her as "an anachronism from an earlier time" (Woman's Fiction,p. 28). The image of an emotional woman musing beneath a tree became so conventional in eighteenth-centuryfiction that numerous nineteenth-century writerssatirized such scenes.42 Both the original and the parody of this image would come to mind when Hawthorne's audience considered the "listless" Dimmesdale's desire to be "passive for evermore" beneath his tree. Beyond passivity and reclusiveness, of course, Dimmesdale's greatest crime in the eyes of middle-class readers was his hypocrisy.As Karen Halttunen explains, Americans in the decades preceding the Civil War prized honesty and feared deceit. Popular culture represented the dangers of shiftingeconomic and social standings in the image of the confidence man, who deceived honest citizens by hiding his true character under an attractive exterior.43Dimmesdale, with his vague confessions that furtherconvince his parishioners of his holiness, obscures the truthwith all the manipulative skill of a con man. Hawthorne's minister,in fact, comes to embody the flaws that antebellum culture attributed to the Richardsonian school of fiction. One reviewer'scomplaint about "the conceit of virtue," the "deception [and] boasted morality [which] was practically false" in Richardson's Pamela (1 740), could serve as an equally accurate description of Dimmesdale.44 The reverend hiding his secret "A" beneath his clothing is depicted in the same terms with which nineteenth-centuryreviewers personified the novels that dressed up subversive characters in virtuous clothes.
42 been womenhave often the These scenessatirizing imageofweak,overemotional authorsintended assumethattheantebellum who mistakenly misreadbymoderncritics peers, domestic-fiction-writing whenin facttheimnineteenth-century to critiquetheir texts. ages parodyeighteenth-century Class A of Men and PaintedWomen: Study Middle43 See Karen Halttunen,Confidence (New Haven: Yale Univ.Press,1982). in i830-i870 Culture America, 44 Rev. of The Works Henry Author, Thomas Roscoe, by with Lifeofthe a of Fielding, 68 American Review, (1 849), 59. North

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DimThroughoutthe novel, of course, the faint-hearted in mesdale is contrasted withhis strong-willed partner crime.If Dimmesdale figuresthe outmoded eighteenth-century novel form,then Hester-who openlywearsher "A"and in the end freely chooses itsrestrictions-embodiesthe textof the "new" age. She develops into the model ofwomanhood thatantebellum conduct books and woman's fictionput forth,an ideal figure quite different-albeitequallyexaggeratedand unrealistic-from the heroine prizedin the earlynationalperiod. In the decades betweenthe publicationof Charlotte Temple and The Scarlet American culture altered its model of Letter, womanhood: "no longerthe beautiful, useless,passive,delicate clinging creatureof the eighteenth century, [the ideal] woman ever-cheerful [became] a hardworking, busy, tireless, resilient, helpmeet:kind,wise,consolatory, sympathetic" (Baym,Novels, this p. i02). Despite our twentieth-century misperceptions, nineteenth-century figurewas neither sicklynor hypersensiAntebellumdepictionsof the "angel of the house" have tive.45
45 For further discussionof the paradoxical waythatantebellumfiction and conduct books portray women as both hardworking and disembodiedangels, housewives A see NancyArmstrong, Desireand Domestic Fiction: Political History theNovel(New of York:OxfordUniv.Press,1987), pp. 75-81; and GillianBrown, Domestic Individualism: Imagining in NineteenthSelf America and Los Angeles:Univ.of CaliforCentury (Berkeley nia Press, 1990), pp. 64.-66. It is also important distinguish to between the literary tropesof the domestic womanand the saintly child.The undeniable publicfascination withangelic dyingchildrendoes not mean thatsuch figures were the unquestioned ideal foradultwomanhood.Althoughmanyhave followed Ann Douglas in considering Stowe'sLittleEva the model of sentimental femininity, interpretations such mistakenly conflatethe "angel of the house" and the "divinechild."Not onlyare the twofigures not the same, but the latter need not even be female.For further discussionof the anin tebelluminterest child death, see Michael McEachern McDowell, "American Attitudes TowardsDeath, 1825-1865" (Diss., Brandeis Univ., 1978); Ann-Janine Morey, "In Memory Cassie: Child Death and ReligiousVisionin AmericanWomen's of Novels," and 6 Religion American Culture, (1996), 87-104; and Wendy Simondsand BarbaraKatz

breath (ScarletLetter, 25 5) . p.

Dimmesdale is the embodimentof a corruptand corrupting culturaltext.He does not possessa tendency be honest,and to Hawthorneemphasizeshis deceitfulnature rightup until the to end, makingDimmesdale reluctant confesseven when he is fearful minister must fightback not dying.The hypocritical, only "bodilyweakness"but "stillmore, the faintness heart" of thatwould keep him fromrevealing"his secret"withhis final

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housewifethan with more in common withthe hardworking the emaciated emotionalist. The domesticangel did not walshe low in self-indulgent feeling;rather, possessed a pragmatic communalworldview thaturged her to use her powersof sympathy order to further in benevolentcauses.46 were In Hawthorne'stime,as in ours,ideals of femininity neitherfixed nor coherent.As the author of "A Chapter on Women"complained, "fewwomen are born angels,"and the "overflowing abundance of 'Essays,' 'Sermons,' 'Helps,' 'Adwas dresses,''Guides,' 'Aids' and 'Exhortations"' farmorelikely to annoywomen than to turnthem into "the perfectarticle" "looksfirst (p. 291). The womanwho reads thesecommentaries fora standardupon whichto model herself," "no twomen but have the same"; therefore, "she can suitnobodyunless she becomes a sortof universal-patent-medicine, forall things" good (p. 292). Althoughrealwomencould not hope to become such a "universal-patent-medicine," fictional the Hester,by novel's end, comes quite close. Before attainingthe enviable stateof being "good forall things,"however,Hester-like the protagonistof a domestic novel-must embark upon a journey during which she will overcome adversity and and isolation,subdue selfishness and learn obedience passion, find faith and self-discipline, readand usefulness.Understandably, late-twentieth-century ers, exposed to inaccurate descriptionsof antebellum heroines, have rarelynoticed how much Hester has in common Yet withher nineteenth-century fictional counterparts. placing Hester's traitsand trialsalongside those of two prototypical and World heroinesofwoman'sfiction-Ellen of TheWide, Wide moralvalues the of Gerty TheLamplighter-underscores similar authors. and feminine ideals of the respective HawthorneendowsHester At theoutsetof TheScarlet Letter the same privileged and places her in the same isowith traits, lated situation,that mark the typicalheroine at the opening
(PhiladelLiterature Grief Popular in of of Rothman,Centuries Solace:Expressions Maternal phia: Temple Univ.Press,1992). 46 Manycritical of misreadings antebellumwomen'snovelsmightbe explained by withconserthe factthat,as Baymnotes,"thesebooks connect a liberalindividualism of in vativecommunitarianism a waythatis typical the antebellumera but eccentricto p. Fiction, xxviii). analysis"( Woman's contemporary

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of an antebellumdomesticnovel.These heroinespossesscomand virtue,but theyare stillflawed.Left mendable strength without protectionor assistance,theymustturnto theirinner process of selfresources as theyembark upon the difficult introducesHester, Hawthornetells us reform. When he first thatshe and her fellowPuritanwomen are made up "morally, p. compares fairdescendants"(Scarlet Letter, 50). The narrator to Hester's strength the weaknessof later generations:"every bloom, to successivemotherhas transmitted her child a fainter a more delicate and brieferbeauty,and a slighterphysical thanher own" if of frame, not a character lessforceand solidity, (p. 50). He also emphasizes the contrastbetween this darkand haired woman who possesses "a certainstateand dignity" who possessed "the delicate,evanesthe pale, ladylikefigures sayshis misguidednineteenthcent" bearingthatthe narrator praise (p. 53). Thus Hawthorneprecentury contemporaries offered models of femininity sents the same two contrasting Yet by the authorsof woman'sfiction. these authors,more optimisticthan Hawthorne,attributestrengthto the younger the capable heroine over her ingeneration by privileging sipid mother.So, forexample,we see in CatherineSedgwick's practicalnature... "active, decisive, Clarence1830) Gertrude's ( passivcontrastedto [her mother's]timidand self-destructive p. Fiction, 59). ity"(Baym,Woman's guidance,heroinesofwoman'sficDeprivedof a mother's tion have to learn on theirown to controlthe passionatetemimpulses thatendanger theirsecurity pers and individualistic We and salvation. often meettheseheroineswhenthey comare her alone and friendless. Hesterexistsin such isolation, pletely crime "taking her out of the ordinary withhumanity, relations p. Letter, 54). and inclosingher in a sphere byherself"(Scarlet She must "sustain" her strength the ordinaryresourcesof "by a on her nature," "without friend earthwho dared to showhimEllen self" (pp. 78, 81). So, too, earlyin The Wide,WideWorld mustleave her mother,and "in her loneliness"she knewthat "nobody . . . cared in the least for her sorrow."47Even more
47 Susan Warner, TheWide, Wide World (NewYork:Feminist Press,1987), p. 65. Furtherreferences thisworkappear in the text. to

as well as materially,"of "a coarser fibre . . . than . . . their

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in dramatically, the opening pages of TheLamplighter Gerty is literally thrown out onto the pavementand left"alone in the cold, darknight"byher cruel guardian.48 These abandoned characters have everyreason to be angry, and all threenarrators emphasize the powerful emotions of their heroines. Hester exhibitsan abundance of "spirit," a "desperaterecklessness," "combative energy ... character," of and "lawlesspassion" (Scarlet Letter, 53, 78, 165). Similarly, pp. in The Wide, WideWorld "Ellen'spassionswere alwaysextreme" (p. 148). Attimes"shesobbed aloud, and even screamed"at injustices,but "thesefits violence"mustbe overcome:"Strong of passion-strong pride,-both long unbroken" marktheyoung Ellen'scharacter;and "muchhelp fromon high,mustbe hers beforeshe could be thoroughly of dispossessed theseevilspirits" also has a "fierce, (pp. 148, 181). In TheLamplighter unGerty in tamed,impetuousnature"that "expresseditself angrypasrestraint" 43). Even when taken in by a kindlyguardian, (p. "thefireof her spirit was not quenched, or itsevilpropensities extinguished" 43). Like Hawthorneand Warner, (p. Cummins indicatesthather heroine's temperis a dangerous and "dark infirmity"-society not toleratefemale anger-but such will rage willnot be containedwithout struggle 63). a (p. In domesticnovels,as in TheScarlet Letter, reform gradis ual. In the midstof thisprocess the heroine'svirtuesare balanced by flaws, her attempts doing good onlypartially at successful. Usuallyshe findsit much easier to regulateher actions thanherideas,behaving and even obediently submissively while her thoughts remainrebelliousand independent.Yet the narof rators woman'sfiction emphasizethatproperbehavioris still an important first stepon thepath to properemotion.Knowing Ellen "prayed thatifshe could notyetfeel she this, right" "might be kept at least fromacting or speakingwrong" (WideWorld, p. 157). She acts out the lesson thateveryheroine of woman's fictionmust learn, struggling be "perfectly to mute and unand patient complaining"in the face of trialand "submissive under ... affliction" 84, 25). Eventually winsoverher she (pp.
48 Maria Susanna Cummins,TheLampulighlter, ed. Nina Baym (New Brunswick, N.J.: RutgersUniv. Press, 1988), p. i . Furtherreferences thisworkappear in the text. to

sion" (p. 7); her "violent temper, .

. .

when roused, knew no

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"unreasonable and unkind"auntwith"untiring gentleness, obedience and meekness" (p. 241). Hester,in the middle of The Scarlet able to act corLetter, appears to be in thissame position, evenwhilehermindstill wandersin dangerousdirections: rectly "She neverbattledwiththe public,but submitted uncomplainingly itsworseusage" and earned respectwith"theblameless to purity"of her life afterimprisonment(p. 16o). The Salem townspeopleare won over by her "genuine regardforvirtue" (p. 16o), just as Ellen's aunt, Miss Fortune,"was softenedby Ellen'sgentle,inoffensive waysand obedient usefulness"(Wide p. World, 334). in Such usefulness contentment theworldofthedobrings is mesticnovel.While earlyon in TheLamplighter Gerty "always idle,-a fruitful source of unhappinessand discontent"(p. 9), she later findsthe equanimitythatwoman'sfictionassociates withcontinual household employment. When workinghard, "Ellen grewrosyand hardy... she was veryhappytoo. Her extremeand varied occupation made thispossible" (WideWorld, pp. 335-36). So, too, Hester initially employs"her nativeenof and fairly ergy character" with sewing, finding "ready requited for employment as manyhoursas she sawfitto occupywithher needle" (Scarlet Letter, 84, 82). Yet she humbly"soughtnot pp. of to acquire any thingbeyond a subsistence, the plainestand most ascetic description" and "bestowedall her superfluous means in charity" 83). Despite-or perhaps because of(p. her trials, Hester has at least developed the appearance of the and feminine ideal of total self-denial,altruisticsympathy, practicalactivity. Hawthornemakes clear, however,thatHester's thoughts and feelingshave yetto matchthe virtueof her actions: "persons who speculate the most boldly often conformwith the most perfectquietude to the externalregulationsof society"; "so it seemed to be withHester" (pp. 164-65). Althoughshe is for "patient-a martyr, indeed,"she cannot "pray her enemies; themlest ... thewordsof the blessingshould stubbornly twist selves into a curse" (p. 85). Hester,like the young Ellen, has not yet learned "to feeljust as kindlydisposed toward[cruel and people] as iftheyhad neveroffended you-just as willing inclined to please themor do themgood" (WideWorld, 8o). p.

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This is not the onlyrule thatHester has yetto accept: "In her of her "freedom speculalonesome cottage,by the sea-shore," that"theworld'slaw was no tion"leads her to conclude falsely p. Letter, 164). "In thedarklabyrinth" lawforher mind" (Scarlet with "a home and comfortnowhere" and "wild and ghastly scenery around" (p. 166), Hesteris farfromthe restrictions all of the conventionaldomestic order that,in the nineteenthprovide salvation. In this darkness her centuryworldview, of thoughtstravelfromthe possibility gender equalityto suicide and infanticide-the novel linkingall of these ideas as equally horrifying-and at this moment the narratorunderscores that"thescarletletterhad not done itsoffice"(p. 165). Only when her thoughtsand feelingsconformto the selfless will ideals offeminine communitarianism she have learned her Hesterhas the lesson.UnlikethefeebleDimmesdale,however, instructhe strength leave the darkmaze and finish difficult, to tive journey. are The toughlessonsof self-denial and social conformity heroines of woman'sfictionalso only learned over time.The struggleand resistbefore accepting "the world'slaw."Justas Hester ponders the inequitablepositionthat"long hereditary habit"has forced"thewhole race of womanhood"into (Scarlet Letter, 165), so Ellen clingsto a beliefin equitable treatment p. to and screamsthather aunt has "no right" speak to her harshly by p. (WideWorld, 159). Hester expressesfrustration throwing actual while Gertyresponds to her tormentors throwing by pp. sticks and stones (LamplVighter,1 1, 49). Antebellumreaders would be likely read thesechildishtantrums Hester'smeand to and in the same manner: as irresponsible andering thoughts the howunderstandable reNo uncontrolledmoments. matter actionsgiventheprovocation, they would stillbe judged as momentsofweaknessand sin. But in each of thesethreenarratives, youngwomanrethe processtoward pentsher actionsand continuesthestep-by-step feminine virtue(as definedat the time). Respectingthe diffireaders expected a protagocultyof achievingself-discipline, of surgings passion nistsuch as Ellen to experience "alternate p. and checks of prudence and conscience" (WideWorld, 553).
offher letter and letting down her hair (ScarletLetter, 21 1), p.

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Hawthorne's narrator,after noting that Hester still resents Chillingworth, sternly concludes thatshe "oughtlong ago to have done withthisinjustice" and asks"had sevenlongyears... wrought no repentance?"(Scarlet out Letter, 177). This query p. is left unanswered,but the response could be the same as that to the Lamplighter narrator's inquirywhetherGerty, after two years in a lovinghousehold, had "learned self-control?" "learnedreligion?":"She had begun; and thoughher footsteps oftenfalter, thoughshe sometimesquite turnsaside, and, impatientof the narrow way,givesthe rein to her old irritability for and ill-temper, . . thereis the strongest . foundation hopein fulness thesincerity her good intentions, thedepthof and of p. her contrition" (Lamplighter, 72). contrite humbleheroinewillbe able to and Onlya sincerely achieve the antebellumfeminine ideal, buildinga house ofvirtueupon thefoundation innerstrength sympathy. Strong of and emotionalone is not enough. This feelingmustbe directedtowardothers;it is not a responseto one's ownsense of beinginjured. The antebellumdomesticangel marshalsher emotion practically altruistically. and Gerty yetto achievesuch emohas tionalcontrolwhen earlyin TheLamplighter feelspersonally she wrongedand is "easilyroused, her spirits variable,her whole nature sensitiveto the last degree" (p. 69). Her role model, that must EmilyGraham,embodies the typeof sensitivity Gerty develop. Emily"neverforgot sufferings, wants,the nethe the withoutrepining;but the misfortunes trialsof othersbeand came her care, the alleviationof them her greatestdelight. Emily was neverwearyof doing good" (p. 57) . In the finalstages of her developmentHester displaysa similarly admirablebalance ofaltruism and action: "Such helpfulness foundin her,-so much powerto do, and powerto was the sympathize,-thatmanypeople refusedto interpret scarlet A byits originalsignification. They said thatit meantAble; so Let(Scarlet strong HesterPrynne, was witha woman'sstrength" ter, 161). Hawthornemaynot elaborateon whatqualifiesas p. frequently did, "a woman'sstrength," his contemporaries but for narrator, repeatedly equatingitwithselflessness. Cummins's the example,tellsus thatlove and "a higherlight"bringGerty
cessities, of others"; "her own great misfortunes. . . were borne

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qualitiesthatshe needs to survive: woman'sstrength heart "a of and self-denial" (Lamplighter,34). p.

the World, heroine'smoralvictory depends upon hervanquishingall individualistic desire.Beforeshe accomplishesthis, Ellen meetsMrs.Vawse,who providesan "example of contentment" Mrs.Vawseremains"independent" and "does all sortsof things to supportherself," "isn'tabove doing any thing,and yet she never forgetsher own dignity," and is always"cheerfuland pictureof the fullyreformedHester,who has also perfected thissortofself-denial and usefulness. Whenwe meether in the "Conclusion,"the letterhas at last "done itsoffice"-leavinga "deep print"of itsmoral lesson (p. 259) . In her finalincarnation Hester has resumedwearingthe letter"of her own free will";she has "no selfish ends, nor livedin anymeasureforher and enjoyment," leads a "toilsome, own profit but thoughtful" existence devoted to others (p. 263). She has achieved the ideal state thatthe heroines of domesticfictionfinally attain. Ellen thatthough "she had been a passionatechild in earlier days;under religion's happy reign thathad long ceased to be true of her" (p. 553). Justlike Hester at the conclusion of Hawthorne'snovel, the matureEllen embodies "thatsingular mixtureof gravity and sweetnessthatis neverseen but where religionand disciplinehave done theirworkwell" (WideWorld, Once they become fully with self-disciplined, theirindividualisticimpulsesreined in, theseheroinesare able to perpetuate the cycleof religiousinfluenceprizedbythe authorsof doon mesticfiction. see Ellen-who has modeled herself the We Mrs.Vawse virtuous Alice,who in turnlearned fromthe saintly -continue the patternby bringing Nancyand Mr. Van Brunt to accept Christianity. Hawthornedoes not fail to remindhis readers thatHester, too, providespositiveinfluence:"people to broughtall theirsorrows and perplexities" her cottage,and "Hester comfortedand counselled them, as best she might" of (Scarlet Letter, 263). Althoughshe was once guilty leading p.
P 559). Near the end of The Wide, Wide Worldthe narrator can say of happy" (pp. 194-95). At the end of The Scarlet Letter get the we (Wide World, 194). A widow with "no money nor property," p.

In The Scarlet Letter, in TheLamplighter as and The Wide,Wide

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Dimmesdaleastray with"radical"ideas, itseemslikely thatHesterat the conclusionoffers verydifferent counsel,teachingthe same lesson-of restraining passion and conforming social to law-that she herselfhas learned, puttingoffthe hope for "new truth"and an equitable "relation between man and woman"to a distantfuture(p. 263). True to the conservative feminine ideal, she is humble,knowing thatshe is too "bowed down with shame" to be the prophetessof this coming era (p. 263). In thisfinalstage of her developmentHester illushutratesTheLamplighter's lesson that"thepowerof Christian of of mility, engrafted into the heart,-the humility principle, conscience" the "one power thatneverfailsto quell and subis p. due earthly pride and passion"(Lamplighter, 73). In the end, Hester-like Ellen and Gerty-is devoid of all such pride and The passion and exemplifies angelic humility and self-denial. "A Chapter on Women"concludes her commentary author of witha description thatcould describethe "Able"Hester of the novel'send, notingthatwhatsociety shouldvalue in a womanis sense": "good such a woman's"highdestiny not to achieve any is greator wonderful work, to provethe perfection her sex, or of but todo whatshecan; dailyfulfilling dailyduties,dailyexperiencing daily pleasures; her home her kingdom;a fewloving heartsthe objectsof her untiring care; she moveson, and her Seeing how well Hester fits this antebellum ideal and how closelyDimmesdale matches the disparaged eighteenthcentury alternative,it is hardly surprisingthat critics responded accordinglywhen Hawthorne's novel initiallyappeared. The North American Reviewclaimed thatwe feel most forHawthorne's heroinewhen "wesee her humble,meek,selfand heart-wrung."49 reviewer This denying, charitable, judged Hester's maternaland domestic qualities to be "humanizing but he thoughtthat her character "disappoints"the traits," readerwhen she expressesher rebellioussentiments 140). (p. Similarly, judges Dimmesdale harshlybecause the minishe terfailsto live up to the culturalideals of usefulness and selfrestraint. The essayist critiquesthe reverend's wastedemotion,
49

influence will be felt" ("A Chapter on Women," pp. 294-95).

Rev. of TheScarlet a by American ReNorth Letter; Romance, NathanielHawthorne,

140.

view, 71 (1850),

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without effect....

complaining of Dimmesdale's "mere suffering, aimless and

Every pang is wasted. A most obstinate and

minister feelsstrongly, his emotionhas no purpose or imbut pact and so elicitscontemptratherthan sympathy fromthe nineteenth-century reader. Clearly,Hawthorne's connotativedepiction of his protagonistssucceeded in convincingmid-century audiences of Dimmesdale's contemptibility Hester'sworthiness. acand In cordancewiththisrole reversal, is the "fallen it man"who crumbles and dies at the end of the novel.As Hesterholds the dying in minister her arms-"Then, downhe sankupon the scaffold! Hester partly raised him, and supportedhis head againsther bosom" (p. 255)-we see the new model forcapable womanhood watchingthe decline of the old model of eighteenthcentury fictional values.50 The portrayals Arthur of Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne in TheScarlet like Letter, the depictionsof characters woman's in fiction, critiquetheeighteenth-century seductionnoveland respond to nineteenth-century literary commentary. Withpowerful iconographyHawthorne constructsa conservativetale that reinforcesthe "code of ethics" put forthin public discourse, teachingreaders to suppress "individualinstinct and impulse" and uphold those "moral truths" that the Graham's wrote of in 1852. Reviewersmightaccuse Magazinereviewer Frenchnovelists-or even Dimmesdale-of dressing"depravity" in a deceptively up "fascinating garb,"but Hawthornehimselfcould not be so charged.The "morals" his story of connect him to-rather thandistancehimfrom-the values expressed byboth his cultureand his femalecontemporaries.
Davis University California, of
50 Such death scenes oftenappear in eighteenth-century novels.CharlotteTemple is held in her lastmoments her father(see Charlotte p. by Temple, 115), just as in Samuel Woodworth's Champions The ofFreedom816) we see "Amelia thedeath-bedofHarriet at (1 Palmer ... sustaining her head on her bosom, and wipingthe clammydews of death fromher sunkencheeks" (The Champions Freedom, TheMysterious of or A Chief. Romance of the Nineteenth 2 Century,vols. [NewYork:CharlesN. Baldwin,1818], II, ioo-ioi).

such a prolonged application of the scourge" (p. 141). The

unhuman [sic] passion, or a most unwearying conscience it mustbe, neitherbeing worn out, or made worse or better, by