"Sense and Sensibility" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Here is my American Literature theme on the Scarlet Letter. I am specifically discussing the individual versus society theme and the sense versus sensibility theme (hence the title).

Set in the strict, Puritan town in the New World, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, portrays the strict religion and moral code of the Puritan society. However harsh it may have been, Hawthorne makes it clear that this kind of strict moral code was necessary for survival in the New World. This leads to ongoing struggles between the individual’s sensibility and the sense of the society amongst the main characters. In The Scarlet Letter, the individual must sacrifice their sensibility in order to live harmoniously within the society. With the questionable history of the corrupted church in England, the sense of the Puritan society is set by the moral code within their purified Christian religion. The individual’s sensibility, or desires that do not fall within the moral code of the Puritans, is shown to be incompatible with the society through the lives of Pearl, Reverend Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. 

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is labeled an adulteress and promptly rejected from the unyielding Puritan society. At first, she seems to be portrayed as a haughty, confident heroine and that the reader is about to follow the story of a young woman defying the rigid Puritan society. When Hester first steps out of the prison, she is described as 

tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressive belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes (Hawthorne, 37). 

When she was supposed to be publicly shamed, “her beauty shone out” (37) making Hester appear to be the heroine because of her defiance in the face of society’s moral code. This haughty demeanor does not last long, however. After being released from the prison, Hester is resigned to live out her day to day life, shunned to her house “on the outskirts of the town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation” (55). Hester chose to live out on the edges of the town and society and compliantly do penance for her sin. Her former spirit has been broken. She quietly tends to her needle in her cottage with her daughter Pearl, and earns the respect of the society back by doing what is expected of a temperate woman. This shows that “what Hawthorne approves in his heroine is not her rebelliousness, however splendid that quality may sometimes seem, but rather her ability to overcome that rebelliousness and assume the feminine qualities of domesticity” (Davitt, 45). Hester did not continue to defy the society and rebel against its moral codes, but rather resolutely re-earned the respect of the society and therefore earned her way back into it. Before the death of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester, Pearl and Dimmesdale decided to leave the society and go back to England. In order to hold onto their individual desires, they knew that they had to leave the New World society. The individuals’ sensibility could not co-habitate with the strict, Puritan society. At the very end of the book, Hester’s effort to re-enter into society is shown: “But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester’s life, that scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world’s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too” (Hawthorne, 179). Not only did Hester manage to become an accepted part of society again, Hester’s reputation, shown in the scarlet letter, became revered. Hester’s reputation became revered because she denied her individual desires; her desire to leave America and her desire to be with Reverend Dimmesdale, and decided to follow the sense of the society.  

Reverend Dimmesdale, on the other hand, tries to keep his individual sensibility while still living in the society. This causes him severe pain, both emotionally and physically. Reverend Dimmesdale realizes that in order for him to be relieved of his chronic pain, he needs to confess his sin, and remove himself from society, like Hester Prynne was sentenced to do. His guilt and pain led him to the very spot where Hester Prynne stood in her sin (101). Even though he felt the desperate need to reveal his sin to society, he went out in the middle of the night when “the town was all asleep” (101) and “there was no peril of discovery” (101). He felt the pull from  his conscious to admit his sin and let go of his individual sensibility, but he could not completely let go. Dimmesdale went there in the middle of the night with no one there to see him, making his attempted confession essentially ineffective. Therefore, his pains continued, eventually driving him to his death on that very scaffold. Reverend Dimmesdale’s individual sensibility is his desire to hold on to his sin and the sin itself. He is unable to live in society with either of them, however, making him unable to make a decision. He does not want to leave society yet at the same time he does not want to be like Hester Prynne. His solution, at first, is to try and live with the pain. Eventually, the townspeople start to notice his pain, so they “effected and arrangement by which [Reverend Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth] were lodged in the same house; so that every ebb and flow of the minister’s life-tide might pass under the eye of the anxious and attached physician” (86). Dimmesdale does not get any better and, shortly after his nighttime confession, Hester noticed that “he stood on the verge of lunacy,if he had not already stepped across it” (114). Hester and Revered Dimmesdale meet shortly after that in the woods and decide to run away and go across the sea to escape to England (138). This seems like it would be the ideal solution to their situation, but Hawthorne does not portray it in a good light, and, in the end, the plan falls apart. Hawthorne describes the decision to leave America as lifting both Hester and Dimmesdale’s spirit: 

“The decision once made, a glow of strange enjoyment threw its flickering brightness over the trouble of his breast. It was the exhilarating effect- upon a prisoner just escaped from the dungeon of his own heart- of breathing the wild, free atmosphere of an unredeemed, unchristianized, lawless region” (138). 

The decision does lift both of their spirits but he subtly describes the Old World as “an unredeemed, unchristianized, lawless region” (138) revealing Hawthorne’s disapproval of their plan to escape from the Puritan society and give in to their individual sensibility.  At first, the Reverend tries to repent and confess his sins, but he did it in front of no one and still remained in society, so he was still in pain. The only other option left for him was to remove himself from society. In the end, however, he did not leave for the Old World with Hester and Pearl. The pain and stress of keeping his individual desires while still trying to live harmoniously in the Puritan society drove him to his death. 

Where Reverend Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne were raised in the sense of society, Pearl was raised with only the knowledge of her individual sensibility. She had no exposure to society, so she could hold on to her desires and let them drive her actions. Once again, at first she is portrayed in a beautiful light and is described beautifully as well: 

“Certainly, there was no physical defect. By its perfect shape, its vigor, and its natural dexterity in the use of all its untried limbs, the infant was worthy to have been brought forth in Eden; worthy to have been left there, to be the plaything of angels, after the world’s first parents were driven out. The child had a native grace which does not invariably coexist with faultless beauty; its attire, however simple, always impressed the beholder as if it were the very garb that precisely became it best” (61). 

  She is described as nothing short of perfection, yet Pearl is never once called “she”, only “it”. This alludes to the idea that Pearl is not quite human, but something more demonic in the eyes of Hawthorne. First described as an “airy sprite” (63), Hawthorne later says “There was witchcraft in little Pearl’s eyes; and her face, as she glanced upward at the minister, wore that naughty smile which made its expression frequently so elvish” (106). Pearl does not know her Creator (77), is not raised in society, but in the woods, and is left to the whims of her individual sensibility; unaccepted by society. Pearl is also described as the embodiment of the scarlet letter and is therefore an embodiment of Hester’s individual desires. At the very end of The Scarlet Letter, Hester and Pearl left the town, but only Hester returned later, leaving the townspeople to speculate about what had happened to Pearl: 

None knew- nor ever learned, with the fulness of perfect certainty- whether the elf-child had gone thus untimely to a maiden grave; or whether her wild, rich nature had been softened and subdued, and made capable of a woman’s gentle happiness. But, through the remainder of Hester’s life, there were indications that the recluse of the scarlet letter was the object of love and interest with some inhabitant of another land (179). 

Pearl is still described as wild, but for the first time in the entirety of the book, Hawthorne presents the option that her wild nature had been quieted and made possible to live in society. Yet even though this possibility is presented, Pearl never was able to live in the Puritan society since individual sensibility was such an important part of her identity. Though her mother came to be respected in the Puritan society and was able to relieve herself from her individual sensibility, Pearl is the embodiment of Hester’s individual sensibility and is never able to be a part of Puritan society. 

In The Scarlet Letter, the Puritan society that the story takes place in is described as stiff, and centered around religion with a strict moral code. This strict moral code is described as unyielding, but not portrayed in a bad light. In the last sentence of the first chapter, Hawthorne writes about the rose bush outside the prison: “It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow” (34). In this sentence, Hawthorne uses the first person, “us”, to directly tell the reader what he hopes we will gain from his story. Hawthorne describes the “moral blossom” (34) as “sweet” (34) showing the reader that he does not disapprove of the morals found in the Puritan society. When Hester Prynne is awaiting her sentence, many people had gathered to see what would happen. In this scene, Hawthorne introduces the readers to the rough “Goodwives” (35). Hawthorne choose rougher language for when they talk, such as calling Hester “the hussy” (35), making them come across as tough and not as lady like. Hawthorne writes : “Morally, as well as materially, there was a coarser fibre in those wives and maidens of old English birth and breeding,... throughout that chain of ancestry, every successive mother has transmitted to her child a fainter bloom, a more delicate and briefer beauty, and a slighter physical frame...” (35). He also makes the point of mentioning that they are “church-members in good repute” (35) however, and that they believe in harsh judgement, shown when one of them speaks up on the matter of Hester Prynne’s punishment: 

“ ‘What do we talk of marks and brands, whether on the bodice of her gown, or the flesh of her forehead?’ cried another female, the ugliest as well as the most pitiless of these self-constituted judges. ‘This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray!’ ” (36). 

Though these wives are harsh and rough, they were the settlers of this New World. They would do anything to keep up the moral code of their Puritan society and religion, because they knew what they had come from. The  Puritans wanted to purify Christianity, hence the name “Puritan”. Their moral code was set by their religion and the “black flower of civilized society” (33) was made from the history of religious difference and struggles happening back in England. The wives, appearing to be unnecessarily harsh, knew that their town’s foundation was set upon religion and they did not want it to slip into the same troubles as England. Hawthorne also knew this history, which drives his portrayal of  his characters.  

Hester is not the heroine of the story because of her rebellion, but because of her submission. The Puritan society is harsh, but necessary for society to survive in the New World. Life there is not easy and the purified religion and moral code shown in Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, clearly portrays that. The Scarlett Letter also shows that in this society, a person must surrender their individual desires to the sense of the society if they want to remain a part of the society. Reverend Dimmesdale, as well as Pearl, were never fully able to do that, so neither of them could remain in the society. Choosing individual desires over the society’s sense and moral code, Dimmesdale died and Pearl never returned to the town. Hester was the only one who was able to completely sacrifice her individual sensibility and because of that, she became a respected member of the Puritan society and the heroine of The Scarlet Letter. 

Works Cited

1. Bell, Michael D. "Michael Davitt Bell on Hester Prynne as Rebel." Hawthorne and the Historical Romance of New England. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1971. 179-80. Print.

2.  Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter Unabridged. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1994. Print.

The Louisiana Purchse

Here is my American History theme with my Works Cited page.

America was a young country, just getting its bearings, having just developed the Constitution. This Constitution was quickly put to the test, however, as well as the entire country and its people. It led to the expansion of slavery which then led to the creating of an intense rivalry between the North and South, ending in the Civil War. Westward expansion is also a result of the Louisiana Purchase and this Westward migration characterized the heart and soul of the American dream (Billington). The Louisiana Purchase shook the Constitution and the government as a whole, presenting it with challenges the government had never had to face before (Carson). The Louisiana Purchase is the most important event between 1789 and 1815 because it tested the strength of the Constitution, and set the stage for the rest of the major events in American history, most notably the Civil War and Westward expansion.

Before the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, America was considerably smaller, and easier to control, than it was afterwards. In total, the Louisiana Purchase, executed by Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte, gained America roughly 909,00 square miles of unexplored territory (Louisiana Purchase). The acquisition of such a large amount of territory undoubtedly shaped the future of America, quite literally. After the purchase went through, “It was later divided into the states known today as Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Iowa. It also included parts of Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Kansas, and Minnesota.” (McGill). Though the idea of gaining a large amount of territory sounds appealing, it was not without its problems. One of the most difficult problems that Jefferson had to deal with was the issue of the Constitutionality of the purchase. Before the Louisiana Purchase, nothing had been beyond the scope of the Constitution. “Thomas Jefferson himself saw that it threatened to make “blank paper” of the Constitution since it expanded the powers of the national government further than even the most diehard Federalists could have imagined” (Carson. 1). The Constitution did not cover the purchasing of any new territory or expansion of the Union. 

The issues surrounding the Louisiana Purchase revealed the major flaw in the Constitution: the Louisiana Purchase was not protected by the Constitution. This left Jefferson with two options; not purchase the Louisiana territory and pass up on the “greatest real estate deal in U.S. history” (Louisiana Purchase) or go against the Constitution and expand the governments powers like no president had ever done before. Passing up the Louisiana territory, at the time under the control of the French ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte (Louisiana Purchase), would mean giving up control of territory that had been fought for by many European countries and the trading routes that came with it (Louisiana Purchase). Were the benefits of this territory enough to bend, or even break, the rules laid out in the Constitution? Jefferson, a strict interpreter of the Constitution, did not think so and came up with the best solution; an amendment (Carson. 3). Time was not on Jefferson’s side, however, and left him with no time for an amendment. Napoleon was growing impatient (3) and Jefferson knew that the offer would only be good as long as Napoleon was in power (Louisiana Purchase). Despite this, he still had trouble sacrificing his political ideologies for the territory. A treaty was drawn up and the debates over it began. “The Northeastern Federalists took a hard line against the treaty. The denounced Virginian dominance, questioned the ability of the president to admit people of a foreign nation into the United States, and debated where the treat-making powers of the government lay” (Carson 7-8). The majority of the complaints that were raised were because of the fear of an unbalanced nation. If the Union did gain the Louisiana Territory, there would be far more Southwest territory than Northeast, creating a lack of balance of powers (8) and “‘lay the foundation for the separation of the states’” (9). Others said that the purchase did fall under the Constitution, specifically the part where it mentions the “provision for the general welfare and common defense” (8). Some members debating the purchase went so far as to describe it as “the greatest curse that could at present befall us” (8). Even though many people, including Jefferson himself, doubted the Louisiana Purchase, it was signed May 2, 1803 and taken possession of on December 20, 1803 (Louisiana Purchase), for better or for worse. 

Despite the great upheaval and debates surrounding the Louisiana Purchase, the treaty was pushed through and America gained control of an enormous amount of land, but, like it was anticipated, the nation became unbalanced. Foreshadowing the Civil War, “the purchase did broaden the influence of the South and West at the expense of the Northeast and laid the foundations for the spread of slavery, and the eventual---albeit temporary--- dissolution of the Union” (9). After the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, the Southwest territories far outnumbered the Northeast territories in the Union, allowing for a rivalry to be born between the two. This split would begin to increase with the expansion of slavery into the south, particularly into the infamous Southern plantations (slavery). Slavery had “reestablished itself as the backbone of Southern financial interests” (slavery) with the expansion of cotton as a major economic resource (slavery). In the South, slaves became a necessary part of the everyday functions of these plantations and were indirectly responsible for the cash-flow into the plantation. The South’s economy was dependent on slavery, so deeply was slavery entrenched into the culture. There was also the issue of admitting the new Southern states into the Union, and it quickly became a power struggle between the Northern and Southern politicians. With the Louisiana purchase there came an influx of new states wanting to be admitted into the Union, and the determining factor became slavery; if a state allowing slavery was admitted, then it was a sign that the Southern political influence was in control and if a state was admitted that did not allow slavery, it was a sign of Northern political influence (slavery). “Increasingly, Northern and Southern politicians came to view each other as members of a hostile camp, representing two opposing images of American life: one based on free labor and the other based on slave labor” (slavery). Finally, in 1861, the intense rivalry between the North and South erupted in the Civil War. The Northern’s victory over slavery ended with the Thirteenth Amendment being passed in 1865 but the African Americans did not have the same rights as Caucasians until the civil rights movement in the 1950’s (slavery). The end of the Civil War also did not mean the end of the rift as North and South rivalries still run deep to this day, especially in the South. The issue of civil rights is also still a complaint, with many African Americans and other minorities all over the country unhappy with their representation and lack of equality, the roots of which can be traced back to the precursors of the Civil War.   

There was more to this new Louisiana Territory than the famous North and South friction. The most important benefit from the territory was the westward expansion. The territory that so many Americans were drawn to was made by the “[pushing] its western border to the Rocky Mountains” (“Moving the Frontier West”). This pushing back of the border was made possible by the “Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and culminating in the 1848 Mexican Cession” (Billington. 2). Without the original Louisiana Purchase, the western border of America would not be farther than the Mississippi River (“Moving the Frontier West”). The U.S. government then passed the Homestead Act of 1862 encouraging the migration of American families into the West (Billington. 2). “The act granted 160 acres free to anyone,..., who agreed to build a house on the land, live there, and farm it for five years. The law also included a provision that allowed settlers to buy the land outright after they had lived on it for six months at the nominal price of $1.25 an acre” (2). This proved to be a huge incentive to the American people and led to other similar acts being passed, influencing even more people to migrate out West. Religious motives were also an important factor to moving out West, since a “free enjoyment of their liberty, property and the Religion which they profess” (“Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803)”) could be found out in the unestablished West (Billington. 3). “Many nontraditional religious groups sought this freedom to worship as they pleased” (3) such as the Mormons and other minorities, especially African Americans having just been freed from slavery (3). Promising greater freedom, especially religious freedom, and tempting economical benefits, migrating Westward was difficult, many people dying or simply not being able to afford the cost of the migration (4). This difficulty, however, is what shaped the backbone of America. It was not easy for those people to travel out West, much less to successfully take root there, but many people did. They braved the new territory head-on, “[characterizing] the American dream that hard work would eventually lead to financial success” (1). 

The very heart of America is what it is today because of the Louisiana Purchase. It both literally and figuratively shaped the Union by dramatically increasing the amount of land America had control over and by testing the American people. The increase in the amount of land led to other deals that added onto the Union’s territories. The Constitution was also placed under a great deal of strain because of the question of the Constitutionality of the purchase. After the purchase, an unhealthy balance between the North and South territories developed, resulting in the Civil War. Many families also expanded westward, characterizing the American spirit. In 1803, the most important even between 1789 and 1815 was the Louisiana Purchase because it tested the strength of the Constitution, and set the stage for many major historical events that would change America, such as the Civil War and Westward expansion. The American Spirit and civil rights movements are still things that affect us today and have helped change America into the country that it is, and without the Louisiana Purchase, these major historical events would have never happened. 

Works Cited 

1. Carson, David A. “Blank Paper Of The Constitution: The Louisiana Purchase Debates.” Historian 54.3 (1992): 477. History Reference Center. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. 

2. Lerner Publishing, Group. "Moving The Frontier West." Conquest of the West. 8. US: Lerner Publishing Group, 2002. History Reference Center. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. 

3. “Louisiana Purchase.” American History. ABC-CLIO, 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. 

4. “Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803).” American History. ABC-CLIO, 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. 

5. McGill, Sara Ann. "Louisiana Purchase." Louisiana Purchase (2009): 1-2. History Reference Center. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

6. “slavery.” American History. ABC-CLIO, Web. 21 Oct. 2013

7. “westward expansion.” American History. ABC-CLIO, 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.