Sexuality and American Culture

One thing that struck me while reading the second half of The Scarlet Letter was what seemed to be a sort of “role reversal.”  Well, I wouldn’t call it that exactly, but what I mean is that what we would normally associate as actions of a woman were done by a man and vice versa, as in the case of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the novel, we see that Hester has grown stronger spiritually, while Dimmesdale has grown weaker physically and mentally. In the end of chapter 17, it is Hester who encourages Dimmesdale to leave the Puritan settlement behind through her stronger personality. And in the scene in chapter 23, Dimmesdale is the one being supported by Hester on the scaffold. Stereotypically, men are the stronger sex while women are the ones who need support and guidance, so this is a bit unusual.

Also of interest is the change of Hester’s appearance and personality in the second half of the novel. She still continues to do good works for the community, but she has, according to the narrator, lost traits that were necessary “to keep her a woman.” The passion that was once within her has now left along with her beauty, leaving only a “marble coldness.” Since Hester has been apart from the rest of the community for so long, she has taken to thoughts about her life in relation to the world, her life in relation to womanhood, and her daughter Pearl. It is despite her punishment, not because of it, that Hester has become so passionless about her own life and of those around her.

The idea of passionlessness was not so farfetched in Hawthorne’s time. In the essay “Passionlessness: An Interpretation of Victorian Sexual Ideology, 1790-1850,” Cott discusses how in between the 18^th and 19^th Centuries, women have resolved to deny that they are sexual beings in order to put an end to male dominance over them. The result is that women are viewed as pure, virtuous beings instead of carnal creatures that lust for sex. This does not apply specifically to Hester, however, because her loss of passion is a result of her estrangement from society. But it is reflected in one paragraph of chapter 20 in The Scarlet Letter, where Dimmesdale runs into one of the youngest women of his church. She is described as “fair and pure as a lily that had bloomed in Paradise.” Dimmesdale feigns not having seen her because he is afraid he might corrupt her innocent soul, which is a view more commonly held in Hawthorne’s time than the colonial period where the novel takes place.

Finally, I’d like to make a comment on the visitors that observe the procession on Election Day. There is a contrast between the members of the Puritan community and the “outsiders”: the Indians and the sailors. Unlike the settlers, they are not required to follow the rules of the community. Actions that would be deplorable in the eyes of the Puritans if committed by one of their own would go unnoticed if that same act were done by one of these outsiders. This idea is related to Cott’s essay where she discusses how different social classes have sets of standards of behavior that a member of that class should stick to and outsiders need not follow. This in turn is reminiscent of Foucault’s “affirmation of self,” where the bourgeois, or middle class, first put restrictions on sexual activities on themselves and ignoring the working class during the early stages. It is this separation, through stricter sexuality laws and ideals, that makes those who are bound by these rules more “civilized” than the rest of society.