"Be true!"

Truth and double life in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is, in many ways, an accurate portrait of a past time: the Puritan society of New England at the beginning of the XVII century. As we can notice through reading the story, Hawthorne was self-conscious of the atmosphere that reigned in those Puritan comunities, and he reflects it in the book with great detail. I am going to focus on one very important subject which cand be found underlying the actions and thoughts of some characters: the idea of a double life.

It seems that Hawthorne is plainly aware of this hypocrisy that ruled the life of many people living in those communities. “We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest”, says Hester Prynne to her daughter. This phrase expresses in a few words how the lives of many people were split into two. On one hand, the public life, represented in the novel by the market place. It is the place where people are exposed to the “public gaze”, as said in the book. On the other, the private life, represented by the image of the forest, also related with the wilderness of human nature and its passions. I think that his kind of schizophrenia is somehow instigated by the Puritan mentality, which regarded human nature as something corrupted, source of wicked actions. 

The character of reverend Dimmesdale, the minister of the community, is highly representative of this idea. He has commited adultery with Hester Prynne, but he keeps silence and tries to behave before his community as if nothing had happened. Nevertheless, he finally realizes that this double life is, in fact, a life of lie. The narrator –which the writer has introduced at the very beginning of the book, and seems to have many things in common with Hawthorne- makes an interesting reflection on Dimmesdale’s behaviour. “To the untrue man, the whole universe is false—it is impalpable—it shrinks to nothing within his grasp. And he himself in so far as he shows himself in a false light, becomes a shadow, or, indeed, ceases to exist. The only truth that continued to give Mr. Dimmesdale a real existence on this earth was the anguish in his inmost soul”. The feeling of anguish, though being painful, is presented as a way by which Dimmesdale admits his error and recovers the unity of his life few moments before dying, when he goes up to the scafold and confesses before all the people his guilt.

Hester Prynne acts in an opposite way. She does not have a double life. However, the only life she is allowed to live is her private life, since the letter “A” on her breast excludes her from public life. “The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude!”. Once again, we see the unnatural division, consequence of this Puritan set of mind, between public life and private life. This sorrowful situation is also positive for Hester Prynne, since it humanized her and turns her into a more mature person. I do not think that Hawthorne presents sin as a way of maturing, however, the acceptance of one’s wicked actions is always step in the search of self indentity. “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”, says the narrator.