Not-So-Divine Creation
I should start off by saying that I want to examine the same issues that Sami has examined in her response, which is the discrepancy between the “act” of sexuality and an sexual identity in the Puritan era. Though Sami mentions this in her post, i want to focus more on the emphasis of the identity formation of the ofender and not merely the act which voilates the law or social order. The analysis of Sension and his sensitivities to his “trade” (Godbeer 99) perfectly mirrors the way in which Hester who bears the scarlet letter to remind her and the people of her act of sin, must form an identity, and her child’s identity with the legacy of the act upon them both. Godbeer’s thesis, as stated in his purpose, “is to show that attitudes toward sodomy in colonial New England were more varied that has been assumed…First, while religious and legal state statements match scholarly impression of premodern sexual discourse as focused on acts rather than identity, popular perceptions of sodomy sometimes appear closer to the latter, though we should take care not to invest them with a twentieth=century sensibility” (Godbeer 94). Though the mandates of sexual behavior where enforced with a much greater tenacity, the focus of these laws were not to enforce or standardize identity or sexual orientation, it was more to normalize the moral structures of procreation and pure uses of genitalia. As Godbeer writes: “Magistrates and ministers referred to “sodomy” and “sodomitical” activity but not to “sodomites” or to any specifically homoerotic impulse” (Godbeer 97). Thus, sodomy was not merely a homosexual act, and because these laws were not directly linked to identity formation, those prosecuted by the law were not linked to distinct niches or inventions of identity and life. However, these distinct niches did not only induce freedom, it also created personal confusion and turmoil and allowed for the manifestation of emotional and moral contradictions.
Though we do not know the end, the story of the Scarlet letter, through a Foucaultian “Juro-discursive” view would have easily stated which laws were violated and what punishment was passed. A women who committed adultery (though the husband may be deceased, so this status can be argued) with a man unknown—by the name of Hester Prynne—was sentenced to wear an embroidery with the letter A and stand on the platform of a pillory but not be mounted to it for a period of time. After her sentence was over, she moved into a house, still in the proximity of the town, and made a living off sewing various designs, clothing and accessories for the people. However, as we all are reading the book, the story is much more complicated and revealing in a perspective that not only analyzes the law, but the people: the offender, the powers of authority, and the civilians of the town.
The Scarlet letter is both a symbolic and pragmatic sign that functions to penetrate Hester’s identity and thoughts about her act. Holistically, as stated before, the letter of the law is quite clear. However, when the spectacle of being showcased halts, the continuation of the law in different forms appear: “The very law that condemned her—a giant of stern features, but with vigor to support, as well as annihilate, in his iron arm—had held her up, through the terrible ordeal of her ignominy. But now, with this unattended walk from her prison door, began the daily custom, and she must either sustain and carry it forward by the ordinary resources of her nature, or sink beneath it. She could no longer borrow from the future, to help her through the present grief. Tomorrow would bring its own trial, and yet the very same that was now so unutterably grievous to be borne” (Hawthorne 54). Her identity, during the attended walks, is one that is constructed for her. The consequence of her sin, Pearl, on the other hand, is an organic entity, growing and learning, following and disobeying. Hester proclaims that “God gave me the child. He gave her, in requital of all things else, which ye had taken from me. She is my happiness!—she is my torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in Life! Pearl punishes me too! See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a million-fold the power of retribution for my sin? Ye shall not take her! I will die first!” The melting of barriers between the scarlet letter and Pearl, punishment and pride and retribution and hell all imply the importance of identity over act, of continuity over singularity. Though, like Godbeer claims: “scholarly impressions of premodern sexuality discourse as focused on acts rather than identity” (94), the conceptions of popular and civilian belief were much closer to the identity aspect.
Similarly, Sension’s case in Godbeers article repeat the same notions of identity over act. Sension on the assaulting and seducing young men, admitted “that he had ‘long’ practiced ‘this trade” (Godbeer 99). As Godbeer emphasizes, trade is more referring to a way of life, an identity, a process or series of acts that may confirm, not merely reflect his view of himself. Godbeer writes: “use of that term to describe Sension’s behavior indicates a sense of its significance, distinctiveness, and permanence in his life” (Godbeer 99). Not only does trade refer to these qualities, it also assumes a stance which must be improved on, where the craft and technique must be polished and renovated. Godbeer continues to say that: “it is a rare glimpse of ordinary people recreating their own sexual taxonomy, their own discourse,” (Godbeer 100), just like Hester’s struggle with Pearl. However, we must remember that creating an alternate identity that does not fit with societies standards does not only induce freedom. In the following paragraph, Godbeer reinstates that even in inventing his identity, Sension could not “discard religious values that condemned the acts in which he wanted to engage” (100). Similar to Hester, who constantly wants Pearl to realize her creator, the Heavenly father, or even details like the name of pearl and how she embodies both innocence and wildness, of purity and savageness, Sension feels the same contradictory tension of the act of creating an identity that escapes the grasp of social norms.
