Gossip & Guilt
As I read Godbeer’s essay I kept thinking about the Salem Witch Trials and how the witchcraft bubble exploded with such force, why people were so quick to condemn their neighbors and sell them out. Whether on some occasions it was due to a calculated personal hatred of a specific individual or a desire to obtain their capital, it is probably true that from the most part people were operating out of fear: fear of being associated with witchcraft performed by others, fear that if you didn’t turn some one else in than you could be accused of being a witch or having sympathies for one. And so I wonder why the sodomy bubble did not also explode and leave us with a multitude of museum exhibits on Puritan sexuality and detailed records of accusations, trials, and executions. Perhaps one of the reasons is that the stigma of sodomy was so great that people’s reactions were turned inside out – the desire to live ignorantly in bliss, and present a perfect community to the world could far outweigh the desire to publically castigate a transgressor.
In Godbeer’s descriptions of New England cases involving sexual transgression there is a reoccurring phenomenon: though “illicit sex” seemed to have a greater number of specific rules than other crimes, justice was often slow to smite. He mentions (on page 103) that, “Indeed the most striking aspect of local hostility toward Gorton is that church members seemed to have been more concerned with rumors having “spread abroad in the world” than with Gorton’s actual behaviors.” Legal action was only taken when it was obvious the gossip could not be adequately hushed within the community, whereas witches would be executed wit out an assessment of how far knowledge of their deeds spread. This might be because witchcraft was considered the antithesis of Christian religions – religions were varied globally and so what was of concern to one, might not be concerning to another. But it is so interesting that at the same time as sex seemed to be considered a domain of religion, there is certain acknowledgment of it transcending and being a universal question to grapple with – people didn’t feel they had to defend their religions, but the shame that went with sexual misconduct seems to pervade an entire town. There was pride in finding a witch and casting her out of society, because a singled out witch reflected a society that was pure and good in endeavoring to create a Utopia of God-fearing and God-obeying citizens, but in finding a sodomite there was an underlying fear of contamination or at least of being perceived as contaminated. Witches inspired hostility, but sexual deviants inspired embarrassment though being either one carried severe penalties. This shows that, above even legal codes, individuals were beholden to their experience of sexuality and that it still contained some mystery yet beyond their comprehension, because I think misguided comprehension (by that I mean a confident understanding of certain sexual actions as illicit that would enable a person to be unwavering in judgment) would have resulted in more executions.
A prevalent theme in the Scarlett Letter is the effects of guilt on a person, particular to a situation where the person perceives himself as wrong in the eyes of a community –the act/thought/thing they feel guilty about is seen as contrary to the overall beliefs, practices, and condoned behaviors of the society they live in. Dimmesdale embodies this in the Scarlett Letter, and I see parallels (and also clear digressions) in Godbeer’s descriptions of Nicholas Sension’s behavior – “…Enno “heard Sension pray God to turn him from this sin he had so long lived in…”” (Peiss 100) — there is obvious internal conflict with in both men. Both demonstrate a continued evasion of full confession, because of fear of repercussions but, even more so, fear of their community’s opinion. Both have strong feelings of guilt, but neither are directly moved to relieve themselves of their burdens. However the nature of their “crimes” is the source of digression – the difference being that a sodomite was viewed as “unnatural” while Dimmesdales’ sins at least constituted as “natural”. Dimmesdale does not exhibit fear with quite the same desperation as Sension – “Far from being brazen about his attempts at sex with young men…he [Sension] was clearly scared and did his best to dissimulate when caught.” (Peiss 100). Showing that the way sodomites were viewed versus adulterers in Puritan communities had profoundly different effects on the guilty person in question. Dimmesdale is conflicted about the sin of not confessing, of leaving Hester alone with the burden of their shared secret, but Sension is conflicted about the sin of his even being. He seems to view his actions as twisted to the point where he sees his sexual inclinations as something separate from himself, as something that God could fix, by taking it away from him.
Tags: Guilt, Salem Witch Trials
February 18th, 2013 at 9:21 pm
Hi Rachel,
The portrayal of guilt in the Scarlet Letter is, as you say, both similar to and different from reports of Sension’s turmoil. See if you can place the time differences between these 2 portrayals in light of Foucault’s arguments about the System of Alliance (Sension and also the Bradford piece) and the Scientia Sexualis (deployment of sexuality) for Hawthorne’s time.
February 19th, 2013 at 2:38 pm
When I learned about the Salem Witch Trials in high school, our teacher explained that the women (and one man, who was pressed to death by stones) were marginalized members of society who threatened the societal structure of the ruling patriarchy. These women were frequently unmarried and in control of their own finances, so they were regarded as strange, which was where the gossip began. By having them denounced and then executed, the religious and political orders were thus asserting their authority and keeping the women of their households in check, and deterring other women from searching to acquire power.