When Did We Start Thinking About Marriage?
The Scarlet Letter motivates me to examine the human pursuit of truth and happiness in “The Minister in A Maze”. Hester’s moment of confession reveals that happiness for her, her lover and her former spouse, involves more than the revelation of truth. In fact, truth here is conflated with happiness. Hawthorne illustrates that happiness for the lovers in this Victorian triangle are reinforced by the very same system of alliance that Foucault discusses–one involving kinship and marriage between sexual partners. Though alliance is never consummated between the reunion and escape of Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale, the idea and subsequent mentality of marriage and the union of family is the source of happiness for each main character–save for Chillingworth, of course.
Foucault’s arguments on “the mandatory production of confession” provides a useful understanding of Dimmesdale’s transformation after his interview with Hester Prynne as the event that produces truth (Foucualt, 21). In Scientia Sexualis, Foucault writes that “the obligation to confess is now relayed through so many different points, is so deeply ingrained in us, that we no longer perceived it as the effect of a power that constrains us; on the contrary, it seems to us that truth, lodged in our most secret nature, “demands” only to surface; that if it fails to do so, this is because a constraint holds it in place, the violence of a power weighs it down, and it can finally be articulated only at the price of a kind of liberation” (Foucault, 60). Foucault argues that the confession leads the individual to liberation. Hester experiences this moment of transformation after she confess Chillingworth’s true identity to Dimmesdale. Hawthorne writes that she “undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and taking from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves…the stigma gone, Hester heaved a long, deep sigh, in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit. O exquisite relief!” (Hawthorne, 303-4). Oddly enough, this liberation indicates a relatively calm physical transformation. It is Dimmesdale who is more transformed by liberation. However, this liberation is still accompanied by the system of alliance. After Hester assuaged his despondence about his loneliness, Dimmesdale “gazed into Hester’s face with a look in which hope and joy shone out, indeed, but with fear betwixt them, and a kind of horror at her boldness, who had spoken what he vaguely hinted at, but dared not speak” (Hawthorne, 299). It appears that the happiness that liberates Dimmesdale is the prospect of union with Hester. But why is such a union the ultimate solace for each character involved? Why does Pearl place such heavy emphasis on receiving public displays of affection from her estranged father?
Though the search for truth here may involve the rekindling of unrequited love, the system of alliance is alive and well in Hawthorne’s Victorian retelling of Puritanical confession. Liberation-in-alliance served as Dimmesdale’s life support as he confessed on the scaffold. Hawthorne includes the system of alliance between Hester and Dimmesdale to carry Dimmesdale through to the end of his confession. As he dies, Dimmesdale defers to Hester for fortitude and strength outside of Chillingworth’s grasp. His kiss from Pearl breaks the spell that bound him in grief. Hawthorne’s romanticism aside, perhaps the symbolic unification of the family was the ultimate truth to be pursued for the protagonists.
Perhaps, Chillingsworth’s quest for truth and reconciliation is itself rationalized by the pursuit of happiness. Chillingworth seeks revenge for a failed marriage; one can see the anguish he feels about his position when he admits, “Peradventure, hadst thou met earlier with a better love than mine, this evil had not been” (Hawthorne, 260). This reveals some lament that Chillingworth feels over Hester’s sin during their marriage. He is motivated by the violation of his union, demonstrating Hawthorne’s emphasis on the institution of marriage as one that dictates the level of punishment and shame that Chillingworth places on Hester as well.
Tags: aliiance, Dimmesdale, Family, Hester, The Scarlet Letter
February 25th, 2013 at 3:42 pm
Your connections to Foucault are really helpful. I was also interested in tracing the events in the forest leading up to Hester and Dimmesdale’s momentary bliss, when they seem to transcend the ultimate truth that binds them: “Such was the sympathy of Nature– that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by higher truth– with the bliss of these two spirits! Love, whether newly-born, or aroused from a death-like slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.” On this note, I think setting is particularly relevant in the forest, not only as a place that allows for such revelations, but as one that adapts to them.
February 25th, 2013 at 5:22 pm
Hi Kwame,
I look forward to discussing the issues you raise about truth,happiness, and freedom but for the moment want to address the passage below. You follow up the quotes from Foucault by saying that he sees confession as leading toward liberation, but he argues the opposite of that. As he says, the mandate to confess has become so ingrained that we no longer see it as that which constrains us. We have come to believe that it frees us, but he argues that it is actually doing the opposite as it conceals itself by proclaiming that confession is liberating. That is its enticement and its cover. How might this change your argument?
You wrote:
Foucault’s arguments on “the mandatory production of confession” provides a useful understanding of Dimmesdale’s transformation after his interview with Hester Prynne as the event that produces truth (Foucualt, 21). In Scientia Sexualis, Foucault writes that “the obligation to confess is now relayed through so many different points, is so deeply ingrained in us, that we no longer perceived it as the effect of a power that constrains us; on the contrary, it seems to us that truth, lodged in our most secret nature, “demands” only to surface; that if it fails to do so, this is because a constraint holds it in place, the violence of a power weighs it down, and it can finally be articulated only at the price of a kind of liberation” (Foucault, 60). Foucault argues that the confession leads the individual to liberation.