Foucault and ‘A Flood of Sunshine’

The most extravagant shift in Hawthorne’s novel is one mobilized by a light that can come only after an extreme darkness: Hester and Dimmesdale’s meeting in the forest is traced by their mutual illuminations on personal truth in contrast to the “human law” and the “higher truth” that govern their fellow townsfolk (217). Their revelations are so powerful that the forest, at first full of darkness and mystery, is brightened by their blossoming spirits, and the pair, together and as individuals, is able to find peace, momentary may it be, for the first time in seven years. Foucault would be pleased at the representation of Hester in this scene, in her most powerful manifestation, as a character that subverts power structures through discourse.

Hawthorne’s description of the source of Hester’s power compliments the Foucauldian outline of a sphere of power/knowledge relations comprised of multilateral forces. For example, although the perceived intention behind her badged punishment is to repress her by way of “Shame, Despair, [and] Solitude!” Hawthorne notes “these had been her passport” and “her teachers” (213). Foucault would admire Hawthorne’s keenness in portraying knowledge as a pathway to power, especially because Hester’s is reaped from her “estranged point of view” (213). Indeed, in the forest Hester’s strength is revealed as a direct result of her estrangement from society, not her relative readmittance into it. In other words, Hester doesn’t overcome her bondage by striving to improve her fellow townspeople’s perception of her, but rather by maintaining a certain range from their customs. And though we acknowledge Hester’s social estrangement, Hawthorne also urges us to see the power she gains from a physical estrangement. Until she distances herself from the village borders, Hester is confined to a martyr-like existence; when she escapes them, power, knowledge and truth pour forth upon her. She gains freedom and peace from a social detachment and a physical remoteness, which allow her to assess her own personal truth.

Hester, in one of her most powerful speeches, shows Dimmesdale the importance of personal truth by highlighting the forest’s indiscriminating nature in contrast to that of Puritan society. When she asks, “Doth the universe lie within the compass of yonder town, which only a little time ago was but a leaf-strewn desert?” she emphasizes the incompatibility between societal constructs with the laws of nature, which is “never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by higher truth” (217). This sentiment also supports a Foucauldian framework in its aim to deconstruct unilateral perspectives of truth and morality.

The peace Hester and Dimmesdale bask in, though brief, is utterly genuine. Hawthorne symbolizes a visual lightening that also represents the lifting of physical and emotional burdens on the two characters. His word-choice in the paragraph following Hester’s removal of the sacred letter reflects this aim: “beamed,” “radiant,” “glowing,” and “forth burst the sunshine” (217). It is also important to note that Hawthorne imparts the same brightening to the physical surroundings of Hester and Dimmesdale. The forest, the trees, every leaf is donned with light, reiterating the notion that escaping from a constrained societal perspective to seek one’s personal truth will bring power, knowledge, freedom, and peace.

Tags: freedom, Michel Foucault, morality, Nathaniel Hawthorne, peace, personal truth, power-knowledge, The Scarlet Letter

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2013 at 3:11 am and is filed under February 26, Sophia Curran. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.