the climax

“Even the most casual reader of Nathaniel Hawthorne cannot fail to notice his conspicuous and consistent focus on nature…As a Romanticist who gives abundant literary attention to nature, as an individual writer who attempts to remain true to the vision of his own art, and as a human being who treasures the importance of nature in his own life experiences, Hawthorne gives distinct attention in his works to the natural environment” (Daniel 307).


Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the woods and have a real conversation for the first time in seven years. In this private scene, “no golden light had ever been so precious as the gloom of this dark forest. Here, seen only by his eyes, the scarlet letter need not burn into the bosom of the fallen woman! Here, seen only by her eyes, Arthur Dimmesdale, false to God and man, might be, for one moment, true!” (134).

Having received Hester’s verbal forgiveness, and having forgiven himself at last, Dimmesdale is “surprised by joy,” from moral cleansing. Hester also embraces a new beginning, by removing the scarlet letter and “[throwing] it to a distance among the withered leaves” (138). As stated before, Hawthorne shows his Romanticism in seeing the Body, Soul, Imagination, and the Mind as connected parts of the self. Hester, who had been exquisitely beautiful when she was first introduced, went through a wholly effecting transformation. The “A” put a weight upon Hester’s wild personality, and this manifested in her outward appearance, which became serious and somber, in increasing likeness of the Puritans. Once she removes the “A”, her beauty and colour return. Dimmesdale’s sickly body also becomes youthful and full of energy. In a show of the intimacy between humanity and Nature, the surrounding forest responds:

“And, as if the gloom of the earth and sky had been but the effluence of these two mortal hearts, it vanished with their sorrow. All at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the obscure forest, gladdening each green leaf, transmuting the yellow fallen ones to gold, and gleaming adown the gray trunks of the solemn trees. The objects that had made a shadow hitherto, embodied the brightness now. The course of the little brook might be traced by its merry gleam afar into the wood’s heart of mystery, which had become a mystery of joy.

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 deathlike slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world. Had the forest still kept its gloom, it would have been bright in Hester’s eyes, and bright in Arthur Dimmesdale’s!” (139).

Here, Hawthorne restates the British Romantic notion that man’s perception is vital to the beauty of Nature.

The relief of joy that finally comes to Hester and Dimmesdale is unfortunately short-lived. Pearl had been playing by herself in the distance during their talk, but when she comes upon her parents in this new state, she does not know how to handle the new reality presented to her. Pearl had always existed in contrast to Hester, and had always known Hester by the “A,” and does not know how to function without what is contrary to her. Pearl stands there, divided from her parents by a brook, pointing her finger at them. Her reflection in the brook joins her, and under this judgment, Dimmesdale’s hand creeps back over his heart, and Hester “turned again towards Pearl, with a crimson blush upon her cheek, a conscious glance aside at the clergyman, and then a heavy sigh; while, even before she had time to speak, the blush yielded to a deadly pallor” (144). She takes the scarlet letter, which the brook had washed back to her, and fastens it to her dress again. Not only could she not get away from the scarlet letter, she could not get away from Pearl, who is also the symbol of the scarlet letter.

“ ‘Dost thou know thy mother now, child? [...] Wilt thou come across the brook, and own thy mother, now that she has her shame upon her, - now that she is sad?’
‘Yes; now I will!’ answered the child, bounding across the brook, and clasping Hester in her arms. ‘Now thou art my mother indeed! And I am thy little Pearl!’” (145).

This could be an example of Hawthorne’s Negative Romanticism (see Crystal (rustykeloid)’s previous blog entry), in which contraries are a necessary part of life, but this balance can have a high cost.

Works Cited

Daniel, Janice B. “ ‘Apples of Thoughts and Fancies’: Nature as Narrator in The Scarlet Letter.” ATQ 7.4 (1993): 307-320.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Ed. Stanley Appelbaum. New York: Dover, 1994.