The Scarlet Letter: Setting

The Scarlet Letter: Setting

Setting is typically coined as a term describing the time and place in which a novel takes place, and The Scarlet Letter is no exception to this. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel begins on this very premise; chapter one, “The Prison Door,” starts the novel in this fashion, describing the jail yard in which the novel’s main character, Hester Prynne, resides. He launches into a detailed description of the rusting, weathered jail house, the graveyard near it, and the overgrown, grassy lot before it. In describing the jail house he writes, “The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique than any thing else in the new world. Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era” (33). Drawing emphasis to the age of the building by noting the rust and using words such as “antique”, Hawthorne not only illuminates the physical description of the location in which the story takes place, but also hints towards the deep-rooted, more traditional frame of mind and state of culture of the time period in which the story exists in. Similar physical descriptions resume as Hawthorne describes Hester’s place of residence. In descriptions of the isolated cottage he writes, “On the outskirts of the town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not close in vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage. It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned, because of the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity which already marked the habits of the emigrants. It stood on the shore, looking across a basin of the sea at the forest-covered hills, towards the west. A clump of scrubby trees, such as alone grew on the peninsula, did not so much conceal the cottage from view, as seem to denote that here was some object which would fain have been, or at least ought to be, concealed” (55). Amidst the description of the thatched cottage surrounded by poor soil and a spotting of trees, again, Hawthorne intertwines description that suggests at a greater meaning. He makes note of the seclusion of the cottage, the peninsula itself even, through repetition, emphasizing the ideal that Hester is detached from functioning society, a shunned peninsula herself, and as the trees ought to conceal the cottage, she too ought to be concealed from view.

The next, less traditional development of setting comes in Hawthorne’s description of the new world, an important ideal to understand in order to make sense of many of the cultural norms and happenings of the age. This is exemplified as Hester makes her way to Governor Bellingham’s home and it is stated that, “The period was hardly, if at all, earlier than that of our story, when a dispute concerning the right of property in a pig, not only caused a fierce and bitter contest in the legislative body of the colony, but resulted in an important modification of the framework itself of the legislature” (69). This passage follows Hester’s concern over the Governor’s interest in the town’s talk of whether or not Hester’s child, Pearl, should be stripped from her care. Hester finds it most interesting that a person of such high status should be concerned of such lowly matters. This key passage is important in noting the developing state of the land in which the story is set. The story is told in a time in which the new world was just an infant, and its new inhabitants were still trying to set structure and laws to the ways of life. In order to fully comprehend the culture, and age in which Hester exists, one must grasp that it is a system that is still trying to figure itself out. Another important aspect of life in the new world that is important to note, is the great gap that exists between high officials, such as Governor Bellingham, and low townspeople such as Hester. This fissure in societal rank is very apparent in the description of the governor’s opulent home, to which Hester’s cottage pales in comparison.

Similar to the importance of understanding the ways of life in the new world, is understanding the culture of the period; the description of which adds greatly to the development of the setting of the novel. Much of this culture is developed in the description of the Puritans and their ways of life, the people who were the predominant new settlers of the new world. Such description begins early on in the novel with Hawthorne noting of the market place, “But, in that early severity of the Puritan character, an indifference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn. It might be that a sluggish bond-servant, or an undutiful child, whom his parents had given over to the civil authority, was to be corrected at the whipping post. It might be, that an Antinomian, a Quaker, or other heterodox religionist, was to be scourged out of the town, or an idle and vagrant Indian, whom the white man’s fire-water had made riotous about the streets, was to be driven with stripes into the shadow of the forest” (34). Analogous descriptions follow, occurring repeatedly throughout the beginning of the book, all of which speak to the severity of Puritan culture. Within this passage alone, Hawthorne demonstrates the intolerable, and quick to punish nature of the Puritans. Lending a description of them that is far less than understanding and accepting. A very apt description of this nature follows Hester’s emergence from the jail and the view of the “town-beadle”, “This personage prefigured and represented in his aspect the whole dismal severity of the Puritanic code of law, which it was his business to administer in its final and closest application to the offender” (36). And so, not only were the Puritans people who were exact in their rulings, but looked to carry out those rulings and punishments in the most extreme of forms. Also, an aspect of society one cannot miss in the beginning of the novel is the extreme, and all-encompassing role that religion plays in peoples’ lives. From daily sermons lasting for hours, legislation drawn from the words of the Bible, and the obsession of the townspeople to conduct themselves in such a way that their soul will receive salvation; religion is a major factor to understand when it comes to forming the complete setting in which The Scarlet Letter exists.  

Lastly, and most interesting element in the development of the setting, is the hypocrisy that exists within the new world and its potency in the culture of the era. This ideal is developed time and time again as Hester makes note that what is often most painful in wearing the scarlet letter upon her chest, is the acknowledgment in passers-by that they too are not free of sin, that most everyone she encounters is not free of sin, but she alone must bear this punishment. This element is most profoundly seen in the descriptions of Hester’s, incomparable needle-work for many of the townspeople, the same townspeople who deny her presence and shun her from societal happenings. Hawthorne notes, “Vanity, it may be, chose to mortify itself, by putting on, for ceremonials of pomp and state, the garments that had been wrought by her sinful hands. Her needle-work was seen on the ruff of the Governor; military men wore it on their scarfs, and the minister on his band; it decked the baby’s little cap…The exception indicated the ever relentless vigor with which society frowned upon her sin” (57). It is so astounding that the same people who are so quick to place such a punishment upon her shoulders, are the same ones to wear the fashion that was created by her hands, the hands they deemed too sinful to be an ordinary member of society. So with this unusual, and frankly dumbfounding element of the culture and society of the era, a complete account of setting is developed that goes beyond the bounds of simply just time and place, a development that greatly adds to the understanding and effectiveness of the novel.