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Research in Literary Studies (ENG 321) College of Humanities and Fine Arts
Spring 5-2016
e Scarlet Leer and Novel Structure
Cade S. Miller
Murray State University
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Miller, Cade S., "7e Scarlet Le8er and Novel Structure" (2016). Research in Literary Studies (ENG 321). 1.
h8ps://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/eng321/1
Miller 1
Cade Miller
Prof. Gina Claywell
ENG321- 02
2 May 2016
The Scarlet Letter and Novel Structure
The Scarlet Letter is an example of a novel working at peak efficiency. The novel’s
structure is quite possibly the closest to perfection a writer can get and is no doubt a great
contributor to the novel’s everlasting success. The amount of deliberation that Nathaniel
Hawthorne put into properly structuring his story of romance should never be overlooked, and
aspiring writers will gain much by examining both the reasons why Hawthorne chose the
structure he did and the benefits that were afforded to him in doing so. Most importantly, writers
should pay due attention to the way in which Hawthorne is able to establish a bond early in the
novel between the narrator and the reader along with his creation of conflict and suspense
through the novel’s scenes and four acts, both of which are essential building blocks for any
story.
In regards to The Scarlet Letter’s narrator, Hawthorne faced a major challenge because he
would largely be presenting a story to an audience that is more or less featured in the work,
Puritans; on a broader scale, even Hawthorne notes the novel’s risk of being too dark: “It will
weary very many people, and disgust some” (“Letter” 227). Essentially, Hawthorne would be
working against a hostile, or at the very least suspicious, audience and would be forced to pull
some great magic trick so the reader could offer his tale a fair reading. Hawthorne devoted
himself to “finding the proper rhetorical tools of persuasion to render his audience sympathetic”
(Bayer 251). John Bayer points out that Hawthorne relied on narrative techniques from the oral
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tradition, before the era of print; more specifically, Hawthorne relied on Hugh Blair’s lectures on
rhetoric, published in 1783, “which contained persuasive tactics inherited from a time when
oratory dominated writing” (Bayer 252), which Hawthorne studied while in college. One of
Blair’s lectures states, in reference to introductory discourse, “presuming the disposition of the
Audience to be much against the Orator, he must gradually reconcile them to hearing him” (qtd.
in Bayer 261). What came from this was a comprehensive understanding of the roles for the
audience, reader, narrator, and author by Hawthorne so he could then manipulate the reader into
empathizing with and, perhaps more importantly, trusting the narrator. It is also important to
define the terms reader and audience. The term reader is reserved for the individual person
reading a work, whereas the term audience is to describe a collective group of readers. What is
seen in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a transition from the narrator’s addressing the reader
directly in “The Custom-House” to addressing the audience in The Scarlet Letter.
While “The Custom-House” could simply be seen as a way for Hawthorne to set up The
Scarlet Letter or, as often thought, to lengthen the original story for stand-alone publication, it is
actually doing something much more subtle, although greatly important for the survival of the
work: It is establishing a bond between the narrator and the reader. Hawthorne does this by
utilizing an apologetic and airy tone throughout “The Custom-House” before leading the reader
into the much more somber tone of The Scarlet Letter. By beginning “The Custom-House” with
language such as “the indulgent reader” and “the intrusive author” (Hawthorne 7), along with the
instance where he imagines what his forefathers would think of him: “A writer of story-books!
What kind of a business in life… may that be?” (Hawthorne 12), Hawthorne quickly
acknowledges his readers’ suspicions for the storyteller and lets them know that it is okay to be
suspicious of him; furthermore, by also exposing the reader to his own personal experience in
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supposedly discovering Mr. Surveyor Pue’s manuscript and being released from the Salem
Custom-House, Hawthorne has subtly manipulated the reader into sympathizing with him. As
Bayer states, “If the reader can be made to sympathize with Hawthorne’s personal experience…
[they] will be more receptive to his role as [narrator] in The Scarlet Letter” (254). So now with a
bond successfully established between the narrator and reader, Hawthorne may move into the
true tale of The Scarlet Letter without fear that his reader will turn on him.
This bond also allows Hawthorne’s narrator to influence the way in which the reader
interprets certain characters and symbols because the reader trusts the narrator’s judgment. The
reader is exposed to this, for example, through the narrator’s treatment of Arthur Dimmesdale
versus Roger Chillingworth. It is clear from the narrator’s descriptions of Chillingworth that
Chillingworth is not meant to be looked upon kindly by the reader; as Fred Marcus points out,
the narrator’s “treatment of Roger Chillingworth is much more severe than his treatment of
Hester or the minister” (Marcus 457). The narrator’s first mention of Chillingworth causes
Hester to “immediately become as still as death” (Hawthorne 51), and at this the reader cannot
help but ask, “What type of person must one be in order to cause someone to become ‘still as
death?’” Thus, the reader is already suspicious of Chillingworth. The narrator’s treatment of
Chillingworth only becomes more hostile as the novel develops, notably, in Chapter X when
Chillingworth spots something upon Dimmesdale’s chest and begins to dance with joy, to which
the narrator declares: “Had a man seen old Roger Chillingworth, at that moment of his ecstasy,
he would have had no need to ask how Satan comports himself, when a precious human soul is
lost to heaven, and won into his kingdom” (Hawthorne 92). Also in Chapter X, Pearl refers to
Chillingworth as the Black Man: “He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away, mother,
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or he will catch you!” (Hawthorne 90), which is an example of further influence by the narrator
on the reader regarding how to interpret Chillingworth.
The narrator treats Arthur Dimmesdale more as a victim than a predator, a great sufferer
as a result of his actions. The reader is exposed to this painful decline in character for
Dimmesdale through the whole novel; this is certainly reflected in the narrator’s voice, notably in
Chapter XI when the reader is enlightened to Dimmesdale’s internal struggle. The narrator
describes Dimmesdale as “suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and tortured by some
black trouble of the soul” (Hawthorne 93); the narrator also notes how the “public veneration
tortured him” (Hawthorne 95), along with Dimmesdale’s self-mutilation: “In Mr. Dimmesdale’s
secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge” (Hawthorne 96).
However, the most significant benefit that Hawthorne gains by establishing this narrator-
reader bond is that he is able to force the reader to sympathize with Hester which would not have
been an easy task given the nature of her actions and the conservative ideology of Hawthorne’s
audience, as Arthur Coxe objects, “we are astonished at the kind of incident which [Hawthorne]
has selected for romance” (258). It is not a coincidence that when Hester is introduced to the
reader, she is introduced as a protective mother first. Before her name is even said, Hester is
introduced as “the young woman—the mother of this child” who “stood fully revealed before the
crowd… her first impulse… to clasp the infant closely to her bosom” (Hawthorne 40). Thus, the
reader’s first visualization of Hester the sinner is as a mother which no doubt alters the reader’s
perception of her through the rest of the novel.
The only reason Hawthorne is able to achieve having his narrator influence the reader so
strongly is because he established his narrator’s voice early by using “The Custom-House” to do
so. It would be very interesting to see how the exclusion of “The Custom-House” may have
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altered the reception of The Scarlet Letter by its nineteenth-century audience; it is quite possible
that The Scarlet Letter may not have become the staple in American literature that it is today.
Another way that Hawthorne utilizes structure in his novel is with conflict, using a
method that Hawthorne developed due to his inability to write within the standard novel form at
the time. As Michael Cowley states, the novel in Hawthorne’s era functioned as a “chronicle of
events” and Hawthorne had had “no great talent or practice as a chronicler” (12). In fact,
Hawthorne had written a romantic novel as a young man that he was so ashamed of that he
“destroyed every copy on which he could lay his hands” (Cowley 12). To work around his
inability to write using the common novel form, Hawthorne relied on his skill as a short story
writer to structure his novel closer to what he was used to, using individual scenes to present the
story. Essentially, The Scarlet Letter could be thought of as a collection of short stories, each of
which “is a posed tableau or a dramatic confrontation” (Cowley 12). This allowed Hawthorne to
present the reader with a roller coaster of conflict, with each chapter introducing a new sub-
conflict to entertain the reader. For example, in Chapter XV, Pearl inquires about the scarlet letter
upon her mother’s bosom and the connection to the minister consistently clutching his chest.
Another example includes Chapter XVII, when Hester and Dimmesdale discuss boarding a ship
and sailing away. The conflicts at the scene level are often small, although important, because it
holds the reader’s attention; it is these smaller conflicts that keep the reader turning pages, in
order to discover what is to come.
Perhaps what deserves the most praise, though, in Hawthorne’s novel is its uniformity:
There is a not a wasted page, paragraph, or even sentence throughout the entire work. The novel
moves so seamlessly between major plot points and character point of views that the reader, as
John Gerber states, “is likely to be unaware until pages later that a fundamental break in the book
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has been passed” (34). Gerber speaks of The Scarlet Letter as four fundamental acts, each of
which is controlled by different characters. This strategy used by Hawthorne, to have these
different movements initiated by different characters, presents to the reader not only the chance
to see the tale through multiple sets of eyes—which is a great benefit—but also contributes to
steadily developing conflict all the way through the novel.
Act I begins with the New England crowd working as a catalyst toward conflict “since
none of [the main characters] can logically create the social situation which is the necessary
antecedent to the spiritual complication” (Gerber 28). Act II begins with Chillingworth
investigating the identity of Hester’s lover, by becoming the personal physician to Dimmesdale.
Act III introduces the reader more intimately to Hester and Pearl, giving new life to the story
after the extreme somberness of Chillingworth and Dimmesdale’s interactions. Finally, Act IV is
centered on Dimmesdale’s internal struggle and his granting of peace to Hester through he
revealing to the public himself as her lover.
While Hawthorne presents conflict at the scene level, he also develops conflict through
entire acts. For example, Act II sees “the health of Mr. Dimmesdale… [beginning] to fail”
(Hawthorne 80), which is one small conflict in itself. However, this smaller conflict is expanded
upon once Chillingworth becomes Dimmesdale’s personal physician, which then creates conflict
between the two men as Chillingworth strives to discover the identity of Hester’s lover and
Dimmesdale struggles internally with the morality of his actions. Thus, one could take any of the
four acts in The Scarlet Letter and read it as a lengthy short story.
Furthermore, Hawthorne uses these sub-conflicts to contribute to the novel’s overall
objective, which is the “study of isolation” (Gerber 26) as a result of sin. The novel’s first three
acts work to “multiply sin, intensify isolation, and diminish the hope of reunion” (Gerber 28),
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and is executed through the community’s shaming of Hester and forcing her from the community
in the novel’s first act, the isolation of Dimmesdale in the second act (while he is not physically
forced out of the community, Dimmesdale does withdrawal from it as he tries to find peace as a
result of his action), and Dimmesdale and Hester coming together to relieve their isolation by
boarding a ship, leaving the community, and starting anew in the third act. However, the fourth
act sees Dimmesdale reverse the isolation premise during the novel’s climax when he professes
his identity as Hester’s lover, granting peace to not only Hester since she no longer has to protect
his identity, but also to himself since he no longer has to hold such a shameful secret. The Scarlet
Letter develops its conflict so smoothly that it is almost as if it a roller coaster ascending to the
top of a peak, only to come racing back down in the fourth act, finally slowing to a complete stop
in the novel’s twenty-fourth chapter, when the narrator explains what happened to Hester and
Pearl after Dimmesdale’s death.
Hawthorne has essentially created a dynamic that sees conflict ensuing through
individual scenes, acts, and the novel as a whole, which is why it should come as no surprise as
to why The Scarlet Letter has entertained readers for so many decades. The novel has taken the
most essential element in storytelling and incorporated it into every single measure of the work.
As Janet Burroway points out, “in literature, only trouble is interesting” (168)—and The Scarlet
Letter is certainly not short of “trouble.”
However, it is not only that The Scarlet Letter possesses a great amount of conflict in
general and develops it steadily through the novel, but also that Hawthorne heightens this
conflict by using the strategy of “narrative delay” (Railton 490) to create suspense. The most
significant example of narrative delay is the narrator withholding the identity of Hester’s lover,
which forces the reader to continue (How could one possibly not finish a story when such a
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premise is presented?). However, Hawthorne utilizes this technique in other places also. One
instance includes Hawthorne’s decision to delay Hester’s appearance until after he has properly
set the scene outside the jail. By the time Hester is physically introduced to the reader,
Hawthorne has stated that many of the women in the crowd had “appeared to take a peculiar
interest in whatever penal infliction might be expected to ensue” (Hawthorne 38), which in turn
creates a “peculiar interest” in the reader to discover what “might be expected to ensue.”
Furthermore, as Railton points out, Hawthorne’s habit of delaying information in The
Scarlet Letter is also an attempt to inspire his audience to “suspend judgment” (490). He does
this by consistently raising questions but refusing to provide answers, leaving the reader with a
strong presence of ambiguity, forbidding them to make conclusions given the lack of evidence.
Examples of this include the narrator’s asking “Could it be true?” (Hawthorne 44) at the sight of
Hester atop the scaffold in Chapter II; Governor Wilson, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth’s
raising questions concerning the identity of Pearl’s father in Chapter VIII; and perhaps most
significantly, the narrator’s questioning of the meaning of the scarlet letter in “The Custom-
House,” stating that “how it was to be worn, or what rank, honor, and dignity, in by-past times,
were signified by it, was a riddle which… I saw little hope of solving” (Hawthorne 26), which—
even at the novel’s conclusion—is never actually explained.
The importance of structure in regards to a novel’s success is clear. Furthermore, if one
were to need an example on how to properly structure a novel, they would need to look no
farther than The Scarlet Letter. The novel demonstrates a near perfect strategy for developing
conflict and influencing the reader’s perceptions of characters through techniques that are not
solely for Hawthorne. Any one of these techniques can be imitated or adapted for one’s own
work, and, perhaps, even produce an award-winning title.
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Works Cited
Bayer, John G. “Narrative Techniques and the Oral Tradition in The Scarlet Letter.” American
Literature 52.2 (May 1980): 250–63. Print.
Burroway, Janet. Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft. 4th ed. New Jersey: Pearson, 2014.
Print.
Cowley, Malcolm. “Five Acts of The Scarlet Letter.” National Council of Teachers of English
19.1 (Oct. 1957): 11–16. Print.
Coxe, Arthur C. Review of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Church Review
(January 1851). In The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings. Ed. Leland S. Person. Norton
Critical Edition. NY: Norton, 2005. 254-63.
Gerber, John C. “Form and Content in The Scarlet Letter.” The New England Quarterly 17.1
(Mar. 1944): 25–55. Print.
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Critical Edition. New York: Norton, 2005. Print.
---. “Letter to J.T. Fields, Boston.” The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings. Ed. Leland S Person.
Norton Critical Edition New York: Norton, 2005. 226–27. Print.
Marcus, Fred H. “The Scarlet Letter: The Power of Ambiguity.” The English Journal 51.7 (Oct.
1962): 449–58. Print.
Railton, Stephen. “The Address of The Scarlet Letter.” Readers in History: Nineteenth-Century
American Literature and the Contexts of Response (1993). In The Scarlet Letter and
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