The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-06-30
The Scarlet Letter.

! The Scarlet Letter.
The story unfolded in Hawthorne's most
weird and beautiful romance must recur at
this time to many minds. 1t would seem
that the mournful and fascinating tragedy
of the "Scarlet Letter." which has swsk-
ened the sympathies of the world for
its fictitious actors, has been per-
formed in real life, and under the very
eyes Of this generation. Can it be that the
genius of Hawthorne has not merely re-
hearsed the half-forgotten story of the sin
and repentance of the favorlte pastor of an
obscure New England colony, but has fore
cast with wonderful fidelity the temptation
of one beloved and trusted in our
own time by a great flock. cham
pion on whom the admiration and
the hopes of millions were set. Never again
will the mournful history of Arthur Dim
mesdale's sin. his long repentance and strug-
gle toward confession be read without asso-
citation with the fate Of one who embodied
in himself the tenderness, the eloquence
and the passionate nature with
which the novelist had clothed his ideal
hero. A new interest will centre round that
vivid scene, where at the touch OF Haw-
thorne's Imagination the old colonial town
rises before us, and Hester Prynne is led
from prison with the "scarlet letter" en-
broidered upon her bosom, and placedsbe-
fore the people to expiate by public shame.
the sin of adultery. Only by confession of
the name of her partner in guilt can she
avoid the public infamy yet under the ex-
hortations ofthe grave and reverend pastors
of the town, she preserves a quiet silence
With what a master touch does Hawthorne
depict the action of the most eloquent and
beloved among them when rising to urge
her compliance and conscious that only her
love and forbearance stand between himself
and ipfamy! A new meaning, too, win be
infused into that long agony through which
the strong man passes while concealing his
one transgression, revered and honored |
more and more from day to day, while the
woman he loves remains an outcast. 1t will
be easy now for the most careless reader to
appreciate the struggle of Dimmesdale to
confess his transgressions and the thronging
considerations of loss of reputation, loss of
influence for good, and scandal to religion
that gathered around him and pushed him
back from the Acknowledgement of his
guilt. The detail with which the great noy-
elist worked out this situation and painted
the mental torture of his hero will
no longer afford grounds of argument for
those who criticise the morbid character of |
his genius. 1t may be, too that among the
chief actors in the modern reproduction of !
tho at II alto ho <<1F
tempter who restrained the transgressor's |
impulse towards atonement with devilish |
ingenuity will be found. With what
sense of relief and triumph every reader has
watched the progress of that noble scene
where Dimmesdale breaks from his bondage
of concealment, and steps forth before the
people and proclaims, with Hester and her
child beside him, the story of his guilt.
With a strange witchery, the author has
bound the respect and love of the
reader round his hero, and the
final act of magnanimity confirms
the wavering sentiment of sympathy
into fixed admiration. That confession Sc
cures for Arthur Dimmesdale an exalted
place among the creations of genius His
temptation and sin have simply been made
the means of higher development of his
The popularity of the character
with the American public should have
taught any man so tempted the only course
Tor him to pursue, even if worldly fame {
rather than divine approval were his object.
If this revelation of the guilt of the greatest s
preacher of the age, which has spread over |
he country, be not come upon US as deiu-
ion and dream, the one regret of {
hose who admired him will be that he con- ,
ented to concealment, while another {
was accused. That amid the temptations I
which surrounded him a man of his ardent I
nature should have yielded would not have s
,een thought strange. And it might have been a
possible 10 retain, by manly acknowledge t
nent and repentance, the faith and love of a
he people. What was granted to Haw- 4
horne's hero would not, have been with il
leld from man esteemed greater and nobler t
han the one Hawthorne imagined. But b