"
"The lady's frailty, [writes the reviewer,] is philosophized into a
natural and necessary result of the Scriptural law of marriage, which by
holding her irrevocably to her vows, as plighted to a dried-up old
book-worm, ... is viewed as making her heart an easy victim.... The sin
of her seducer, too, seems to be considered as lying, not so much in the
deed itself, as in his long concealment of it; and in fact the whole
moral of the tale is given in the words, 'Be true, he true!' as if
sincerity in sin were a virtue, and as if 'Be clean, he clean!' were not
the more fitting conclusion."
But this moral of cleanliness was one so obvious that Hawthorne probably
never dreamed of any one's requiring it to be emphasized. In fact, it is
the starting-point, the very foundation, of the tragedy. The tale is a
massive argument for repentance, which is the flinging aside of
concealment, and the open and truthful acknowledgment of sin. In the
Puritan mode of dealing with sin, Hawthorne found the whole problem of
repentance and confession presented in the most drastic, concentrated,
and startling form; for the Puritans carried out in the severest style a
practical illustration of the consequences of moral offence. Since men
and women would not voluntarily continue in active remorse and public
admission of wrong-doing, these governors and priests determined to try
the effect of visible symbols in keeping the conscience alive. People
were set before the public gaze, in the stocks, whipped in public at the
whipping-post, and imprisoned in the pillory.
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