Malefactors had their ears
cropped; scolding women had to wear a forked twig on the tongue; other
criminals to carry a halter constantly around the neck. But that this
was only a hellish device, after all; that the inflictors of such
punishment were arrogating too much to themselves, and shared the office
of the fiend; that, moreover, this compulsion of a dumb outward
truthfulness would never build up the real inner truth of the soul;--all
this Hawthorne perceived and endeavored to portray in a form which
should be as a parable, applying its morality to the men and women of
to-day, all the more persuasively because of its indirectness. As a
study of a system of social discipline never before so expounded, it
claimed the deepest attention. And never was the capacity of sinning men
and women for self-delusion more wonderfully illustrated than in this
romance. The only avenue of escape from such delusion was shown to be
self-analysis; that is, the conscientious view of one's self which keeps
the right or wrong of one's conduct always clearly visible. Hester was
on the whole the truest of the three persons in the drama, and the
advantages of this comparative trueness are constantly made manifest.
She in a measure conquers evil and partly atones for her wrong, by the
good which she is able to do among her fellow-beings,--as much
compensation as can rightfully be hoped for a woman who has once been so
essentially corrupted as she. Dimmesdale, too, retains so much of native
truth that he never allows his conscience to slumber for a moment, and
plies the scourge of remorse upon himself continually.
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