I've also posted this essay here: http://www.zinch.com/student/orochigenocide
And yes, I was listening to "Miserere" by Gregorio Allegri. It reminded me of Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter.
:D
The follow essay elaborates on how the motifs of sunlight and darkness play an important role in emphasizing the themes of The Scarlet Letter. I wrote this essay in later October for my English class.
‘Miserere Mei Deus’: the Sunlight and Darkness
Nathaniel Hawthorne notoriously uses ambiguous references for various open-ended events in his literary works, including The Scarlet Letter, and employs numerous uses of imagery to appeal to the reader’s imagination, to provide evidence to support individual interpretations, to add interesting effects to themes, and to present concepts in a clear way. In the novel, sunlight and darkness are constantly used in comparisons and contrasts in certain circumstances and serve as a motif. In essence, Hawthorne’s use of sunlight and darkness visually emphasizes the positive and negative connotations of settings, events, and character traits.
First, the use of sunlight and darkness can associate to the overall themes of the book. For instance, Dimmesdale’s affair with Hester Prynne links to an archetype common to the concept of sin and secrecy – darkness. In contrast, Hawthorne often describes Pearl’s beauty and spirit as “a glimmering light” (Hawthorne 44) to accentuate her role as the ‘truth seeker’ as well as her “remarkable precocity” (133). Hester embroiders her scarlet letter with “deep stains of crimson and gold” (43) to converge the sight of the public eye to the symbol of her sin, presenting the truth. In Chapter 3, as Hester returns to her prison cell, her “scarlet letter threw a gleam along the dark passageway of the interior” (22); this play on lightness and darkness combines two contrasting aspects, sin and truth, into one moment that illustrates the motto “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst . . . ” (215), a theme that will later be revisited through Dimmesdale, Hester, and after the resolution of the plot.
Among many adults “characterized [by]. . . Puritanic gloom” (185) in Boston, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale exhibit a shadow of their former selves. Occasionally, Hawthorne describes Chillingworth as a man who once possessed temperance and virtue, but he is later seized by “a terrible fascination. . . [that will] never set him free again” (81). Ever since the first scaffold scene, his evil motives voraciously consume his spirit; subsequently, his disfigured form and his visage become besmirched with a morbid hue, hence the nickname “old Black Man” (86). In addition to his transfiguration, Dimmesdale’s mental and spiritual state deteriorates after years of internalizing his guilt. When he revisits the scaffold scene after nightfall in Chapter 12 (The Minister’s Vigil), he regrets that he lacked the courage to be punished in public ignominy alongside with Hester seven years ago. He finally reaches the breaking point of insanity and shrieks in horror as he imagines his reckoning on the weather-stained platform; symbolically, the shrouded darkness is his “[c]owardice” constraining his holistic health by a “tremulous gripe” (100). Although both their fates lie within the faults of their own actions, the dramatic implications of darkness emphasize their inability to evade their plummet into self-destruction.
In a separate case, Hawthorne employs sunlight to connect with Hester’s internal conflict and capture the vivacious nature of Pearl. As Hester reaches her hand out in Chapter 16, the golden rays of the sun disappear into the horizon, whereas Pearl “stood laughing in the midst of [the sunlight]...brightened by its splendor” (138) as she catches it. Later when she tears away her scarlet letter in Chapter 18, she frees the tresses of her hair from her formal cap to signify the exhilarating rush of freedom she experiences. The sunshine in the forest not only illuminates her outer beauty, but also her inner beauty acquired through her selfless deeds to her community and her strength as a result from “the burden of [her] shame” (158); in addition, these rays of light symbolize her hope to start a new life with Dimmesdale in their exile from Boston and the new beginning of their untainted love. Unfortunately, Pearl’s screeching tantrums halted Hester’s brief moments of joy, leaving her no other choice than to retrieve her scarlet letter to pacify her daughter’s temper. As she reverts back to her weary mien when she gathers all of her hair under her cap, her “warmth . . . departed, like fading sunshine” (166), and she resumes serving the needs of others before her own.
Indeed, the last scaffold scene in Chapter 23 holds a special significance. In Chapter 9, Hawthorne foreshadows Dimmesdale’s death following the conclusion of the Election Sermon: “then at some inevitable moment, will the soul of the sufferer be dissolved . . . bringing all its mysteries into the daylight” (75). Literally, Dimmesdale confesses his sin to the townspeople in order to bring out his own ‘mysteries’ into the daylight (specifically in the morning) before he dies. Not only does he relieve himself from the burning secret within his heart, he also acknowledges Pearl publicly. After she kissed him on the lips, “her tears fell upon her father’s cheeks” and this moment ensures that she will grow up learning to be compassionate, no longer “battl[ing] with the world” (210). Chillingworth no longer has a purpose to live since he loses his only human vessel for torment; despite all the evil deeds the old man had afflicted upon him, Dimmesdale asks God to have mercy on Chillingworth. Many years later, even the graves of Hester and Dimmesdale are spaced apart “as if [their] dust. . . had no right to mingle” (219), yet they shared a tombstone together. The time of day on the last scaffold scene signifies the power of the truth, giving rise to drastic changes in the falling actions of the novel.
In conclusion, the various uses of sunlight and darkness help readers to visualize certain themes in the book. Similar to how an artist would use his palette of colors, Hawthorne, as a writer, manipulates the mood he conveys to the readers through the usage of light and dark values. The symbolic nature of colors helps emphasize the concepts of universal themes, such as love, hatred, sin, and truth, through provoking emotions associated to certain colors. For example, the golden light of sun implies happiness, hope, enlightenment, and virtuousness. In a simple Puritan society, the application of contrasting lighting renders the personal complexities and follies of each main characters, perhaps to illustrate the dichotomy of the scarlet letter– sin and truth.
