Closed-Mindedness and the Unfamiliar: A look at unconventional relationships in modern society, and the relation to Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is shunned by her fellow colonists as a sinner and a social outcast. Having a child out of wedlock is heavily frowned upon by the Puritan society in which she lives, and the child which she chooses to raise alone is seen as an evil thing instead of a beautiful miracle of life. In its basic sense, the closed-mindedness of the colonists and the lack of mercy shown towards Hester also prevail in modern society with its views on gay marriage.

Gay marriage is a controversial topic in today’s society. Even though America is the land of freedom and equality, it is also a land founded on certain religious beliefs, and like many other societies, Americans are still learning tolerance. The unfamiliar is often greeted wearily and with reluctance. Society may be closed-minded at first, like a child weary of jumping into the water without testing it first with their toes, similar to the reaction when Hester comes forth from the jail: “The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering, at it. The witnesses of Hester Prynne’s disgrace had not yet passed beyond their simplicity” (1382). What a strict religious sect might view as corruption, a more worldly and tolerant society may view as progress.

When unknown forces bring two people together in love, whether of the same or opposite sex, the passion and emotion of that love is the same. Marriage is a way to show one’s partner as well as the world that one’s love is unconditional and true, no matter if the relationship is traditional or not. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester and Dimmesdale are described as being cut off from the rest of society since their unconventional relationship outcasts them, similar to how gay individuals might feel in today’s society, like “the links that united [them] to the rest of human kind—links of flowers, or silk, or gold, or whatever the material—had all been broken. Here was the iron link of mutual crime, which neither he nor she could break. Like all other ties, it brought along with it its obligations” (1438). Just as Hester feels she is obligated to stand up for herself in her passion, an unconventional couple who feels shunned by society must stand together, strengthened by the bond of their love, and the obligations to that love.

Finally, at the end of The Scarlet Letter, after the sudden and tragic death of Dimmesdale, many of the townsfolk that had witnessed the scene refused to admit that Dimmesdale “acknowledged, nor even remotely implied, any, the slightest connection, on his part, with the guilt for which Hester Prynne had so long worn the scarlet letter” (1490). Sadly, this same denial is present in today’s society, as closed-minded relatives refuse to admit that a loved one is, or was, gay. That which is unfamiliar is uncomfortable, and often times not included in the memory of highly-esteemed loved ones, in order to save face and leave no unanswerable questions. Just as the sins of Dimmesdale, a righteous man in the eyes of the community, were hushed, so is the sexual orientation of many in today’s society, even though at the most basic comparison, we are all only human.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 7^th ed. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2007. 1352-1493.