- mansion of
Governor Bellingham ...sl07.html#g01
- The narrative at this point compresses the actual history a
little, for artistic reasons, but does not stretch it too far.
Our timeline following
1641 shows that Richard
Bellingham was not actually governor of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony in 1645--the date this chapter has to be set in, for Pearl
to be age three. But he was governor before and after this time,
which explains the reference to his stepping down. We don't
know that Bellingham's Hall in Boston looked like
Hawthorne's picture of it, but we show the Downing-Bradstreet
house in Salem, which looks like it might have served in part
as a model for the one in this book. The only existing house in
Boston from this period is the so-called Paul Revere
House, and that simple structure, even as restored, has
little resemblance to the governor's majestic hall. As far
as Bellingham as a person is concerned, he seems to represent in
some ways the British beef-and-ale side of the New England
emigrants that Hawthorne loved to contrast to the religiously
severe original Puritans, especially those of the Plymouth Bay
Colony--see for example, The
May-Pole of Merry Mount, 1836. For some background of
Governor Bellingham and Major William Hathorne, see Nathaniel Hawthorne
and His Wife, I, 1.
- the more rigid order of
principles in religion and government ...sl07.html#g02
- The idea here is that some anonymous, backward people are
trying to take Pearl away from Hester under the general principle
that she is unfit to be a mother because of her adultery. The
"more rigid" principles they are using are today
considered by many to be typical of the Puritans in Boston. It is
true that Puritans were not tolerant--they moved to New England
not to establish a free society, but one that followed their
strict principles. Hawthorne needs to contrast that with the more
democratic America of his day, or at least what he wanted it to
be instead. Perhaps it is not so much the philosophical clash
that is the point here--it might be the social battle between
fundamentalists and what we would today in the U.S. call
"liberals," i.e., liberals on social questions but not
necessarily economic or religious ones. No doubt Hawthorne
exaggerates the point, as for example when he later refers to the
children not even being able to play freely. Later historians
have tried to correct this misinterpretation of Puritanism, but
their success varies. One point to consider is that Hawthorne
himself wavered on his own viewpoint, as artistic truth was more
important to a novel writer than was strict historical truth. But
we can see here that even in this novel there is no completely
necessary connection between the gossip of the neighbors and the
large principles of religion and government--the neighbors are
attempting to use those principles for their own ends, but they
do not succeed. You must think that if Boston had been a pure
democracy they might have succeeded. Combined with the reference
in a moment to the matter of the pig, a reader might think that
Hawthorne is promoting the idea of government and religious
representatives having immediately direct relationships with the
people. Note that it is Bellingham, the aristocrat, who is the
instrument of the gossips, and he mistrusted the mob. Still
another factor to consider here is that it is quite likely that
it was the neighbor women who complained to Bellingham,
and they were excluded from political power unless they could
make a problem into some legal issue to prevail over the men, who
generally would not be concerned with affairs such as bringing up
a child.
- dispute concerning the right
of property in a pig ...sl07.html#g01
- In 1642, a few years before the time of this chapter, a minor
neighborhood spat turned into an historic political crisis in
Boston. A Mrs. Sherman charged in court a Captain Keayne with
stealing her pig. Keayne had been earlier fined for charging too
much money for imported goods (Hawthorne would have read all this
in Snow's History of Boston). The elected members of the
legislature of the time, the Deputies of the General Court,
supported the woman, but Governor Bellingham and the appointed
members, called Assistants, took Keayne's side. The result
was that in 1644 the Assistants formed a Senate as higher
legislative body, and the lower Deputies of the General Court
became independent, and so two legislative bodies ruled. The
governor was afraid of the subversive, democratic powers, as
noted in Winthop's Journal at the time. Hawthorne believed
that all authority should reside in the people and through them
the elected representatives. Even this simple little reference
here is significant to reveal Hawthorne's underlying themes
in the book. (The Plymouth Bay Colony started with the Mayflower
Compact, but really legal authority in New England at the time
stemmed ultimately from the King of England. Until the
Revolution, there was constant argument between the democrats and
the aristocrats, revolving around the Charter or just what local
authority meant.)
- the scarlet letter endowed
with life ...sl07.html#g04
- Pearl is now a few years older in this chapter, old enough to
run and talk, and possibly to start learning about religion. In
describing Pearl, Hawthorne "embroiders" the facts with
a lot of fancy. She is not only directly compared to the scarlet
letter (another product of Hester's adultery) but starts to
become an emblem or symbol in life, with the same qualities of
indeterminacy of motive--is she good or bad, capable of reason or
too impulsive, beautiful or evil, a denizen of the town or an
intruder from the wilderness? In one sense Pearl (em>is the
scarlet letter in life, in another she merely reflects
that symbol. But Pearl as a living person has a life of her own
separate from the scarlet letter and such signs. We see that one
of Pearl's qualities is freedom--she is opposed to
the rigid, determinate Puritan society around her. Yet is this
true freedom, without balancing qualities such as the human
capacity for love, guilt, and sorrow, and the power to do good on
her own? Eventually the symbols prove hard to decipher and
exceedingly ambiguous.
- she
resembled...the scarlet fever ...sl07.html#g07
- Hawthorne here goes beyond "analogy" to actually
identify Pearl and the scarlet letter. This is important for the
story, as this sort of allegory carries a lot of the plot. But
it is hard to understand from our perspective how the identity
should work. We can believe that Pearl would be a spoiled,
impulsive, nagging child--lacking a father, she might try to
control her mother, and feels otherwise isolated from society.
Most parents would not today attribute anything evil to such
behavior. But in Puritan days perhaps there was more
superstition. Everyday events such as the scarlet fever might
have been blamed on the devil, disease set upon the populace
because of their sins, and by means of the devil's fiends
living among the people themselves--such as, perhaps here, Pearl.
(Scarlet fever is a streptococcal infection that causes a red
rash--nowadays it is rare and is controlled by antibiotics--in
Puritan days and even in Hawthorne's days it was much more
feared.) Some people thought it might be possible to discover
such witches by means of marks or odd personal appearance. Since
Pearl was a small child, she would not be put to death, but might
need special religious instruction and attention. By her
treatment of Pearl, her loving attention and making her into
someone special, Hester is marking Pearl out as different from
the rest of society, and so exposing her to its fears and
criticism.
- specimens still
extant in the streets of our elder towns ...sl07.html#g08
- See our earlier reference to Governor
Bellingham" Hall. It is possible that a couple of other
houses resembling this depiction were still standing in Salem or
Boston in 1850, but they no longer do. Hawthorne had special
affection for old houses and used them in some of his books as
romantic locales.
- a seven-years'
slave ...sl07.html#g01
- See our page on bond-servants in colonial America. There were
real slaves in New England, even at this time, but they were few
compared with the bond-servants. Sometimes the slaves were
brought with their masters from the West Indies. Some Irish
rebels were sold as slaves to the sugar plantations there too.
Not all slaves were of African origin--the Barbary Pirates in
North Africa traded in white slaves as well. A slave was
sold for life, while a bond-servant had a fixed term of
service (such as the seven years here); a serf worked
for a master as part of feudal obligations, but was otherwise
free. Laws were subsequently passed to free slaves and serfs, but
they were not always given the economic power to exercise their
freedom. Slavery continues in places such as Sudan, in spite of
universal declarations of human rights, and bond-servants have
been turned into de facto slaves in places such as Pakistan, or
as part of illegal immigration to the United States today. Sophia
Peabody before she married Hawthorne stayed in Cuba and saw real
slavery firsthand. Politically, Hawthorne before and even during
the Civil War was not in favor of slavery but preferred
maintaining the Union by compromise rather than by force (almost
all his neighbors and relatives were strong abolitionists).
Hawthorne would also have read that some bond-servants had been
treated as badly as any slaves. But do not read too much into
this reference--it is a piece of "local color" to give
authenticity, and a reference to slavery at the time would not
cause bad feeling as today.
- the glittering
symbol in her bosom ...sl07.html#g14
- The servant, being a newcomer from England, misreads the
symbol of the scarlet letter, believing it to be a mark of high
rank. This is a positive interpretation, but also goes to show
that every reader of the letter has his own interpretation,
perhaps just as good as any other, perhaps not.
- Chronicles of
England ...sl07.html#g15
- Probably Chronicles of England, Scotland, and
Ireland, by Raphael Holinshed, 1577, a popular book in
this time; it was used by Shakespeare.
- on the
centre-table, to be turned over by the casual guest
...sl07.html#g15
- Books in Puritan days were very expensive, as they were
almost handmade and imported from overseas. They were treated
therefore with great care and probably would not have been laid
out in a corner for the casual reader to peruse. Either this is a
case of conspicuous consumption on Bellingham's part, or an
anachronism on Hawthorne's part. In Victorian days, by
1850, books were cheaply printed and literacy was common enough
for the ordinary housewife to show off by laying out the book she
"happened" to be reading.
- in the same
taste...Elizabethan age ...sl07.html#g15
- Bellingham was a Puritan political leader, but an
aristocrat--his home's decor reflected more the upper-class
large homes of Elizabethan gentry in England, than the simpler
fashion of the lower-class Puritans who came from England first.
(In spite of that, visitors to museums are generally surprised by
the high workmanship and skill reflected by the surviving Puritan
furniture--it was heavily decorated--and it was not until the
Shakers that plainer furniture, being mass-produced but beautiful
and functional, became more common.) This chapter also
illustrates Hawthorne's continuing interest in the visual
and pictorial arts--observe the portraits on the wall, for
example--Hawthorne in his writings always seems to be a small boy
looking for his father among them.
- a large pewter
tankard...draught of ale ...sl07.html#g15
- In order to understand this reference you have to realize a
little American history. In Puritan times few people drank water.
Beer (ale) was the ordinary drink once children were weaned.
Water might be unsafe to drink, since there was no good
purification method. Hawthorne knew this fact and referred to it
many times. Wine was not produced in America until much later.
Distilled spirits became popular by Revolutionary times, as it
was a practical way to process and transport corn. As a
consequence, alcoholism increased greatly--by 1840 it was more
severe than in any other time in American history. In reaction,
many people organized against taverns and drinking alcohol of any
kind--Methodists and temperance societies became powerful enough
to change laws and restrict drinking, and alcohol consumption by
1850 dropped dramatically. Hawthorne's own feelings about
drinking seem to be fairly liberal--he approved neither of the
extreme temperance activists (he drank a little himself, but not
to excess) nor the activists against tavern licensing (he noted
the effects of alcoholism on people around him). However, in the
context of this book in 1850, Hawthorne's readers might be a
little disturbed by any reference that seemed to be approving of
alcohol, even if it was historically accurate. (Mrs. Hawthorne
seems to have been responsible for removing a section of the
later novel, The Blithedale Romance, that described
the inside of a bar.) However, Hester and Pearl would certainly
not have had the reaction of the 1850 readers to observing some
ale at the bottom of the tankard.
- cuirass, gorget,
greaves, gauntlets, sword, helmet, breastplate ...sl07.html#g17
- The helmet protects the head. A gorget protects the neck. A
gauntlet protects the hand. A cuirass is a piece of armor
extending from neck to waist, often just the breastplate for the
front; it used to be made of leather but by this time was metal.
Greaves protect the legs below the knees. The sword would be used
to fight in close combat and thus not too long, but strong enough
to cut armor. The Indians did not have any armor--all this armor
would have made fighters very clumsy--and all this armor was
supposed to fend off Indian arrows, but did not always do the
job. (Cortes found when invading Mexico that arrows could easily
penetrate metal, so he then adopted the cotton padding armor of
the Aztecs.) Nevertheless, it was as important for display as for
function--the sight of gleaming armor was supposed to scare away
the enemy. We see that Pearl here "reads" the armor in
a naive way, not realizing its role in enforcing society's
rules, against the wild Indians and potentially against wild
Pearl. At this time there were few muskets in New England, and
they were not very accurate. Cross-bows and pikes were used by
lower-class soldiers.
- Pequod war
...sl07.html#g17
- The 1637 war of extermination
against a local Native American tribe.
- Bacon, Coke, Noye, and
Finch ...sl07.html#g17
All English authorities on the law at this period.
this convex mirror, the
scarlet letter was represented ...sl07.html#g20
Mirrors in Puritan times were generally small, expensive, and
not very good (and the Puritan mirrors that Hawthorne might have
seen would have been quite bad). There was of course much
superstition about mirrors because of their seemingly magical
power, perhaps to capture the soul of the looker. Here the mirror
of the armor serves to bring out more of the symbolic nature of
Pearl and the scarlet letter, causing us to question the empiric
presentation by our senses. This also promotes the idea of
greater freedom in interpreting what would otherwise be
determinate facts. Is it Pearl or an imp? At first we
understand that Hester is thinking all this, but perhaps it is
just that all we readers are led to relaxing our guard and freely
associating by the text.
flowers
there ...sl07.html#g20
We do not know whether Bellingham indeed had such a formal
garden--Hawthorne is a bit ambiguous as usual here. No doubt in
early years it would be usual for most homes to have a vegetable
garden, even in downtown Boston. An ornamental garden would be
rather conspicuous consumption (in which case Hawthorne might be
leading us to a sense of awe and power invested in Bellingham, or
just an exaggeration of the aristocratic tendency against
democracy). The grass if close-cropped would have to be cut by
hand by a servant, not by sheep, given the proximity of the
vegetables. Hawthorne before writing this book tended a
vegetable garden for a few years at the Old Manse in Concord (it
was planted for him as a wedding present by Thoreau). He
describes that period as like that of Adam and Eve--and we have
seen other references in this book to the Garden of Eden, the
source of original sin, and from which Hester has been cast out.
Perhaps we are led to see a contrast between the foolish formal
garden of Bellingham and the practical vegetable garden of
others, but if so then the analogy of Boston's society to
the Garden of Eden is lost.
Reverend
Mr. Blackstone ...sl07.html#g22
Indeed he is supposed to be the first settler, in the
area of the new State House in Boston, and legend does
say that he used to ride a bull. He did not get along with
the Puritans, who frowned on eccentrics such as Blackstone,
so they bought him out and he moved to Rhode Island. It is
not known if he left any apple trees, but Hawthorne's
uncle was a well-regarded pomologist, or apple tree expert,
and Hawthorne had helped him write a book on the subject,
so we should take his word for it.
began to cry for
a red rose ...sl07.html#g23
The author misses no occasion to remind us of this symbol,
which serves many purposes--among them, it stands for love,
and it reminds us of the Garden of Eden and the red apple
(or tomato, as you prefer), and it is of course the same color
as the famous flaming letter. It carries on the reference
to Blackstone--if this is like the Garden of Eden, it would
not be surprising to see people riding on strange animals.
And in a moment Hester hears voices, just as the wind passing
over the Garden of Eden. Are they going to be expelled?
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