17th century New England, run by draconian Puritanism, urged conformity to its norms and shunned those who fell outside of its box of expectations. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale refuses to confess to adultery until the very end, when the guilt literally eats him alive. Through ambiguous language pertaining to Dimmesdale’s fate in the last three chapters, Hawthorne dismantles the inherent virtue of societal rules and urges the notion that regardless of one’s adherence to arbitrary dogma, their fates and “human merit” (Hawthorne, 241) are still just as uncertain.
Hawthorne builds cryptic suspense rather than outrightly telling the reader whether Dimmesdale has a mark on his chest that mirrors that of Hester’s. Dimmesdale is afflicted by a fatal illness from his guilt, causing him to ceaselessly clutch his chest in the same location as the Scarlet Letter on Hester. Hawthorne’s foreshadowing is intense around this subject – Chillingworth is the first to see Dimmesdale’s mark, and his reaction after seeing it indicates it’s something notable. His chest is cursed by his sin, but closure about what’s plaguing him isn’t given until the end of the novel. Hawthorne leaves readers in tense anticipation, urging them to discover the truth of Dimmesdale's mysterious affliction. In fact, even in Dimmesdale’s grand revelation in Chapter 23, Hawthorne intentionally tiptoes around the details of his chest, popping the 13-chapter long buildup with an answer that only draws even more questions. An entire sentence was devoted just to exclaim that “It was revealed!” (Hawthorne, 238) – creating more anticipation without actually “revealing” anything. The very next line almost mocks the reader, describing the event as “irreverent” (Hawthorne, 238) despite Hawthorne’s painstakingly long buildup to this moment. The irony he creates from this description signals his true intentions – to poke fun at the reader’s focus on an arbitrary mark on Dimmesdale. He’s able to utilize this to criticize how people view sin: it’s silly that everyone adheres to the idea that what determines someone’s “human merit” (Hawthorne, 241) is created through physical markers. By leaving this ambiguous, people are able to question the labels society assigns to characters and confront an idea that Dimmesdale crafts since the beginning: sin is subjective and one’s sinfulness is uncertain.
Hawthorne’s ambiguity extends to the question of Hester and Dimmesdale’s salvation, leaving readers questioning whether or not they would be sent to Heaven or condemned to Hell. In Puritan Christianity, it’s a central rule that confession of sins is a prerequisite to salvation. Thus, Dimmesdale’s confession in Chapter 23 should grant him salvation and send him to heaven upon his death at the end of the Chapter. However, this conclusion is left intentionally unclear in his conversation with Hester just before his death, lamenting, “It was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an everlasting and pure reunion.” (Hawthorne, 239). The interpretation of Dimmesdale’s disappointment is very ambiguous, with the word “everlasting” having the potential to be implying either marriage or the afterlife. “Everlasting” invokes an idea of permanence – a concept synonymous with marriage, especially during the 17th century. His dismay could be interpreted as sadness because it’s no longer possible to marry Hester. However, another interpretation could be around the possibility of him going to Heaven. The concept of permanence and being “everlasting” are central to the perception of places like Heaven or Hell as well. The openness of the interpretations that stem from Dimmesdale’s statements are indicative of the ambiguity that Hawthorne intentionally creates to criticize the rules that society enforces upon its constituents. Dimmesdale confesses at the very end, but it’s a mystery whether his adherence to this sacred law was sufficient to grant him salvation. A look at strict Puritanism would say that he was saved, but statements from Dimmesdale himself run contrary, deconstructing these ideas at their root. Instead of assuming that his confession was able to send him to Heaven, readers are left questioning the rules that those assumptions are based upon, and consequently, questioning the very system of Puritanism itself. Hawthorne’s intentionality in his creation of the two interpretations possible from this sentence is central to his critique of Puritan dogma.
From Dimmesdale’s mark (or lack thereof) to his and his future (or lack thereof), Hawthorne spins ironic and ambiguous language to leave the reader uncertain, critiquing the not-so-objective value of
Puritan norms and concluding that a person’s true worth comes not from their adherence to arbitrary rules. Although modern-day secular America has shifted away from the rigidity of its Puritan past, The Scarlet Letter continues to serve as a reminder to always be skeptical of mindless conformity.
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