Hawthorne`s Feminine Voices: Reading
Transcription
Hawthorne`s Feminine Voices: Reading
Hawthorne's Feminine Voices: Reading "The Scarlet Letter" as a Woman Author(s): Suzan Last Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Narrative Technique, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Fall, 1997), pp. 349-376 Published by: Journal of Narrative Theory Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30225475 . Accessed: 29/01/2013 11:15 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Journal of Narrative Theory and Department of English Language and Literature, Eastern Michigan University are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Narrative Technique. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne'sFeminineVoices:ReadingThe ScarletLetteras a Woman SuzanLast A greatdeal of recentcriticismof NathanielHawthorne'sTheScarlet Letter has focused on the two generalareasof narrativetheoryandfeminism.Feminist readingsof the novel have aboundedsince Nina Baym opened the subject up to debate in 1982 (Murfin282); and, whetherfeminist, materialist, psychoanalytic,deconstructionist-or any combinationof these and moremost critics devote considerablescrutinyto the "conflicted"and equivocal quality in the novel's narrativetechnique.'The narrator's"equivocal"style has inspired much critical speculationas to the novel's "underlyingideology," including debate over whetherthe novel is a seminal work of protofeminism orjust the opposite. Nevertheless,the equivocationin TheScarlet Letteris not merelya dialecticof two contradictoryvoices; the narratorseems to speak in many voices, to present multiple points of view, and to share sympathieswith them alljust as muchas he revealsthemflawed. The lack of a single guiding voice is, perhaps,what gave Mrs. Hawthorneher famous headache.However,it is also the qualitythatmakesthe novel remarkableand, I would like to assert,remarkablyfeminine.Althoughthe narrativecontains many passages that characterisethe narratoras a championof patriarchal values, Hawthornealso makes use of what can be labelled "feminine" narrativetechniquesandstyles, with the effect of creatinga narrativeof radical sympathyfor women sufferingunderpatriarchaloppression.While all of the voices are not consistentin voicing this sympathy,the polyphonyof contradictoryvoices-both masculineand feminine-can, in itself, be labelled a femininetechnique,as it is inclusiveratherthanrestrictive.It includes marginalisedperspectives and allows the reader a range of interpretation ratherthan one unified, coherentand "authoritativetruth"in the text. This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 350 1 N T Gendered Discourse? Let me acknowledge,before proceedingany further,that the distinction drawnbetween "masculine"and "feminine"discourse is entirely problematic, and necessarily artificial.The habit of binaryopposition in the sociolinguistic sphere has led to an identificationof non-genderedobjects and ideas with eitherthe masculineor femininegender.In addition,the male half of the binarypairhas been privilegedover its feminine counterpart,with the effect of creatingassumptionsof "natural"male superiorityand female infe- becomesproblematic-indeed,it begsdeconstructionriority.This"habit" whendiscussingliterature,for writingitself is consideredthe "feminine" halfof the speech/writing pairof binaryopposites. Whilefeministcriticshavebeenableto identifyanddefine"masculine" formsof discourse(easilydonesincetheyarethe ones thathavebeenrecommendedin languageandrhetoricmanualssincePlato),theyhavemuch discourse.VirginiaWoolf, moredifficultydescribingordefining"feminine" withoutever stoopingto vulgardefinitions,presentsthe "femininesentence"-throughexample-as one thatcannotbe limitedto a single perspectiveorthought,butinsteadleadsto multipledigressions.H6l1neCixous assuresus that,whileit maybe "impossibleto definea femininepracticeof writing,"that "doesn'tmean thatit does not exist. But it will always surpass the discourse that regulatesthe phallocentricsystem" (340). Many critics, nevertheless,have managedto make some defining observationsregarding gendereddiscourse.It is importantto keep in mindthatthese distinctionsare only arbitrary,and necessarily artificial,based on social constructions,not biology; silence, for instance, may be no more inherently"feminine"than sunlightis inherently"masculine,"except thatwe have been conditionedto thinkof it as so: MasculineDiscourses man as subjectof language speech (Aristotle/Plato) speech/writing/authority coherent/unified logic/reason head/mind/intellect beginning-middle-end one subjectperspective FeminineDiscourses woman as subjectto language writing(Derrida) silence; semiotics "goes off in all directions"(Irigaray) intuition;streamof consciousness "body"(Cixous) centre,outward,centre "other"or many perspectives(Woolf) This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Feminine Voices linear progressof time objective/historic one meaning/logos public 351 cyclical; "monumental"time (Kristeva) subjective;subversive pluralityof meaning private This schema by no means provides a complete, or even adequate,list of distinctions.SusanLanser,for instance,cites "power"as anotherof the fundamentaldifferencesbetween "masculine"and "feminine"speech patterns: powerless(feminine)speechis "polite,emotional,enthusiastic,gossipy, talkative, uncertain,dull, chatty,"while powerful(masculine)speech is "capable, direct, rational,illustratinga sense of humor,unfeeling, strong (in tone and wordchoice) andblunt"(617). She argues,consequently,thatBakhtin'sconcept of polyphony,a multi-voicedqualityoperatingin all narratives,is "more pronouncedand more consequentialin women's narratives"(618). "Polyphonic"can easily describethe multiplevoices in the narrativeof TheScarlet Letter If one follows JonathanCuller's suggestion and reads The Scarlet Letter "asa woman"-that is, resistingthe tendencyto "readas a man"2-feminine discoursesand techniquesseem to emerge from the novel in profusion.My first reading of the novel was, perhaps,a "masculine"reading, as I found that the narrativegave me, as it is said to have given Mrs. Hawthorne,a headache.The lack of consistency and coherence in voice and vision was confusing and even irritating.Only in a second-perhaps more "feminine" reading-did this perceived "lack"become rife with expression and meaning. This "feminine"readingreveals the many "feminine"characteristicsof the narrative,and suggests-at the very least-the ambivalentattitudetowardspatriarchaloppressionof women displayedin the text, and possibly a much more profoundsympathywith female oppressionthanis usually to be found in a male text. The multiplevoices presentmultipleperspectivesand ideologies, or an anti-logos narrative, rejecting the possibility of one logocentrictruthor one phallocentricview of history. The Sting In the bitinglyironic"Custom-House" sketch,the narrator(who most of thesketch,if only "theediis the author that he at least certainlyimplies tor,or verylittlemore"[23]of TheScarletLetter)insinuateshimselffirmly This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 352 J N T into the historicalsettingof his "found"story.He implies thathe is Nathaniel Hawthorne,author,and familiarto the readersthroughhis stories writtenin an "old manse."He traceshis ancestryback to early Puritantimes, when his forefatherswere communityleaders,not unlike those rulingover the Salem of Hester Prynne.While entrenchinghimself in this masculine world, he is also distancinghimself from it, not only throughhis ironic descriptionsof the "venerablepersonages"(52) of the custom-house,butthroughothernarrativetechniquesas well. The writingof TheScarletLetteritself is a distancing act, and he imagines the sternrebukeof his Puritanancestorsat his chosen vocation of story-telling(27). He chooses not to recorda "respectable" historyin truepatriarchalfashion-which he well mightdo, given the nature of the "authorizedand authenticated..,. document"he has found (44, emphasis added);nor does he choose to transcribethe heartilymasculinetales of seafaringdirectlyfrom the sailorsfrequentingthe custom-house.Instead, he chooses to writea romance.In addition,he employs the conventionof the "foundstory,"a respectableliteraryconventionof the time, but in this case his use of it can be takenfor little less thana patentlie, which undermineshis authorityand reliabilityfrom the start.For in the same paragraphhe undermines his own convention when he admitsthathe has not confined himself to Pue's "halfdozen sheets of foolscap,"but has allowed himself "nearlyor altogetheras much license as if the facts hadbeen entirelyof my own invention" (44). This equivocationresults in a fundamentalproblemof reading: how is the readerto respondto the expectationscreatedby the use of generic literaryconventions that are underminedby a narratoralmost in the same breaththathe has constructedthem? While insisting on the authoritativehistoricityof his tale with one voice, he calls it a romancewith another.Because writingromanceswas not altogether a manly occupationin Hawthorne'sday, it is one that many modern critics have come to regardas revolutionary.3Michael Davitt Bell, for instance, arguesthatto "indulgein the delusion of romancewas to undermine the basis of psychological and social order,to alienateoneself from [as Thomas Jeffersonso prosaicallyput it] 'thereal businessof life'" (37). A change in the political weatherhas resultedin the author/narrator being fired from his position withina frozenmasculineworldthathas effectively numbedhis creativeside. The "wretchednumbness"resultingfromhis tenurein the custom-househas affectedhis creativityto the extentthathis characters"would not be warmedandrenderedmalleable,by any heatthatI could kindle at my intellectualforge"(45). The politicaloustinghas enabledhim to rekindlehis This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Feminine Voices 353 imaginativefires. He rejectsthe masculinemilieu in orderto enterthe world of imaginationand creativity.However,he abjuresthe more acceptable"realistic"form of the novel (ruledin his day by verisimilitude,or "probability" and convention),in favourof a form thathe saw as having more freedomto indulge in the fantasticand marvelous,freedomto present"thetruthof the human heart"in a mannerof his own choosing. HeatherDubrow suggests that "if writing in a form that is not in vogue is a way of distinguishing oneself from the dominantliterarycultureof one's age, it can also be a way of aligning oneself with a subculture,with the rebellioussons who are chalfathers"(13). Inthiscase, Hawthornemaybe aligning lengingthe authoritarian himself with the rebelliousdaughters-the "scribblingwomen"(he calls himself a "scribbler"at the end of the CustomHouse sketch)-rather than with the male novelists of his time. In telling the storyof the scarletletter,he has chosen to tell a woman'sstory;and in choosing a "feminine"formto present it, he has adoptedwhathave come to be thoughtof as "feminine"techniques. This discussionof the CustomHouse sketch,nevertheless,remainsproblematic, for it leaves out a great deal of contraryinformationgiven by the narrator.The most consistentcharacteristicof the narratoris thathe is rarely consistent on any topic. The story could never be mistakenfor a univocal manifestoof proto-feminism.The narratordoes not simply rejectthe masculine milieu; he leaves it reluctantlyand somewhatbitterly,referringto himself as "decapitated"by the political powers that have ousted him from his masculineprofession(and symbolicallycastratedhim). Janis Stout notes an "innerdualityregardingconventionalmoralstandards"in the narrative(234); but the conflict is expressedas more than a simple "duality."A multiplicity of conflicting voices oppositely and convergentlynarratethe story.In entering the "feminine" world of romance, the narratoragrees to give his "predecessor'smemorythe creditwhichwill be rightfullyits due"(44). Since Pue's manuscriptis an obvious fiction, this vow may signal an intentionto attendfaithfullyto historicalrepresentation.He vows, for instance,to be the "representative"of his Puritanancestors while writing his story (27). He admits that "strongtraits of their naturehave intertwinedthemselves with mine."He wantsto take on their"shame,"andperhapsremove the cursethat has seemingly been laid upon them for theirceaseless oppressionof women (27). He wants to redresshistory's selective remembranceof Puritanseverity, andits neglect of their"betterdeeds, althoughthese were many"(27). He calls them "earnest"and "energetic";he appreciatesthe simplicity and seriousness of their morality(59); and he admirestheir attemptat creatingthe This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 354 1 N T "new Jerusalem."This connection with his past has moved HenryJames to comment on the narrator'srelationshipwith the Puritanheritage as it pervades the novel: Puritanism,in a word, is there, not only objectively,as Hawthorne triedto placeit there,butsubjectivelyas well,not in anyharshnessof I mean,in hisjudgmentof his characters prejudice,orin theobtrusionof morallesson;butin thevery qualityof his ownvision.(51) At the same time he incorporatesa "Puritanvoice" into his narrative,however, the narratoralso wants to acknowledgethe motivationsand feelings of characterswho have sinned and brokenthe laws of this Puritancommunity. It is the juggling of the multiplevoices, perspectives,and ideologies that makes the narrativeof The Scarlet Letterspeak with a feminine sensibility. The narratormaintainsa constantpush-pullrelationshipwith his past, one moment identifying with his patriarchalancestorsand co-workers,the next condemning them. This endless equivocationis the fundamentalnarrative technique used throughoutthe novel, as the narratorrarely states anything frequentlyallowing a varietyof interpretationsandpoints straightforwardly, of view (two possible explanationsfor the existence of the rose bush [54]; severalreasonsfor the popularityof Hester'sneedlework[77]; threereasons why Hester remainsin New England [75]; four explanationsfor the marks on Dimmesdale's chest [197]; and innumerable "whether... or..." con- structionsliberally pepperedthroughoutthe novel). His narrativeauthority certainly"goes off in all directions."If thereis an "authorial"phallogocentric voice in the narrative,it is not the only-nor even the primary-voice of the omniscient narrative"truth."The many voices and perspectives allow for multipleandeven contradictoryinterpretations,as readerscan choose which voice they want to give "authority"or predominance,and which perspective, if any, holds a poetic "truth." The equivocationprominentin the narrationof TheScarlet Letterundermines the logocentricconceptof a singularmeaningandconfoundsa totalizing phallocentricinterpretation;in the logic of binaryopposition,this technique rests decidedly on the feminine side of the scale. Ignoringthe many meta-discourseequivocationsin the Custom-Housesketch, the story itself begins with the narratorofferingus alternativeandheterodoxinterpretations. The narrator'scanonisationof Ann Hutchinsonat the opening of the story This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Feminine Voices 355 revealsan unorthodox inclinationfromthe start.He undermines the ideaof withthedescriptionof the"practical necessities"of the thePuritan"utopia" cemeteryand prison(53). At the doorof the prison-indeed, at the very "thresholdof our narrative"-weare given the imageof the rose bush,a symbolof beauty,contrastingwith the sterncolourlessnessof the Puritan of its landscape.Weareallowedto chooseforourselveswhichinterpretation origin we prefer:the supernaturalbelief thatit has sprungup underthe "foot- whichthenarrator assuresus "thereis stepsof thesaintedAnnHutchinson," fair authorityfor believing,"or the more prosaicexplanationthat it "merely survivedout of the sternold wilderness"(54). Obviouslythe latteris the butthenarrator seemsto preferthe morereasonableandlogicalexplanation; He urgesthereaderto do the sameby former,moreromanticinterpretation. andby pluckingoneof theflowersfromtherose givingit a "fairauthority," bushandpresentingit to the reader,thatit mighteither"symbolizesome sweet moralblossom, thatmay be found along the track,or relieve the darkening close of a tale of humanfrailtyand sorrow"(54). This act, fraughtwith gendersignificance(as mentraditionally give womenflowers),it couldbe said, interpellatesthe readerto "readas a woman"andresistover-thematizing the story in a masculinemanner.By favouringthe supernaturalreadingover the logical one, the suggestionin the opening passage of the narrativeprivileges a "poetic truth"of romanceratherthanhistoricalrealism, and a feminine perspectiveratherthan a masculineone. The "Problem" of Interpretation The constantnarrativeequivocationpresentsobvious problemsfor interpretation-perhaps more clearly to recent critics steeped in the ambiguities of receptiontheory,feminism, deconstructionism,and postmodernambivalence, thanto Hawthorne'scontemporaries.Earlycriticswere not as eager to recognise the text's refusalto be interpretedin a singularway.The novel was alternatelylauded and decried by those critics as a work of either supreme didacticism-whether pro or anti-Puritan--orcomplete immorality,"unfit for the subjectof literature"(Brownson36). E. A. Duyckinck's great admiration for Hawthorne's"psychologicalromance"comes from its "moral," which, "thoughsevere, is wholesome, andis a sounderbit of Puritandivinity than we have been of late accustomedto hear from the degeneratesuccessors of CottonMather.... The spiritof his old Puritanancestors,to whom he refers in the preface, lives in Nathaniel Hawthorne"(24-25). In contrast, This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 356 J N T George Bailey Loringfound thatthe tale "properlyexposed the inhumanity of Puritanism, which repressed the sensuous element in human nature" (Murfin207). GeorgeRipley,in his discussionof the novel's "moral,"comes closer to a modernperspectivein assertingthat"themoralof the story-for it has a moralfor all wise enough to detect it-is shadowedforthratherthan expressed in a few brief sentences near the close of the volume" (26), but, perhapswisely, Ripley refrainsfrom specifying what this singular"moral" might be. The first critics mentionedseem to have heardonly the "public"voice of the narrator,the one seeking to be authorial,direct,and "illustratinga sense of humor."Perhaps,readingas men, they only heardthe masculinevoices in the narrative.PerhapsRipley hearda more privatenarrativevoice, one underminingthatpublicstanceof masculineauthority.However,even thatpublic voice was heardto speakcontradictorily-to which the opposing interpretations of Brownson and Duyckinck attest-indicating that the "voices" are not limited to a simple oppositionof "public"and "private."The narratoris not merelyjumping back and forthbetween his constrainedPuritanpersona and a mid-nineteenth-century modem thinker.The focalizationis constantly and privatevoices and perspectives,as well as shifting among many public among the characters.In the opening scene of the novel, the narratorcreates a point of view for himself throughthe "earlyseverityof Puritancharacter," throughwhose perspective he imagines the many possible spectacles that might be beheld on the scaffold of early PuritanSalem (54). A few pages later,the narratorimagines how a "Papist"might perceive the woman and child on the scaffold, as an image of Divine Maternity,"butonly by contrast"since in this image was "the taint of deeper sin in the most sacred qualityof humanlife, workingsucheffect, thatthe worldwas only the darker for this woman's beauty,and the more lost for the infantthatshe had borne" (59). This harshjudgment seems straightforwardand "authorial"until one remembersthatit is focalized throughthe pointof view of the "Papist."This double-voicedqualityobscuresthe intentof the statement. andperhapsmostpublic,voice-the one whichseems In his contemporary, most "authorial"-the narratortendsto generaliseandjudge didacticallyand overtly.SusanLanser'sdistinctionbetweenpublicandprivatenarrativevoices is based on the narrateeimplied by the voice. A privatenarrative,the traditionalareato whichwomenwriterswererelegated,positsa particularnarratee, usually in diary or letter form. The public voice hails a public audience. It inhabitsthe same narrativelevel as the reader,and can often be seen as an This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Feminine Voices 357 "author/narrator" (Lanser617). The narratorof TheScarletLetteradmirably fits Lanser's descriptionof the public narratorwhen he adopts his authorial tendency to generalise andjudge. He speaks directlyto the implied reader, andbecomes overtly generalisingandjudgmentalwhen he characterizesthe early Puritanwomen as stronger,more solid and forceful, and even more beautifulin their"substantial"way thantheirdescendants-his own female contemporaries(55). But in the scene that follows, he undermineshis own authorialperspectiveby allowing these "hardvisaged dames"to show themselves harsh, even shrewish, and certainly unattractivein their desire for more extreme punishmentof Hester than that decreed by the magistrates. One "autumnalmatron"assertsthat "atthe very least, they should have put the brandof a hot iron on HesterPrynne'sforehead"(56). Anotherwoman, "the ugliest as well as most pitiless of these self-constitutedjudges," adds that"thiswoman has broughtshameupon us all, andought to die" (56). The narratorrendershis own diegetic summaryof these women unreliableby presentingthem mimeticallyas contradictinghis generalisationof early Puritanwomen. Monika Elbertcharacterizesthese post-menopausalwomen as mimicking the patriarchsof theircommunity.They areno longermaternal,andtherefore have no value in a patriarchalsystem, except whatthey can appropriate for themselves as faux men. They have denied their gender,their maternal power, and have no recoursein a patriarchalsociety but to adopt masculine power: "These antagonisticwomen see Hester's sexuality in the way men conventionallyhave viewed it, as a threat"(175), and have dealt with that threatby "becomingmoremale,morehard,thanthe toughestpatriarch"(176). The only female voice thatspeaksout sympatheticallyfor Hesteris the young motherin the crowd.The unnamed,undescribed,unpresentedbut still present "Puritan"focalizer,whom the narratoroccasionally allows to speak through his narrativevoice, must feel some uneasiness before the heartlessnessof many of the PuritanGoodwives aroundthe scaffold;for, indeed,the narrator has a man in the crowd chastise the women for theirharshness:"Thatis the hardestword yet! Hush, now, gossips" (56). This anonymous"man in the crowd"speaksfor the narratoron morethanone level: he silences the women who are underminingthe public narrator'sattemptto resurrectthe "better deeds"and more noble traitsof the Puritans;at the same time he is the sympathetic,yet socially orthodoxvoice thatcondemnsthe methodand severity of judgment,if not thejudgmentitself. As a characterandnot overt narrative This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 358 J N T voice, he is partof a mimetic-thus more "objective"-presentation of the harshnessof Puritanjudgment. Raising the "Fallen Woman" to a New Art JanisStoutobservesthatthe novel's conflictedauthorialvoice challenges the patriarchalstereotypeof the fallen woman and the Puritantreatmentof her, but never questions the reality of Hester's sin or guilt. She hears no ironyor double-voicedqualitywhen the narratorspeaksof Hester'ssin, guilt and shame, and asserts that "howeverstronglyhe may deplore the narrowness and insensitivity of the self-righteousPuritansystem, he must choose law over the tracklesswildernessof moralchaos"(237). Althoughthe narrator seems to abhortheirmethods,he seems fundamentallyin agreementwith the Puritanphilosophy,and thus, in Stout's view, he "cannotleave unchallenged the radicalsocial ideas he attributesto her"(238). Stout does not cite a page numberor state specifically to which passage she is referring,but the following excerpt seems to be an appropriateexample to highlightthe contreatmentof Hesterandherradicalism. flicted natureof the author/narrator's It is the strongest of several passages in which Hester voices passionate, unorthodoxopinions and feelings, and which the narratorconsistently follows with a seemingly negativejudgment.While the narrator'schallenge to Hester's radicalsocial ideas may seem authorialbecause of theirplacement immediatelyfollowing Hester'sthought-and, therefore,carrythe authority of "thelast word"-these judgmentsarenot only ambiguous,butare heavily outweighed by the narrator'sassignmentof an eloquentpassion in the freeindirect-discourseblend of his and Hester'svoice (italics indicatingFID are my emphasis): Indeed,thesamedarkquestionoftenroseintohermind,with referenceto the whole raceof womanhood.Wasexistence worth accepting, even to the happiest among them?As con- cernedher own individualexistence,she had long ago decidedin thenegative,anddismissedthepointas settled.(134) Subsequentto this passage aboutHester'sinnerturmoil,the narratorprovides a generalisationabout women. It is writtenin the presenttense, making Hestera kindof"everywoman,"andtherefore,interpellatingfemale readers to agree, while creating a kind of sympatheticunderstandingfor male readers: This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Voices Feminine 359 A tendencyto speculation, thoughit maykeepwomanquiet,as it doesman,yet makeshersad.Shediscerns,it maybe sucha hopelesstaskbeforeher.As a firststep,the wholesystemof societyis to be torndown,andbuiltup anew.Then,the very natureof theoppositesex,oritslonghereditary habit,whichhas becomelikenature,is to be essentiallymodified,beforewoman canbe allowedto assumewhatseemsa fairandsuitableposition.(134) This passage, commonly attributedto Hester,is quite clearly spoken by the narrator;it is he who voices the radicalideas, in a profoundempathy with Hester'sstateof mind,andwith the perception,as suggestedin the passage,of women in general.He is addinghis own voice to her complaint-not in the ambiguousformof freeindirectdiscourse,butplainlyin his "public"personagivingit the weightof"authorial"conviction.Thejudgmentfollowingthe revolutionarypassagefocuses not on Hester'sradicalideas, but on her thoughtsof suicide: Thus,HesterPrynne,whosehearthadlostitsregularandhealthy of mind; throb,wanderedwithouta clew in the darklabyrinth nowturnedasideby aninsurmountable precipice;nowstarting backfroma deepchasm.Therewaswildandghastlysceneryall aroundher,anda homeandcomfortnowhere. Attimes,a fearful doubtstroveto possesshersoul,whetherit werenotbetterto sendPearlat onceto heaven,andgo herselfto suchfuturityas EternalJusticeshouldprovide. Thescarletletterhadnotdoneits office.(134) Beginning with the word "thus,"the narratorsubsumeshis radicalsympathy with Hester undera generalguise of psychonarration-implyingthat he has been merelypresentingHester'sthoughtsall along.The public "Puritannarrastatementof judgment,distor,"with a simple, if not exactly straightforward, avows the fragile sympathyhis alter("Other")ego created.This "public"persona aligns himself with the Puritanpatriarchalsystem in judging Hesternot only as a sinnerbut as a revolutionary;but the moreprivateor subversivenarratorhas unquestionablyshownhis allegiancewithHester'sradicalism,even if he is conflictedaboutthe moralnatureof the "sin"thathelpedproduceit. This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 360 J N T While severalcriticshave noted that"itis throughHester'svoice..,. that Hawthornespeaks as a revolutionary"(Martin128), an even more tangible subversionis enactedthroughHester's silence and non-verbalcommunication. The narrativecalls attentionto the "feminine"discourseof silence and gives it a power as greator greaterthanthe logos of patriarchy.Herrefusalto name the fatherof her child confounds the leaders of the community.This refusalto be boundto a "father,"even if beyond the laws of marriage,gives Hestera greaterindividuality.She does not conformto an acceptablemodel of womanhoodthatreflects the man to whom she might belong; she belongs to no man in her community,and thus projectsher own meaning. She belongs to the communityas a whole-as the negativeexample,as the abjected, sin-infected "other"-but, in the eyes of the community,she is no man's wife, sister, mother,daughter.She is simply Hester Prynne, wearer of the scarletletter.The letterthey have "sentenced"herto wear attemptsto define her as a transparentsign-as a transgressorof man's laws, if not as a lawful reflectorof a man. The attempt,however, backfires-Hester's needle subverts the interpretivecode. ShariBenstock observes thatHester'sembroidery"makesa spectacle of femininity,of female sexuality,of all thatPuritanlaw hopes to repress"(289). Hester subverts the patriarchalsign by adding a non-linguistic feminine subtextto it, makingthe symbol standfor "woman."Patriarchallaw effectively defines woman as the "outlaw"or "other,"and withinpatriarchallanguage, she can rarely find the words to defend herself. In representing "woman,"Hester's sign does not simply brandwomen as "other,"but condemns patriarchyand its system of languagefor its inabilityto express and conceive of women as anythingmore thaneithertransparentstereotypesor outlaws. Whenthe communityfirstviews the embroideredletteron Hester'sbreast on the scaffold, one womanindignantlyinterpretsHester'sembroideryas an attemptto make a "prideout of what they, worthy gentlemen, meant for a punishment"(58). However,the narratorreveals this interpretationto be an over-simplification,if not a complete misreading.WhateverHester's motive, the effect of her artis the transformationof the intendedmeaningof the letter;instead of hiding her shame, she drawsthe gaze more intently to the symbol on her breast, pronouncingher separatenessmore loudly than the pronouncementsof the magistrates.The letter,"so fantasticallyembroidered andilluminateduponherbosom..,. hadthe effect of a spell, takingher out of the ordinaryrelationswith humanity,and enclosing her in a sphere by her- This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Feminine Voices 361 self" (58). Slowly, she subvertsthe intentof shame by transformingthe object of law into an objectof art,with its own semiotic system of meaning.By going beyond the sumptuaryregulations,the symbol becomes lawless instead of representativeof the law. She has obscuredand confused the legal intent of the symbol by making it an illegal accessory.The narratornever raises the question of Hester's motive, but his and Hester's silence on this subject-combined with the attemptsof other charactersto read and interpret her intent-allows the symbol itself to speak volumes. Indeed, the intended signifier of the scarlet letter-"Adulteress"-is never mentionedin the narrative.However,like Dimmesdale'sdouble-voicedsermons,and like the narrator'smultifariousnarrative,the variousandtransitorymeaningsthat the symbol absorbsas it slides its way aroundthe text and onto othercharacters is a subjectof endless speculation. Withoutbenefit of a suitablelanguage,Hestercommunicatesthroughher feminine artistryof needle-work-an artistrythatthe narratorrecognises as "almostthe only one within a woman'sgrasp"(76). The women in the community recognise her non-verbal, feminine form of communication, and therebyrecognise-perhaps nothingso definiteas theirown "outlaw"status as women underpatriarchalrule-but possibly a vague sense of the insufficiency of the patriarchalsystem of languageandlaw to adequatelyrepresent and to serve the "unspeakable"needs and desires of women. They come to her with "theirsorrowsandperplexities,"seeking hercounsel and sympathy as someone who has been a publicvictim as they areprivatevictims. Only in this non-verbal,semiotic system can she begin to take control, to some degree, of her identity;andonly throughthe use of this semiotic power can she subvertthe patriarchalsymbol of punishmentplacedon herbreast,as well as the patriarchalpower placed over all women in the community. The narrator/author-ashe characteriseshimself-associates Hester,as he does Pearl, with artistry,creativity,and imagination,and by doing so, implies a connection with his own artistryas a writer.When Hester rejects the joy (jouissance?) she receives from her art of embroideryas a sin, the narratoris quick to correctthis view, saying that "this morbidmeddling of conscience with an immaterialmatterbetokened..,. somethingthatmightbe deeply wrong, beneath"(78). While the public narratormay be conflicted aboutthe masculine world view of being a "writerof story-books,"the private voice cannothelp but affirmthe "jouissance"of creativeexpression,be it Hester's embroideryor his own writing. Hester's "morbidmeddling of conscience" is temporary,for by the end of the narrativeHester is joyfully This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 362 1 N T "embroideringa baby-garment,with such a lavish richness of golden fancy as would have raised a public tumult,had any infant, thus apparelled,been shown to our sombre-huedcommunity"(200). Hestercontinuesto write her rebellion in lace, outside the boundariesof law-as Hawthornewrites his in romance,outside the boundariesof patriarchalconvention. As a writer,the narrator,like Hester and Pearl, is outside the patriarchal community.Nina Baym sees Hesteras a symbol of Hawthorne'sown rebellion against his politically motivated firing, which resulted in his ousting frommasculinesociety. In writingTheScarletLetter,he has, in effect, puton the scarlet letter and shown his affinity with Hester.RobertK. Martin,in a similarvein, sees in TheScarletLetterHawthorne's"reworkingof the figure of the strongerotic woman artist"and an expressionof his own anxieties"anxieties [that]were as much about his intrusion,as a man, into a female world as aboutwomen's intrusionsinto his male world"(122). The narrator practicallysays as muchin the Custom-Housesketchwhen he finds the scar- let letterin theheapof papers-althoughit takessometimeforhimto resist "readingas a man."First,he describeshis absurdlymasculine"examination" of thecloth,perceivingthatit "assumedtheshapeof a letter.It wasthecapital letterA. By an accuratemeasurement,each limb proved to be precisely three inches and a quarterin length" (42-43). However, he soon finds that this examinationdoes not reveal the "deep meaning in it, most worthy of interpretation..,. which..,. streamedforthfrom the mystic symbol."While it evaded themeaning"communicated" itselfto his(feminine)"sensibilities," "theanalysis"of his (masculine)"mind"(43). Only by "readingas a woman" does he effect a solution to this riddle. Placing the cloth on his breast produces a profoundeffect: "It seemed to me,-the readermay smile, but must not doubt my word,-it seemed to me, then, that I experienceda sensation not altogetherphysical, yet almost so, as of burningheat;and as if the letter were not of red cloth, but red-hot iron" (43). He has brandedhimself, as Hesterhas been branded,as an outsider,an Other,living on the edge of patriarchalsociety. An empathy-indeed, a physical sympathy-with Hesterhas been establishedthroughthe semiotic power still vested in the letter.In establishing his semiotic connection with Hester throughher symbol, he has brandedhimself not only as a writer,but as a writerof a woman's story,told in a womanlyway.Afterthis branding,the narratoradmits,"Ishuddered,and involuntarilylet it [the scarletletter]fall uponthe floor."One can understand a certainreluctanceon the partof a manto take up the voice of the "m/other." He is still a man living in an oppressivepatriarchalsociety, and the patriar- This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Feminine Voices 363 chalvoice, too, is partof him andcannotbe ignoredor silenced.It speaks alongwiththemanyothervoicesof thenarrative. Pearl the Elf/Child The symbolism of the scarletletteris most obviously and repeatedlyassociatedwith Pearl.She is "thescarletletterendowedwith life" (90), both in her appearanceand her function. Like the letter, Pearl is the constant reminderto Hesterof her sin, but also of her redemption;the child is her punishment and her reward.For if Pearl is identified with the lawlessness that Hesterhas embroideredaroundthe letter,she is also identifiedwith the law within, which determinesthatPearlmust,in some way, be Hester'spenance. It is difficult not to readPearlallegorically,as the narratorrepeatedlyinsists on her symbolic significance. Nina Baym sees Pearl as Hester's id, acting out her unconsciousrebellionagainstthe unfairnessof Puritanjustice (138). The doubling of Hester into two charactersof ego and alter ego makes her more acceptably sympathetic-at least to the more puritanic ethic of Hawthorne'scontemporaries. RegardingHester's behaviour,the narratorassertsthat it is remarkable, thatpersonswho speculatethe mostboldly oftenconformwiththe mostperfectquietudeto the external of society.Thethoughtsufficesthem,withoutinregulations vestingitselfin thefleshandbloodof action.So it seemedto be withHester.Yet,hadlittlePearlnevercometo herfromthe spiritualworld,it mighthavebeenfarotherwise.(133-34) Outwardly,Hesterconformsto the standardsof her society, while Pearlembodies the "flesh and blood" acting out the repressedfantasies of rebellion. WithoutPearl to act out her unconscious desires, Hester,the narratorconfides, "might have come down to us in history, hand in hand with Ann Hutchinson,as the foundressof a religious sect" or, more likely, as a fellow victim to Mistress Hibbins. Lois Cuddy notes that "in each scene Hester behaves in one way, according to Puritanprinciples, but her feelings are often in conflict with her externalappearance"(102). However,the narrator rarelygives us such an explicit characterisationof Hester'sfeelings. We only surmisethather feelings are in conflict, partlybecause we believe they must be-the narrativeexplicitly throwsa glove in the unrelentingface of Puritan This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 364 J N T law-but mostly because of the symbiotic relationshipbetween Hester and Pearl.Throughthe repeatedscenes of allegorising,we come to see Pearl as representingHester's unconsciousdesires. Perhapsthis is why Hester does not censure Pearl's "anti-social"behaviour.Like her embroidery,Pearl's behaviouris one of the few outlets for expressing repressedfeelings that Hesterhas. Not surprisingly,Pearl'sbehaviour,as representativeof Hester's repressedand unconsciousurges, is seen as malevolentby the Puritancommunity,given the Puritan'ssystematicrepressionof inner desires and passions. Pearlis seen by the townspeople-and even by hermother-as a "demon offspring"(88), an "infantpestilence"(90), an "impof evil" (84), a "fiend" (87), and other such demonic images. These perceptions,however, are consistently correctedby the narrator.He remindsthe reader,in his "authorial" historian'svoice, that Lutherwas also considereda demon offspring, "according to the scandal of his monkish enemies"; "nor was Pearl the only child to whom this inauspiciousorigin was assigned among the New England Puritans"(88). He constantlybelies Hester's anxieties about Pearl's naturewith marvelousdescriptionsof her,characterisingher as an extraordinary, but not malevolent child. He applies imagery of witchcraft in an approbatoryway, associatingit with the imaginationandcreativityof a solitaryperson, therebynegatingits connotationswith evil: Athome,withinandaroundhermother's cottage,Pearlwanted Thespellof life nota wideandvariouscircleof acquaintance. wentforthfromherevercreativespirit,andcommunicated itselfto a thousandobjects,as a torchkindlesa flamewherever it may be applied.The unlikeliestmaterials,a stick,a bunchof rags,a flower,werethe puppetsof Pearl'switchcraft,and,withoutundergoing anyoutwardchange,became spirituallyadaptedto whateverdramaoccupiedthe stageof her innerworld.Herone baby-voiceserveda multitudeof imaginarypersonages,old andyoung,to talkwithal.... It thevastvarietyof formsintowhichshethrew waswonderful, herintellect,withno continuity,indeed,butdartingup and activity.... It was dancing,alwaysin a stateof preternatural likenothingso muchas thephantasmagoric playof thenorthernlights.Inthemereexerciseof thefancy,however,andthe sportivenessof a growingmind,theremightbe little more This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Feminine Voices 365 thanwasobservablein otherchildrenof brightfaculties;exceptas Pearl,in the dearthof humanplaymates,wasthrown moreuponthevisionarythrongwhichshecreated.(85-86) It is the Puritanethic thatsees the solitaryandimaginativeas evil. The narrator rescues this impish image-an image presumablyoriginatingin Pue's (fictional) manuscript-by characterisingher as an extraordinarybut essentially naturalchild. The narratorseems to take great delight in his descriptions of Pearl.These passages are withoutdoubtthe brightestin the sombre novel. They seem, nevertheless,to be overshadowedin the minds of many readersby the darkperspectivesof Hesterand the Puritancommunity. The image of Pearlthatseems to dominateis the one of imp. HenryJames describes a paintinghe saw as a child of Hesterand Pearl, in which Pearlis an "elfish-lookinglittle girl"standingbetween her mother'sknees, glancing "strangelyout of the picture"and "maliciouslyplaying"with the scarletletter on Hester's breast (49-50). The image persists in art as well as critical commentary. On the other hand, Ann Abbot, a contemporary critic of Hawthorne,sought a differentperspectiveof Pearl: Let the authorthrowwhatlight he will uponher,fromhis magicalprism,sheretainsherperfectandvividhumanindividuality.Whenhe wouldhave us call herelvish andimplike,we persistin seeingonlya capricious,roguish,untamed child,suchasmanya motherhaslookeduponwithawe,anda feelingof helplessincapacityto rule.(33) Abbot seems to have heardthe voice of the privatenarratorwithoutrealising it. For when one separatesthe narrator'sdescriptionsof Pearl from those descriptionsstronglyfocalized throughothercharacters,thatis precisely the light thatis thrownon Pearl.She is the rose, pluckedby the narratorfrom the rose bush, and handedto the readerat the beginningof the novel. She is the "sweet moralblossom" (54) thatrelieves the excessive darknessof the tale; but she is also "a lovely and immortalflower"sprung"outof the rankluxuriance of a guilty passion." She is naturalinnocence-a "noble savage"but also the emblem of sin. This double view of Pearlemphasisesthe nature of perception-of the tendency to see what one expects or is told to see. Perhapssomeone "readingas a man"will be more likely to accept the "demonized"Pearl,as she is so forcefully characterisedby her Puritancommu- This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 366 1 N T nity, and as James's descriptionsuggests; whereas someone "readingas a woman"might be morelikely to resist this demonization,and see Pearlsimply as a child, as Abbot does. The twinning of Pearl also reveals the narrator'sconflict regardingthe natureof the sin that producedher.The narratorcharacterisesHester's attitude towardher "sin"as conflicted: "She knew her deed had been evil; she could have little faith, therefore,that its result [Pearl] would be for good" (81); but she also exclaims to Dimmesdalethat"whatwe did had a consecration of its own"(154), and,togetherat the brookside,HesterandDimmesdale contemplatePearlas "theliving hieroglyph..,. the onenessof theirbeing...the materialunion, andthe spiritualidea, in whomthey met"(162). If Hester'sis the revolutionaryvoice in the novel, then Pearl'sis the romantic.However, such high romanticismseems hardlycompatiblewith the Victorianprudery exhibitedelsewhereby the narrator.Indeed,the narratorundermineshis own romanticimagerywhen Pearl,roamingthe forest, and charmingall the wild animals into a harmoniousaccord of untamedsympathies,happensupon a wolf, whose wild natureshe subdueslong enough for him to offer "his savage head to be patted by her hand,"compelling the narratorto admit that "herethe tale has surely lapsed into the improbable"(161). Yet the narrator still implies the romanticconnection between the "mother-forest"and the "kindredwildness in the humanchild" (161). While the text resists a completely fixed reading,the narrator'stechniquein presentingPearl suggests thatthe demonizedperceptionof Pearlis surely an equally improbableone. Manycritics have foundHawthorne'sdescriptionsof his own childrenin his notebooks to correspond-at times exactly-with the descriptions of Pearl,4suggesting that, unless he found his own children demonic, he intended the characterisationto be a positive one. The persistenceof the evil imagery surroundingPearl, however,has less to do with damningher than with condemning the narrowperspective of Puritanand patriarchaljudgment, and its morbideffect on Hester.Pearlallows Hesterto grow imaginatively andphilosophically.Pearlis not only the evidence of the sin for which Hester has been cast out of her society; she is also a source from which Hesterimbibes identity.Seeing her unconscious,repressedemotions played out publicly in Pearl, Hester's identity takes on a greatercomplexity. Any remnantsof the stereotypical"fallenwoman"thatmight have remained,despite the narrative'sattemptsto sweep them away,disappearin the complex renderingof Hester'spsychologicaldrama.LikePearl,who behavesas though This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Feminine Voices 367 she could "bea law untoherself,withouthereccentricitiesbeing reckonedto her for a crime"(113), Hesterrealises that "theworld's law was no law for her mind" (133)-at least not the law of the Puritanworld. Pearl's unrestrainedimagination,as much as her own outcast state, awakens Hester's mindto a varietyof philosophicalpossibilities,andto judgmentsof her own. MistressHibbinsand HistoriographicMetafiction The narrator'spresentationsof MistressHibbinsalso shatterstereotypes, but in a much differentway from those used to portrayHester and Pearl. It seems at casual glance thatthe narratorimplicateshimself in the guilt of his ancestorsby overtly portrayingMistress Hibbinsas an evil associate of the "BlackMan."However,a closer look at the fourscenes in which she appears and the five referencesto her by othercharactersreveals that the narratoris playing with the presentationsof this characterin ways that undermineher historicalrepresentationas a witch. David Ketterer,discussingwitchcraftin the novel, observesthatto "judge fromthe meagrecriticalcommentarythatexists on the matter,the portraitof Mistress Hibbins, sister of GovernorBellingham and the resident witch in mid-seventeenth-centuryBoston, would appearto vindicatethe persecuting spiritof JohnHawthorne"(295). MistressHibbinswas presumablybased on the historical Ann Hibbins, who, less than a year after her husbanddied, leaving herimpoverished,was executedas a witch by the Salem magistrates. The chargeswerebroughtby neighbours,who, accordingto historicalrecords, and"odious"(Ketterer296). Mistress foundher "turbulent,""quarrelsome," Hibbins is the first charactermentionedin the story: an observerof events aroundthe scaffold might suppose "a witch, like old Mistress Hibbins, the bitter-temperedwidow of the magistrate,was to die upon the gallows" (54). In this allusion,the narratornot only reassertsthe qualityfor which the Puritans are perhapsbest known-persecution of witches-but also introduces this intriguingcharacterinto the narrative. In her first appearance,a purelymimeticnarrativepresentation,Mistress Hibbins acts exactly like we would expect a stereotypicalwitch to actindeed, exactly in accordancewith how we might expect SurveyorPue to have presentedher. She accosts Hester as she leaves the Governor'shouse, afterDimmesdalehas arguedin favourof herkeeping Pearl,andtemptsher: This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 368 1 N T "Hist,Hist!"said she, while her ill-omenedphysiognomy seemedto cast a shadowover the cheerfulnewnessof the house."Wiltthougo withus to-night?Therewill be a merry companyintheforest;andI wellnighpromisedtheBlackMan thatcomelyHesterPrynnewouldmakeone."(100) After Hester politely declines the invitation,the narratorconsiders whether we should"supposethisinterviewbetwixtMistressHibbinsandHesterPrynne to be authentic,and not a parable"(101), for how could such a preposterous event be true?He not only subvertsthe witch stereotypeby ridiculingit, but he also reverses the hierarchyof Platonic and Aristotelianrhetoricthat has privilegedmimesisover diegesis (presenceover absence;speakingover writing; history/tragedyover fiction/poetry).Mimetic presentationpresumably readsas "objective"and, therefore,"true,"while diegetic summaryis suspiciously taintedby subjectivity.Here, the reverse is true.The mimetic scene is impossibly ludicrous,while the diegetic implicationof a "parable"is far more plausible. The other three scenes in which Mistress Hibbins appearsmake use of the same or similartechniquesto underminethe validity of historicalrepresentation.Duringthe minister'smidnightvigil on the scaffold,his cry awakens the governorand his "sourand discontented"sister: Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this venerable witch-lady had heardMr.Dimmesdale'soutcry,andinterpreted it, with its as the clamourof echoesandreverberations, multitudinous thefiendsandnight-hags,withwhomshe waswellknownto makeexcursionsintotheforest.(123,emphasisadded) This passage is highly reminiscentof the ironyin the Custom-Housesketch, especially regardingthe much-repeateduse of the word "venerable."The ironic overstatement,"beyonda shadow of a doubt,"underminesthe validity of Mistress Hibbins's characterizationas a witch, and reflects more on Dimmesdale's state of mind than on the state of Mistress Hibbins's soul. When the governor and his sister cease their peering into the night, Dimmesdale observes thatthe governormerely "retiredfrom the window," whereas "possibly, [Mistress Hibbins] went up among the clouds" (123). During Dimmesdale'swalk home from his forest encounterwith Hester,he meets MistressHibbins,who seems to know all abouttheirrelationship.His This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Feminine Hawthorne's Voices 369 meeting with the "witch-lady"is the final catalystthat causes Dimmesdale to wonder if he has sold himself "to the fiend whom, if men say true, this yellow-starchedandvelveted old hag has chosen for herprinceand master!" Following their dialogue, the narratorassertsthat "his encounterwith Mistress Hibbins, if it were a real incident,did but show his sympathyand fellowship with wicked mortals"(173, emphasis added). Again, questioning the historicalrealityof the incident,the narratorunderminesboththe historical identity of Mistress Hibbins as a witch, and Dimmesdale's excessively morbidmoralising.The narratorcannotgo so faras to proclaima "truth"that the modernworld sees as self-evident:that Mistress Hibbins standsfor the victims of outrightandsystematicmurderof women who were not underthe protectionof a man;of women who chose to espouse unorthodoxviews and behaviour;of women who were simply irritating.He can (and does), however, underminethe historicalrepresentation.By underminingthe authenticity of Pue's manuscript,he throwsa subversivelight over the "truth"of history, and its systematicoppressionof women. The Endings... Critics-particularly New Critics-have devoted considerablepraise to the novel's "perfection"of structure.They applaudthe symmetryof the three scaffold scenes, and extol otherexamplesof the novel's "thoroughlyfused," "whole," "complete,"and "balanced"form (Murfin 212). It is no coincidence thatcritics who see perfectionin the plot line also see Dimmesdale as the central character of the novel. How could a novel of such central importance to the American literary canon be "about a woman"? But if Dimmesdale's final scene on the scaffold is the climax of the novel, the narrator'sadherenceto Aristotelianplot structureseems a bit strainedin view of the multipleendings he provided. Even in the first ending, Dimmesdale's,the narratorgives us many possible perspectives and interpretationsof Dimmesdale's last minutes on the scaffold, includingthe source of the scarletletteron his breast: SomeaffirmedthattheReverendMr.Dimmesdale...hadbegunhis courseof penance...byinflictinga hideoustortureon himself.Otherscontended...oldRogerChillingworth...had theagencyof magicandpoisoncausedit to appear...through ous drugs.Others,again,-and thosebestableto appreciate This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 370 1 N T theminister's theirbelief,that peculiarsensibility..,whispered the awfulsymbolwas the effectof the ever activetoothof andatlast remorse,gnawingfromtheinmostheartoutwardly, judgmentby the visiblepresmanifestingHeaven'sdreadful ence of the letter.Thereadermaychooseamongthesetheories.(197) While giving the readera choice, the narratortells us implicitlywhich theory to choose; who but the readeris "bestable to appreciatethe minister'speculiar sensibility" after the narratorhas taken such pains to present it to us? Among the versions we are not given to choose from is the "singular"version that on [Dimmesdale's] breast deniedtherewasanymarkwhatever .... Neither... had his dying wordsacknowledged,noreven remotelyimplied,any,the slightestconnection,on his part, withtheguiltfor whichHesterPrynnehadso long wornthe scarletletter.(197-98) On the natureof this interpretation,the narratorstates, we must be allowed to consider this version of Mr. Dimmesdale'sstory as only an instanceof that stubborn fidelity with which a man's friends-and especially a clergyman's-will sometimesupholdhis character;when proofs,clearas themid-daysunshineon thescarletletter,establishhima falseandsin-stainedcreatureof thedust.(198) This statementemphasises the perversityof wilful and ideologically motivated interpretation,and warnsthe readeragainstfalling into a similartrap. At the same time, the narratorlays a trap for the readerin articulatingthe moral:"Amongthe manymoralswhichpressuponus fromthepoorminister's miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence: "Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world,if not yourworst,yet some traitwherebythe worst may be inferred!"The moral contradictsthe narrator'sconsistent strategy, for he, like Dimmesdale,has presentedhis subversive,unorthodoxideas covertly,in marginalisedandcontradictoryvoices. If the readerwere not straining to hear them, these voices might go entirely unnoticed. Just as Dimmesdale'sparishionerscannothearthe "confession"in his sermons,it is This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Feminine Voices 371 possible thatreadersmay not hearthe voicings of "oppression"in the narrative. The narratoris certainlynot freely showing his "worst,"but "shadowing it forth."In undermininghis own authoritativelystatedmoral,situatedin the "denouement"of the plot's overt structure,the narratoris undermining the entiresymmetryof his plot structure.By definition,a denouementshould clear up the complications of the plot; but this denouementcreates more loose ends than it tidies up. The novel does not click neatly shut, enclosing the tapestry created by the interwoven voices of the narrative,but leaves strands of plot messily lying about, insinuating their way into readers' subjectivities. The story is not "about"the linear progressof a man's moral dilemma. The multipleendings and the cyclical turningof the plot subvertthe Aristotelian symmetry.The storydoes not end with Dimmesdale'sdeath, noreven with the questions about the meaning of his death.The public narratoraddresses his narratee,explainingthathe has "a matterof business to communicate to the reader"(199). In a seemingly offhandand parentheticalway, the narratorcontinuesthe story,providingseveralendings, and some beginnings. The narrativeopens with a referenceto the "footstepsof the sainted Ann Hutchinson"and ends with Hesterpossibly following in them. The cyclical natureis also emphasisedin the presentationsof female charactersas child, sexual woman and crone: as Hester becomes (or, perhaps,replaces MistressHibbinsas) the crone,Pearlmaturesinto womanhood,becominglike the narrator-a "citizenof somewhereelse" (52). The lettersHesterreceives and the baby clothes she fashions indicatethatthe matriarchal/maternal cycle continues. Pearl'sis the second ending,and, althoughthe historyof Pearl'slife after leaving Salem is shroudedin mystery,the narratorimplies that it is a happy one. The final ending, Hester's, comes full circle to the first mention of the heroine of the story in "The Custom-House,"where she is an old woman, rememberedby "agedpersons alive in the time of Mr. SurveyorPue" (43). These aged persons rememberedan old woman of "statelyand solemn aspect" from theirchildhood,a woman who had the habitof wandering aboutthe countryas a kindof voluntarynurse,doingwhatever miscellaneous goodshemight;takinguponherself,likewise,to give advicein all matters,especiallythoseof theheart;by which means,as a personof such propensitiesinevitablymust, she gainedfrommanypeoplethereverencedueto anangel.(43) This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 372 J N T Fromthis first outerglimpse of Hester,the narrator,by degrees, takes us furtherinside the psychology of her character,revealing the complexities and conflicted natureof humansubjectivity.By the end of the story, she is againassociatedwith the "angel"-perhaps even the "domesticangel"in the Puritanhouse, "toilsome,thoughtfuland self-devoted"-but by no means a stereotypicalone. Throughthe narrator'scarefullyconstructedrenderingof her character,we have a much more complex understandingof this "fallen angel."Hester'sdecision to remainin Salem, whateverthe motive, resultsin a subtle enlargingof her sphereof quietly rebelliousinfluence. Hester's decision to stay symbolicallypaves the way for some futurewoman to be the "angeland apostleof the coming revelation"thatmightreveal a "new truth" and"establishthe whole relationbetweenmanandwomanon a surerground of mutualhappiness"(201). These last sentiments are Hester's, narratedin free indirect discourse, smoothly blendingthe narrator'sand Hester'svoices. Trueto form, the narrator follows the sympatheticallyrenderedpassage with an authorialdisclaimer:"So said HesterPrynne,and glanced her sad eyes downwardat the scarletletter."One last time, the narratordistanceshimself from the radical sentimentsof his heroine, never quite letting the readerfeel on solid interpretiveground.However,this "disclaimer"mightalso be readas a refutation of Hester's self-deprecatingimage as too "stainedwith sin" to take on the role of angel that she envisions for a more "lofty,pure"woman (201). "So said Hester Prynne"-but anothervoice suggests perhapsshe already has assumedthis role. Ellen Moers characterizesthe equivocal techniqueas "Hawthorne'sdevious plot structure"(54). She assertsthatthis structuredoomsanydramatised version to failure because the narrativeraises principalquestions that are never answered: is Dimmesdale "a villain or a saint? Is Hester a spokeswoman for nineteenthcentury feminism or its refutation?"She concludes frombeginningto end, that"hadHawthornetold his storystraightforwardly, he would not have been able to avoid supplyinganswersto these questions" (54). But he did not choose to tell his story straightforwardly-for such a telling would necessarilybe fraughtwith lies, or, at least, artificialconstructions of a version of truthbased on a single perspective.If there is any subject upon which the narratoris consistent, it is the difficulty of "reading"; and if the novel can be said to be "about"one thing in particular,it is about subjectivityand the problemsof interpretation.All of the characterspresent This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Feminine Voices 373 Hesterandherscarletletterarecontinuallyscruproblemsforinterpretation: tinisedandinterpreted her community,butthe meaningneverbecomes by the narrator's transparent; manyperspectiveson Pearlserveto debateher is called (un)natural identity;MistressHibbins'sveryexistenceinthenarrative intoquestion,forcingthereaderto reconsider of thevalidity historicalrepreof Dimmesdale(andwhateverhe sentation;andChillingworth's "reading" findson Dimmesdale'schest)providesa significantcontrastto the Puritan community'sreadingof theirminister.Thereis no finalsolutionto any of these"problems," makingthenovelsomethingof aninkblottest;interpretationsreflectmoremeaningfully on thereaderthanon thetext. In the firstparagraph of "TheCustom-House," the narrator attemptsto definehis idealreader:"theauthoraddresses,not the manywho will fling aside his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understandhim, betterthanmostof his schoolmatesandlifemates"(22).Hereis a formidable task for the reader,but the narrator makesit mucheasierby providinga multitudeof voices, bothpublicandprivate,thataddressa multitudeof readers' sympathies.The play of "masculine"and "feminine"voices and techniques used throughoutthe narrativeis not merely a dialectic of gendered binaries,but a continuumof subjectpositions, which interpellates,not a coherentunified subject,but a realisticallyconflicted subjectivity. The many contesting voices of the narrativemerge and meanderto narratea euphoniouslyequivocal story-a truepolyphony-a multiplevoicing of a varietyof narrativeideologies. A singular,authoritative,narrativevoice cannotbe pinned down, enablingthe text to be read accordingto one's own desires. Indeed the multitudeof voices creates a polyphony that allows the feminine voices to emerge and,dependingon how one listens, perhapseven over-powerthe masculine.However,if one is looking for a single authoritative voice, one might-like Mrs. Hawthorne-end up with a headache.For above all, polyphony resists singularand fixed interpretation.Assigning a singularmeaningto the novel may be as reckless as assigning a fixed signi- fied to the symbolthatgives it its title,as therewill alwaysbe evidenceto refuteit in the equivocal and conflicted narrative.If one voice dominates,it will be the voice that the readermost wants to hear.Reading as a woman, one may find the predominantvoices of the narrativein TheScarlet Letterto be the "feminine"ones. Listeningto these voices may meantuningout other, contradictoryones, but in doing so, one hears the feminine discourses and techniques that underminethe patriarchalfoundationsof history-and of This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 374 J N T society-and thatbegin to rescue the heroinesfromthe literarystereotypeof the "villainess." UniversityofRegina Saskatoon,Saskatchewan Notes 1. Forfurtherdiscussionof Hawthorne'sequivocalnarrative,see MichaelDavittBell, Daniel Cottom, Joanne Feit Diehl, David Ketterer,David Leverenz, Robert K. Martin,Ellen Moers, Janis P. Stout, and David Van Leer, as well as Nina Baym's "ThwartedNature: Nathaniel Hawthorne as Feminist," Micheal J. Colacurcio's "Footsteps of Ann Hutchinson:The Contextof TheScarlet Letter,"JohnO. Rees, Jr.'s"Hawthorne'sConcept of Allegory: A Reconsideration,"and Elaine Tittle Hansen's "Ambiguityand the Narratorin The Scarlet Letter" For a more complete list, see Daniel Cottom's notes at the end of his article. 2. JonathanCulleradmitsthathis definitionof "readingas a woman"is purelydifferential: "to read as a woman is to avoid readingas a man, to identify the specific defences and distortionsof male readingsand providecorrectives"(516). He states that readingas a woman assertsthe "continuitybetween women's experienceof social and familial structures and their experience as readers"(511). Like many critics trying to describe or define a feminine literaryaesthetic,Cullermanagesto makehimself understoodwithout need of exacting terminology.The "definition,"while vague, is inclusive, and one of the main tactics of readingas a woman is to be inclusive, to avoid the "limitationsof male readings"(58). 3. Michael Davitt Bell follows his article with extensive notes and bibliographicalreferences of othercritics who see Hawthorne'sdecision to write a Romanceas "revolutionary." 4. See David Van Leer's discussion of the comparisonbetween descriptionsof Pearl and Hawthorne's own children, in which he refers to Volume VIII, pages 398-436, of Hawthorne'snotebooks for descriptionsof his children. WorksCited Abbott, Anne. "The Magic Power of Hawthorne'sStyle." Critical Essays on Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.Ed. David B. Kesterson.Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988. 31-35. This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hawthorne's Feminine Voices 375 Baym, Nina. The Shape of Hawthorne'sCareer.Ithaca:CornellUniversity Press, 1976. Bell, Michael Davitt. "Artsof Deception: Hawthorne,'Romance,'and The Scarlet Letter." New Essays on The Scarlet Letter.Ed. Michael J. Colacurcio.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1985. 29-56. 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"A Psychological Romance."In CriticalEssays, ed. Kesterson.23-25. Elbert,Monika. "Hester'sMaternity:Stigma or Weapon?"ESQ 36 (1990): 175-207. Hawthorne,Nathaniel.TheScarlet Letter.Ed. Ross C. Murfin.Boston: BedfordBooks of St. Martin'sPress, 1991. Irigaray,Luce. "Another'Cause'--Castration."In Feminisms,ed. Warholand Herndl.40412. James, Henry."TheScarlet Letter."In CriticalEssays, ed. Kesterson.49-53. Ketterer,David. " 'Circle of Acquaintance':Mistress Hibbins and the Hermetic Design of The Scarlet Letter."English Studies in Canada 9:1 (1983): 294-311. This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 376 J N T Kristeva,Julia. "Women'sTime."In Feminisms,ed. Warholand Herndl.443-61. Lanser,Susan S. "TowardsA FeministNarratology."In Feminisms,ed. Warholand Herndl. 610-29. Leverenz, David. "Mrs. Hawthorne'sHeadache:Reading The Scarlet Letter."Nineteenth CenturyFiction 37:1 (1982): 552-75. Martin,Robert K. "HesterPrynne, C'est Moi: Nathaniel Hawthorneand the Anxieties of Gender."EngenderingMen: The Question of Male Feminist Criticism.Ed. Joseph A. Boone and Michael Cadden.New York:Routledge, 1990. 122-39. Ripley, George. "The Gothic, the Supernatural,the Imagination."In Critical Essays, ed. Kesterson.25-27. Stout, Janis P. "The Fallen Womanand the ConflictedAuthor:Hawthorneand Hardy."The American TranscendentalQuarterly1:1(1987):233-46. Van Leer, David. "Hester'sLabyrinth:TranscendentalRhetoricin PuritanBoston." In New Essays, ed. Colacurcio.57-100. This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:15:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions