Bad faith in The Scarlet Letter
It can be really difficult to come to a decision when the outside world persuades you to meet your own wishes first. Being by nature a weak-willed creature, people are inclined to rash actions and misguided dealings. We are, at times, sneaky and foolish. Sometimes even the good intentions we may have and a deep longing to act justly may also be seen as a display of bad faith. According to Sartre, bad faith is the use of freedom without the acknowledgement of its presence (Detmer 203). Being consciously aware of their bad conduct, people still refuse to ponder over possible outcomes and project responsibility onto other people involved in the situation, or ignore the other people involved in the situation entirely. To them, though they had free will and the ability to make a choice, it was not a choice to them at all, and this is bad faith. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne displays bad faith by confessing her sin of adultery with her fellow Minister Arthur Dimmesdale without acknowledging it was a choice; she was bound by her love for the Minister and there was no other way for her.
The movie to be discussed here is a romantic drama story of forbidden love and sensual passion in seventeenth century America. Viewers have a chance to learn the strict puritanical mores and cruel punishment for those who dare to violate a law based on monagamy. The main character is Hester Prynne, a young beautiful woman who ventured to neglect sacred Puritan ways and is penalized for this terrible sin. Essentially, she has sexual relations with a Minister; the two are not married. Moreover, she becomes pregnant with the minister’s daughter, whom she names Pearl. She is ostracized by the community for this act, and is forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her clothing, assumedly until she dies, so that all may know what she has done. You may ask why the minister is not punished, and why he wears no “A” upon his clothes. Prynne does not give him up as she confesses. Living in a Puritan community, this married woman committed a moral wrongdoing. Though her husband, Roger Chillingworth was captured by Indians and lost somewhere at sea, there was not any official notice of his death. Assuming him dead, Hester decided to begin an illicit relationship with the priest and as a result of this conjugal affair an “elf-like” child Pearl came into the world (Hawthorne 135).
It is hard to say whether the character had the right to behave in such way and transgress the moral principles of fidelity. There will always exist two sides of any situation. On the one hand, no matter if the sin was major or minor, the person perpetrated it, should definitely punished under Puritan rule. The condition that Hester considered her husband dead could not relieve her from responsibility for the committed crime. On the other hand, the young woman merited the opportunity to turn over a new leaf and begin to enjoy the life again. She fell in love with the minister, and he loved her, as well. Hester was faithful to her husband and frankly believed he would come back one day. However, as the time passed by, the chances of his happy return were gradually reducing. Finally, the woman stopped waiting for the miracle to happen and began letting herself be happy once more. Once the affair with the minister began, Prynne did not see it as an option. She had been condemned to darkness and sadness for too long, and loved the minister too much. Though she had free will and the option of choice, she did not feel this way, and so acted upon bad faith when she engaged in the affair.
Of course, the fact that the love for her husband and died, and her love for the minister was pure could not completely exculpate the character, but it should be taken into consideration when defining the severity of the punishment. Some people will always blame Hester and demand the sinner be gravely punished. Others, however, will show a gentler attitude and try to search for a less austere punishment, perhaps because they also have made a decision in bad faith. Also in bad faith, Prynne does not name the minister during her confession; she takes the blame all for herself. Those who wondered if there was perhaps a gentler punishment for her may have also wondered who the second party in the affair had been, and why they were not being punished alongside her. It is impossible to foresee all the hardships one can meet on his life path. Often faced with complicated challenges or in the gust of passion people can make a lot of mistakes and even commit sins. The truth is that the person should be punished according to the gravity of the crime and deserve a chance to be forgiven. We all have many opportunities to make decisions with our free will intact, though we may not understand it at the time. It is confusing and can lead to disruptive moments in our lives, much like the ones Prynne experiences. It is not a reason to brand somebody for the rest of their lives.
The crowd though, was not disposed to overlook Hester’s bad faith entirely, unfortunately. There was no sympathy in their gazes, but only cold scorn and unspoken aversion for the transgressor’s irreversibly gross crime. The moment the townsfolk found out about Hester’s sin, they devised exceedingly painful punishment. The poor woman was forced to wear the scarlet letter, a symbol of shame for the last day of her life. This letter “A” which meant adultery could not be taken off from Hester’s bosom at any time. The character did not receive her blame or a “slap on the wrist”, however she had to suffer emotional trauma which was worse any corporal punishment (Bloom 91). Everywhere Hester went, she felt contemptuous looks and insulting comments of each citizen. The woman became the talk of the town and was not accepted in the society for her wrongdoing. The drummer boy was following Hester whenever she walked and was announcing her appearance from a distance. Though the whole situation was really harsh and humiliating, Hester managed to get over the abasement and was patiently bearing her burden.
What looked like bad faith at first turned to be the true aspiration for obtaining a piece of happiness and better destiny. Hester did not betray her husband, but frustrated by his absence was trying to live a normal life again. She needed to forget about that constant feeling of loneliness and bring some light in her world of darkness and despair. There was nobody to help her fill the gaps of her blankness and motivate to move forward. Relationship with Dimmesdale was not just a secret love affair.
It gave Hester new impetus and thirst for life. What the woman felt to the priest was completely differed from relationship with Roger. She married Roger at a young age and was not clearly sure about her feelings. It was not even love but just sympathy. Now her heart was overfull with pure love and strong and sincere feelings. Every piece of her soul desired to be near him and enjoy each moment spent together. Now Hester had a loving person to care about and a faithful friend to trust in need.
Though the woman understood and respected the Puritan’s code of law, she could not miss the chance to loose her true love. Hester’s crime was not committed because of malice but because of passion and wild amorousness. Humans are very fragile creatures which should always be surrounded with love and care especially when they seem to be lost in the maze of life problems. Hester did not deliberately fell in love with Dimmesdale, they simply were destined to be together.
The bad faith turned the character’s life upside down. All the time she was living in an uncertain world and was not going to break the rules of this life game. It resembled the constant state of anxiety, which soon transformed into exhausting and wearisome existence. Without bad faith Hester would never make a change. She was tired of waiting for her husband and wanted to free oneself. It suddenly occurred to Hester that her whole life was a complete mess. There was not any passion between them and any strong feelings. Now when the destiny gifted her possibility to flee from the old life, she was prepared to use it. Hester lied to herself that nothing terrible could happen. She began to use bad faith once more, after Pearl was born. She would do anything to protect the girl, and proudly wore the “A,” vowing to never do anything to further disrupt the girl’s life because, also in bad faith, Prynne had decided she could not risk anything more. Bad faith restricted her to playing the part of an adulterous tramp, even after she had realized she was not at fault and the minister was a less than desirable man, and she was silent for the sake of Pearl’s future.
It was going to be a simple adventure but finally ended as a turning point of her entire life. She made her decision and there was no way back. Deep at heart Hester realized that this decision was immoral and was not appropriate for the Puritan law. However, she continued to see the priest and did not listen to the voice of her conscience. Trying to run away from her sin and cleanse it from her memory, Hester simply denied the evidence. Her bad faith looked like a form of self-deception and self-protection (Daigle 213). The woman deliberately objected or even avoided certain facts because of the experience of fear and anxiety they could cause in real life situation. Ultimately, the sin which was haunting her everywhere became the real nightmare. Townspeople despised her and did not let her live peacefully after committing the terrible crime of adultery. There was not any possibility for such a person to be accepted by the society and to deserve any form of sympathy or forgiveness. If the person was able to choose the peccable road once, he will always continue to do it. No matter what an exemplary life you had behind, one trifling offence would outshine all them and matter the most. Thus, by committing this crime Hester forever forfeited her right to win the confidence of the society in the future. The situation became even worse when Hester’s husband returned home after several years of captivity as a prisoner of war. Learning of his wife’s unfaithfulness, he overflowed with a thirst of revenge and desired to find the name of the man who destroyed his happiness at whatever cost.
Hester herself created the mess of her life. There was no need to choose that difficult life path and abuse existing laws. However, the woman decided to test her luck and achieve her end. The sin was done and the character decided to conceal it from the world. However, it is impossible to hide the truth as it will always come out any time in the future. Though Hester used bad faith to avoid public critics and humiliation, she had to experience them at last. The bad faith only saved the character some time, but did not protect her from inescapable consequences.
Thus, the sin remained with Hester until her death. The bad faith did not help her to escape from harsh Puritan rules and as a result its community never really forgave her for her sins. In the beginning of the situation, she did not recognize her free will as free will. There was no other choice, both in waiting for her husband, and then in having an affair with the minister. She was bound to these choices by her heart and felt as though she had no control. According to Sartre, she acted in bad faith. She acted in bad faith once more when, having realized the minister was an unworthy man, she did not reveal him as such in order to protect Pearl from further embarrassment. She believed it unlikely the townspeople would hear her out and wanted her daughter to have as nice of a life as she could provide at this point; this was also an act of bad faith. The character was compelled to bear this guilt with her till the very end. So, never attempt at running away from responsibility or anguish and be ready to face them with courage because the bad faith will only help you to cope with the reality once but not forever (Sartre 86).
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
Daigle, C. Routledge Critical Thinkers: Jean-Paul Sartre. Oxon: Routledge, 2010.
Detmer, D. Sartre Explained; from bad faith to authenticity. USA: Open Court, 2009.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1959.
Sartre, J.-P. Existentialism is a Humanism. Tr. Carol Macomber. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
The thesis statement is:
In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne displayed bad faith by refusing to confess her sin of adultery with her fellow Minister Arthur Dimmesdale. The woman made a grave mistake but was not ready to neither plead guilty nor pay for committed crime. She sincerely believed that the priest was destined to become the love of her whole life and could not miss this happiness. Hester gave way to temptation and the serious problems that followed were going to make a fundamental change in her entire existence. Complicated trials were waiting for the bold spirit who managed to disobey fate’s wishes. Hester exhibited bad faith and had now to abide by the chosen way till the very end.
