DISLOYALTY OF A WIFE IN
HAWTHORNEAoS THE SCARLET LETTER Jily M.
Kessek.
Mister G.
Maru.
Imelda Lolowang English Education Department Faculty of Language and Arts Universitas Negeri Manado Tondano.
Indonesia Email: jillykesek@gmail.
Abstract : This study is entitled Disloyalty of Wife in The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The aim of this study is to reveal about Disloyalty of Wife in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The writer employs descriptive approach in conducting this The study is entitled Disloyalty of a Wife in The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The aim of this study is to reveal disloyalty of a wife.
In order to reveal disloyalty of a wife in this novel, the writer used Deconstruction approach to understanding the relationship between text and meaning.
The result of this study revealed that disloyalty is an act that is not god in every relationship.
Disloyalty in the novel The Scarlet Letter is revealed in the form being Impatient, breaking the wedding vows, being impure, and the consequence of the decision.
Keywords : Disloyalty.
Having an Affair.
Breaking the Wedding Vows.
Being Impure.
Deconstruction.
INTRODUCTION
Disloyal is a process, most people are unaware of the fact that they are becoming Many leaders do not even notice disloyalty in their associate.
There are two reasons why you must know these stages of First of all, it will help you to identify and kill any such tendency within Secondly, it will help you to detect disloyalty in any person you work with (Milss Dag H, 20016:.
Disloyalty is lacking in loyalty (Merriam-Webste.
Customer disloyalty is approached in studies of relationship ending, a much younger and less well-developed field of research than the study of customer loyalty (Dick.
S and Basu, 1994:.
Based on definition above that a more analytical approach to this category might provide unique insights about loyalty behavior, but in particular might help understanding the nature of the challenges associated with loyalty In novel tells about disloyalty to someone or not keeping what he has promised.
And in the novel The Scarlet Letter the disloyalty in this novel is disloyalty in a marriage promise and not being loyal to the commitment they There is also disloyalty towards commitment in work.
Every human being would want someone to remain faithful to what commitment they promised.
For that I as a writer would love to analyze this topic because loyalty in a relationship, work, or other things is very important.
Because faithfully, in all things we will surely get happiness that is worthy of us because when we are unfaithful in any case there will certainly be problems that we never think about will happen.
And this happened in the novel The Scarlet Letter.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The writer has written this research using the qualitative research, as stated by Bogdan and Bicklen as follows: AuQualitative research is descriptive.
The data collected are in the form of words or pictures rather than numbersAy.
(Bogdan and Bicklen 1982:.
It means that the object of the study is the literary work intensive.
Qualitative research is also determined by the knowledge and the understanding of the writer.
Thus the writer collected the data using this qualitative research because those data are taken from books and internet explanation.
In analyzing the novel some source dealing with the analyzing are used.
The source are all books about literature some relevant books related to the study primary source is the novel itself : The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and secondary are all books that related the topic and the writer also opens some websites to support her research In analysis the data, the writer used deconstruction approach that research is analyzing using disloyalty on character HesterAos The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Deconstruction is an approach to understanding the relationship between text and meaning.
It was originated by the philosopher Jacques Derrida .
, whose approach consisted of conducting readings of texts looking for thing that run counter to its intended meaning or structural Appropriate in topic that writer choose, this topic use deconstruction to analyzing the data.
The writer will employ Deconstruction In this data analysis, how this theory help the researcher to find gaps, irony in the story, finding opposing views until find the result of change of meaning or subtraction of meaning, from the previous From the theory, it will help writer in doing this research.
ANALYSIS
Healthy relationships have certain aspects, certain attributes that contribute to them being healthy.
It is nearly impossible to have discourse pertaining to relationships without mentioning trust, love, and loyalty.
But some of people take it for grant because of their ego in establishing the relationship.
Disloyalty doesnAot just happen overnight.
Becoming disloyal is a process and most people are unaware of the fact that they are becoming disloyal.
These principles can be applied in business, ministry, or and all types/levels of relationships.
In Nathaniel HawthorneAos novel.
The Scarlet Letter, disloyalty was a massive theme recurring within the main characters.
The most obvious betrayal of all was Hester Prynne disloyal to her husband.
Roger Chillingworth.
Chillingworth, on the other hand, was a physician who had betrayed Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale.
Although Arthur Dimmesdale was in fact a minister, he was not as innocent as he seemed.
He, too, deceived not only Hester and Pearl, but himself as well by going against his calling as a minister.
While each main character betrayed another in a different way, their response to the consequences reveals the motivation behind their deceit.
The first disloyalty in the novel is committed by Hester Prynne.
In The Scarlet Letter, the reader is first introduced to Hester Prynne as she was ending a three month prison sentence.
Hester, while holding an infant, emerged through prison doors, and walked to the scaffold where she was being condemned by the community for adultery.
Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale had a sexual relationship, which resulted in a daughter named Pearl, even though Hester was already married to another man.
doing so, she betrayed her husband.
Roger Chillingworth.
Hester was then jailed for this undeniable action while being pregnant with her baby girl.
Being in Contrast with Puritan Society In 16th century there has emerged a extreme group of protestants within the church of England and they were actually called as Puritans.
Their main goal was to purify the church by doing the reformation of the doctrines and the structure of the From the beginning of 17thcentury many Puritans started to come to the New World, in order to find a holy Commonwealth in New England.
The Puritans were so strict of following the religious matters and hence they did not allow to hold different religious belief.
Their indoctrination was to occupy the high position and achievements which were the signs of Aoeternal graceAo, and as well as the favour of God.
HawthorneAos The scarlet Letter has been taken place in this puritan This novel actually encompassed the activities of the puritan society where a personAos action was destined according to the rules of the puritans and if anyone did ignore their rules then he/she has been considered as a person of immoral The puritan community was entirely based on maleAos activities and their highest Besides the maleAos group they didnAot allow any female to contribute or participate in townAos meetings in church.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was ruled by The Puritan ministers did include more authoritative powers towards the male group and gave them freedom in their writings and Their preaching was also proved that they have modified the religious doctrine according to their own wish.
In their preaching they remarked that soul has two One is the immortal masculine half, and the mortal feminine half.
The strictness of puritan laws has seen through the novel The Scarlet Letter.
They punished men and women in a very heartless way when they commit even a small sin.
For womenAos right, the puritan society only has created the humiliation compared to men.
According to them a woman who is pregnant with a male child that means she is having a rosy complexion and on the other hands a woman who is carrying a female child that means she will be considered as pale.
By settling their own belief and religious activities, the Puritans believed that they were dedicated towards God more than any other society.
they feel themselves as the superior and took themselves as the direct messengers of God, their way of dealing with the punishments systems were certainly rude.
The novel The Scarlet Letter was a real example of punishment in Puritan society.
Those who has been traced by doing adultery he/she got no way to escape, especially woman.
They were forced to wear a scarlet letter A on their It is the most positive process for punishing any woman of adultery.
Adulterers might have been forced to wear a scarlet "A" if they were lucky.
In a extreme case they used to order for execution.
For example, at least two known adulterers were executed in Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Public humiliation was the simple thing in the puritan society.
Having an Affair Hester is an English woman who is sent to live in the American colonies by her husband.
Roger Prynne, an aged scholar.
Prynne plans to join her after he settles business matters in Amsterdam, where the couple has been living.
When the novel begins.
Hester has been living in Boston for two years without her husband, who has never arrived.
Hester, as a wife whose husband lived for work for 2 years, felt that there was an opportunity to do something according to her wishes, especially if the husband she did not really love.
Hester didn't dare sue for divorce but she couldn't bear to wait for her husband either.
He was caught up in adultery.
Committing adultery threats the bond of marriage and based on Puritans it is tremendous sin which leads the doer to a big According to puritans, it is prohibited based on the Ten Commandments.
Puritans use bible as their guidance of law to determine the punishment (Maru, 2.
dealing with Hester PrynneAos adultery.
Puritans uses their religion and morality law.
The Scarlet Letter describes the law used by Puritans and how it gives the impacts on the life of society.
Adultery is a kind of disloyalty against GodAos deed and society The Puritans uses religion and morality law in dealing with Hester PrynneAos From religion point of view.
HesterAos attitude will get a punishment from God.
This statement can be seen as follows.
AuThis woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die.
Is there any law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the Statue book.
AAy (Hawthorne 1959:.
Reverend Wilson is a BostonAos elder clergyman, he is scholarly yet grandfatherly.
He is a stereotypical Puritan father, a literary version of the stiff, starkly painted portraits of American patriarchs.
Like Governor Bellingham.
Wilson communityAos rules strictly but can be swayed by DimmesdaleAos eloquence.
Unlike Dimmesdale, his junior colleague.
Wilson preaches hellfire and damnation and advocates harsh punishment of sinners.
AuWoman transgresses not beyond the limits of Heavens mercyAy cried the Reverend Mr.
Wilson, more harshly than (Hawthorne 1959:.
They averred that the symbol was not mere Scarlet cloth tinged in an earthly dyepot, but was red hot with internal fire, and could be seen glowing all alight whenever Hester Prynne walked abroad in the night time.
(Hawthorne 1959:.
On the other hand, the sentence God, as a direct consequence of the sin which man thus punished, had given her a lovely child, whose place was on that some dishonored bosom shows that God gives her a baby that is never accepted by society as her People will consider Pearl as a symbol of adultery.
Pearl will live and stay in dishonor place.
Then, the sentence This child of its fatherAos guilt and its motherAos shame hath come from the hard of God, to work in many ways upon proximity of the governorAos red roses, as Pearl stood outside of the window:
together with her recollection of the prison rosebush, which she had passed in coming hit her it shows that Pearl is the symbol of her father and motherAos guilty.
She is deemed as HesterAos torture.
Below are the God, as a direct consequence of the sin which man thus punished, had given her a lovely child, whose place was on that some dishonored bosom, to connect her parent forever with the race and descent of mortals and to be finally a blessed soul in heaven!(Hawthorne 1959:.
Another quotation represent also how disloyalty condemn by the society in thus case the puritan society.
AuIt must be even so,Ay resumed the AuFor, if we deed it otherwise, do we not thereby say that the Heavenly Father, the creator of all flesh hath lightly recognized a deed of sin and made of no account the distinction between unhallowed lust and holy love? This child of it fatherAos guilt and its motherAos shame hath come from the hard of God, to work in many ways upon her heart, who pleads so earnestly, and with such bitterness of spirit, the right to keep her.
(Hawthorne 1959:113-.
According to morality norms.
Hester will be expelled and humiliated by Puritans.
Puritans severely look down on the norm They will always humiliate Hester until they find a good side of HesterAos In the sentence quotation means It was, in short, the platform of the pillory.
above it rose the framework of that instrument of discipline give the idea that Puritans use the platform of the pillory to punish someone at that time.
This platform has the aim to punish someone.
And the other sentence no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for as it was the essence of this punishment to do shows us that the importance of this punishment is that the accused people who stand on the plat form cannot hide their face.
Hester face the humiliation both from the society and the Breaking the Wedding Vows Marriage is a sacred institution where a man takes a woman to make her his wife and promises before God to always be faithful to each other in every situation they are next said to be another moon of two people who live separately but have become one flesh in 2 bodies.
Nothing can separate them except death.
This promise before God cannot be broken by preparation.
But Hester boldly broke her marriage vows after 2 years in her husband's stay with no clear news.
Hester Prynne is not an innocent woman she has committed adultery and given birthto a child outside of wedlock.
Everyone in the community knows that the baby is AuillegitimateAy since HesterAos husband is visibly absent, having not arrived in Americayet.
Hester neither proclaims innocence nor gives excuses for her behavior, even though, when her husband is revealed, it is abundantly clear that there is no love between them.
Hester refuses to name the childAos father, sparing that man the public shaming that she faces every day.
Clergyman curses her attitude and her sin.
can be seen from the sentence below:
the elder clergyman, who had carefully prepared himself for the occasion, addressed to the multitude a discourse on sin, in all its branches letter.
So forcibly did he dwell upon this symbol, for the hour or more during which his periods were rolling over the peopleAos heads, that it assumed new tenors in their imagination and seemed to derive its scarlet hue from the flames of the internal pit.
Hester Prynne, meanwhile, kept her place upon the pedestal of shame, with glassed eyes, and an air of weary indifference.
(Hawthorne 1959:.
In addition to humiliation, the other form of morality norm that is used by Puritans is that the Puritan society expelled Hester and Pearl from their society.
It shows that Authe elder clergyman, who had carefully prepared himself for the occasion, addressed to the multitude a discourse on sin, in all it branches letter.
In the sentence for the hour or more during which his periods were rolling over the peopleAos heads, that it assumed new tenors in their imagination and seemed to derive its scarlet hue from the flames of the internal pit shows to us that the crowd regards that heaven is not her place.
Her scarlet letter symbol closes to the From this case, it seems that the society also curse HesterAos deed.
Look at the below quotation:
It was, in short, the platform of the and above it rose the Frame work of that instrument of discipline, so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it up to the public gazeA.
There can be no outrage, methinks, against our common nature Ae whatever be the delinquencies of the individual - no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for as it was the essence of this punishment to do (Hawthorne 1959:.
Another quotation also shows how strong the old clergyman can affect the mind of the the elder clergyman, who had carefully prepared himself for the occasion, addressed to the multitude a discourse on sin, in all its branches letter.
So forcibly did he dwell upon this symbol, for the hour or more during which his periods were rolling over the peopleAos heads, that it assumed new tenors in their imagination and seemed to derive its scarlet hue from the flames of the internal pit.
Hester Prynne, meanwhile, kept her place upon the padestal of shame, with glassed eyes, and an air of weary indifference.
(Hawthorne 1959:.
In addition to humiliation, the other form of morality norm that is used by Puritans is that the Puritan society expelled Hester and Pearl from their society.
Mother and daughter stood together in the same circle of seclusion from human and in the nature of the child seemed to be perpetuated those unquiet elements that had distracted Hester Prynne before PearlAos birth, but had since begun to be soothed away by the softening influences of maternity (Hawthorne 1959:.
The below quotation also showing how the condition of Hester and her daughter Pearl How soon Ae with what strange rapidity, indeed! Ae did Pearl arrive at an age that was capable of social intercourse, .
But this could never be.
Pearl was a born out cast of the infantile world.
An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants.
(Hawthorne 1959:.
From the data above, we can see that Hester and Pearl are expelled by Puritans.
They might not be friend with Hester and her Hester and Pear live alone in their home and no one care them.
Pearl has no right to socialize herself because she is regarded as sin product.
Being Impure Arthur Dimmesdale is a young clergyman in the Puritan settlement in Boston.
Massachusetts.
He has studied theology in Oxford University.
England to prepare his duty as a clergyman.
He moves to New England to spread his knowledge and teach religion should he live and labour for the ordinary term of life, to do as great deeds, for the now feeble New England Church, as the early Fathers had achieved for the infancy of the Christian faithAn (Hawthorne, 1994: .
He is an educated person and a lovely respected reverend.
He dedicates himself to serve his congregation through his preaching a young clergyman, who had come from one of the great English universities, bringing all the learning of the age into our wild forest His eloquence and religious favour had already given the earnest of high eminence in his profession.
He was a person of very striking aspect, with a white, lofty, and impending brow.
large, brown, melancholy eyes, and a mouth which, unless when he forcibly 32 compressed it, was apt to be tremulous, expressing both nervous sensibility and a vast power of self restraintAn (Hawthorne, 1994: .
shows that Dimmesdale is talented man who has a high intellectuality and religiosity.
Like other puritan settlers.
Dimmesdale belongs to Aimen of intellect and convictionAn (Hawthorne: 1994, .
His knowledge is not only the thing to be spread and taught in New England but also the form of spiritual building to avoid the negative things.
The Puritans believe that Ailearning served piety, yielding truth which could protect man against SatanAos webAn (Hawthorne, 1994: .
AiClergy-theologians naturally play a highprofile roleAn (Clarke and Linzey, 1996: .
As a clergyman.
Dimmesdale is responsible for sharing his knowledge and maintaining the manner of his congregation because the minister is an important person who is responsible in guiding the member of Thus.
Dimmesdale uses his eloquence to deliver sermon and preaching for the sake of himself and his congregation.
His good character is well liked by society even many people say that reverend Arthur Dimmesdale delivers words from heaven so that his preaching is like the speech of an AiThey .
fancied him the mouth-piece of HeavenAos messages of wisdom, and rebuke, and loveAn (Hawthorne, 1994: .
In the Puritan period.
Aithe spark might come in various ways: .
but most commonly through the enkindling words of a minister of the GospelAn (Foerster, 1962: .
His attitude shows that Dimmesdale accomplishes his parochial duties earnestly.
He is a good clergyman who can give such enlightment to his congregation.
The clergy were 34 the representativesAn (Foerster, 1962: .
Arthur Dimmesdale, the clergyman of New England, is automatically included into GodAos representatives of Puritan theocracy.
He stands there on the scaffold with other ministers and magistrates as both GodAos representative and HesterAos In front of the multitude, he persuades Hester to reveal the name of her partner in sin who is actually he himself.
"thou hearest what this good man says, and seest the accountability under which I If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation.
I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him.
for, believe me.
Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so than to hide a guilty heart through life.
What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt himAiyea, compel him, as it wereAito add hypocrisy to sin? Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph over the evil within thee and the sorrow without.
Take heed how thou deniest to himAiwho, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himselfAithe bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips!" (Hawthorne, 1994:
Compared to Hester, the Dimmesdale in HawthorneAos writing is coward and Dimmesdale, as a Puritan, was supposed to keep faith in his belief heart and soul, but he couldnAot resist the temptation of love and lust.
At last, he secretly ate the Auforbidden fruitAy.
He enjoyed the joy and warmth with Hester.
Meanwhile, he couldnAot put the AumissionAy given by the God aside.
couldnAot throw away that Auholylight veilAy.
From the beginning to the end.
Dimmesdale was in the contradiction and torture of the love and the God.
He hated hypocrisy and cowardice, but he didnAot have the courage to confess his guilt.
he was deeply in love with Hester, but he couldnAot find a way to help Hester get rid of the accusation of her crime.
Thus.
Dimmesdale had double identities, both AuangelAy and AudevilAy.
It is the double identities that caused the separation of his body and mind, as well as mental disorder.
After Dimmesdale was accused of committing the crime and was punished, he never had a peaceful and stable day to He always woke up from nightmares at midnights, and usually exposed the most real aspect inside his heart by sleepwalking.
The life of Dimmesdale can be summarized by Authe light in darkness --- the hypocrisy in the lightAy.
Every day, he suffered from double tortures of soul and body.
Because he didnAot dare to confess his guilt and couldnAot save Hester, he could only see Hester punished, humiliated and tortured.
Finally, he was mentally depressed every day, and had no light in his heart.
The so-called religion in his heart was like a bloody knout, whipping his soul and body and keeping him away from the bright and peaceful life.
In the end, he couldnAot take the torture and confessed his He died in his confession and atonement, and the religious spirit he was proud of was destroyed with his death.
CONCLUSION
Through this novel, it can be concluded that in every relationship, loyalty is very important and we must keep what we have promised before, and we can learn from this Nathaniel Hawthorne has portrayed a different kind of sad love story which has tasted by betrayal as well.
Hester Prynne was the main character who was going through the intense pains and sufferings in life after doing adultery with Arthur Dimmesdale.
Besides Dimmesdale there was another man in HesterAos life who was Roger Chillingworth.
Chillingworth was HesterAos husband in her earlier life.
Hester understood the nature of men as she interacted with both the man and made decisions about how to deal with them.
Although Hester believed that somehow it was possible to fight with Dimmesdale.
At times Hester contemplated her own freedom and the possibilities for a womanAos self-realization.
The moral messages that can be taken from the novel.
In relationships we should not think negatively to our partners, because negative thoughts can damage the sense of trust in our partners.
Then we must think positively so that something does not In relationships, we should not be influenced by things that are misleading.
But the good side is that this novel teaches that trust in this relationship is indeed very important and we can learn from Hester.
The author hopes we can learn a lot from a Hester.
REFERENCES