—I agree with the suggestion that an artist's best work derives from a painful secret which is guarded, perhaps even unknown, deep in the psychic makeup. The artist reveals less painful secrets in order to mask the most painful but always hovers around the pivotal deeply rooted scar. The scarlet letter A according to this thesis could well be meant to be the scarlet letter I as has been suggested by some Hawthorne critics and a recent biographer, adultery being the lesser sin. Incest has been found and recorded amongst Hawthorne's ancestors, namely the punishment of the Manning sisters, one of them seven months pregnant, each of whom was found guilty of Whorish carriage with my natural Brother. They were punished by being publicly whipped on their naked bodies and forced to sit on a high stool in the aisle of the meeting house during lecture day exercises, with a sign on their heads.
—What happened to the brother by way of punishment?
—What happened to the brother by way of punishment is nowhere stated.
—Whatever was Hawthorne thinking, do you think?
—While Hawthorne may well have been thinking of the letter I in depicting Hester's sin, that is, he may actually have been thinking of a woman who had borne her brother's child and whose punishment was to wear an I mandatory part of the punishment in Massachusetts and of his own presumed but not documented relationship with his elder sister, but his concern, in my opinion, is the inequity of treatment of men and women when it comes to the definition of crime and the meting out of punishment. Chillingsworth, in THE SCARLET LETTER exclaims, ...It irks me, nevertheless, that the partner of her iniquity should not, at least, stand on the scaffold by her side. But, he will be known. He will be known. He will be known.
—Yes, he will be known, he will be known, he will be known. He says that. Hawthorne, Chillingsworth, says that.
—How interesting. Charleton. Do you know how interesting that is? Just imagine. He says that the man must be known. That is almost like saying, isn't it, that the father of Christ must be known.
—Shh. Darling. We are getting ahead of ourselves.
—How exciting. Charleton.
—What is it? Allison. I insist. Take it step by step.
—But, here it is. I mean, Hawthorne describes the masculine structure of his world in THE CUSTOM HOUSE, the controversial introduction to THE SCARLET LETTER.
—Yes. Here it is, this sanctuary into which womankind...has very infrequent access...
—Salem contains the graves of the surveyor's ancestors and is hateful to him.
—One ancestor, it says, was a man of war and peace, soldier, legislator, judge, rector in the church.
—A bitter persecutor.
—An incident of his hard severity towards a woman of his sect.
—His son, too, inherited the persecuting spirit.
—Conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him.
—I, the present writer, he says, Charleton, as their representative hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes.
—Ah, Allison, do you suppose?
—Well, Charleton, it is self evident.
—It is a harsh judgment.
—No harsher than the truth. It substantiates your theses.
—Where does that leave us? Allison?
—Us?
—You and me? What is it telling the world?
—Nothing, Charleton. Nothing at all. Charleton. Let us get on with it.
—We do have a deadline, after all.
—A deadline?
—A deadline to meet.
—Yes. Amongst the patriarchs now in residence in the Custom House, the permanent Inspector, you will recall, Charleton.
—Patriarch.
—Temper. Temper.
—I hate that word.
—I didn't invent it. Look. Hawthorne, himself uses it. You should know that. It is a word they use of Biblical peoples. Why does it excite you so?
—I know. It's just the way you use it, Allison. The way you say it. It makes me feel...
—But, Charleton, it is not I who invented...
—Not you. But, the way you say it.
—We must get on. You said so, yourself. Amongst the Patriarchs now in residence in the Custom House, the permanent Inspector is a...
—man of fourscore years.
—A most satisfactory object.
—The careless security of his life in the Custom House on a regular income...
—contributes to make time pass lightly on him.
—He has been a husband of three women.
—All long since dead.
—The father of twenty children, most of whom...
—had since likewise returned to dust.
—He had no soul.
—No heart.
—No mind.
—What a man.
—What a description of a man.
—No soul.
—No heart.
—No mind.
—Only when he is expelled from the Patriarchal confines of the Custom House, its narrowness of religious thought where men receive rewards and high position for exercising spite, bribery, indolence and kill women.
—Allison. Isn't that a bit strong?
—Not at all, Charleton. Don't you see? THE SCARLET LETTER, when it is written, is an inquiry into Original Sin, the story of Genesis and the Coming of the Redeemer in Christ, with many what ifs?
—What ifs? What are you talking about? Look here, Allison, if we are ever to get this damn thing written at all. Grotowski is down my neck. I tell you. I've got to get this thing in, done, over with and in proper order for the printer. If you don't let up and begin to make sense I will never get this thing done and into the printer on time. We want time to proofread it, after all.
—You want time. I refuse to proofread.
—Allison. for Heaven's sake. Calm down. Make sense.
—I want to tell you about the what ifs.
—I don't care about the what ifs., This has got to made sense.
—It will. Don't worry.
—Go on.
—Don't groan.
—Go on.
—No groaning.
—You win.
—One, what if Hester is Mary?
—Oh, c'mon. Be serious, Allison.
—Charleton, I am serious. Look. Here. She (Hester, on exiting from the prison to the scaffold) repelled (her jailer) by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character and stepped into the open air as if by free will. She bore in her arms a child. The young woman was tall with a figure of perfect elegance characterized by a certain state and dignity. Her beauty shone out and made a halo...
—Yes, Allison, I see.
—Wait. Be patient. Listen. Her beauty shone out and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped.
—Yes. Of course. Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans he might have seen in the beautiful woman...
—The image of Divine Maternity.
—Yes. Of course. perfect. Write that down.
—I did.
—Already? for me?
—Of course, silly Charleton. For you. Two.
—Well? Go on. Go one. Allison. You are teasing me.
—Of course. Two. What if, listen to this one, what if Joseph, like Chillingsworth, had forsaken Mary?
—Yes? Yes?
—Well, if, listen to this. The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might under the heavy weight of a thousand human eyes, all fastened and concentrated at her bosom. Her mind and especially her memory, were preternaturally active, and kept bringing up other scenes than this roughly hewn street.
—So, what does that prove? What does that have to do with Joseph and Mary? Eh?
—Look. This is the point. I will tell it to you and you can make it more clear. In your own word, in your own way. You know.
—But, it's silly.
—No, Charleton, listen. I would never make you look silly. Have I ever?
—Don't tickle. Stop. Stop that now. Go on.
—Through her active imagination we are treated to scenes of Hester's girlhood and of her meeting with the man. Now, listen, well stricken in years, slightly deformed, the left shoulder slightly higher than the right, who deserts her in her present situation standing on the scaffold with a babe in her arms.
—So?
—So. Don't you see. If Joseph had deserted Mary where would Mary be?
—On a scaffold? You think on a scaffold?
—I think it was Joseph being with Mary that allowed her to stay alive long enough.
—That's blasphemy.,
—Think about it. Think about it for a while.
—Ideology.
—You'll be able to make something of it, Charleton.
—Ideology always getting in the way. I am tired of the Women's Movement. I wish to hell...
—You will say it in your way. You know how.
—It is a point. Hmm. You said many what ifs. Because if there are more...
—No more.
—Good.
—Charleton?
—You are interrupting me.
—Charleton.
—Yes? What? Well, what?
—Don't be such a grump. I won't say.
—Oh, say. Tell me. I can't...You have interrupted me. You win.
—Win? What a silly... Oh. All right. OK. What if, what if Jesus had been born a girl?
—Oh. Here we go in for more ideology.
—Nonsense, you mean.
—Nonsense, if you will.
—I don't talk nonsense.
—All right. Wise woman words.
—Wise woman words? Wise man words. Words, and I am quoting from Hawthorne, Sir, that (quality of Pearl) made her mother tremble because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue.
—So, Jesus would be Pear.
—Outcast.
—With a wizened wisdom.
—You got it. What if the scarlet letter A equals apple? The scarlet letter gave her (Hester) a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sins in other hearts.
—From the beginning. In THE SCARLET LETTER Hester is described as a person of strength and dignity as opposed to the men about her.
—You got it, Charleton. Your theme.
—Yes. Of course. Allison, Hester would not have named names before the McCarthy Committee nor would Stalin even with the severest of torture have gotten Hester to confess let alone Dimmesdale whose weak please to her on the scaffold to name her partner in sin, in crime, ends in his wailing, Heaven has granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph, over the evil within thee.
—Poor woman.
—Poor woman? Poor woman? Poor woman who has a manifest destiny. In contrast, I will show that Dimmesdale although a dignitary, a respected member of society who exercises power and judgment amongst the , as befitted a people amongst whom religion and law were almost identical...the mildest and the severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful.
—Charleton!
—It may be that Hawthorne was thinking of the letter in I in depicting Hester's sin and may well have committed incest with his elder sister but as I have shown he may also have thinking of the letter A not for Adultery but for Apple for the eating of which mankind was expelled from Eden and Eve has been eternally scapegoated. With the aid of religion and the internalization of the concept of sin Hester, herself, frantic and isolated comes to accept the definition of herself as sinful as she accepts the punishment meted out to her by a cohesive set of laws, customs and societal arrangement that enforce the all pervasive double standard.
—Charleton. It is you that say that. You. Not I.
—From all of this the work of Hawthorne's literary genius stands on its own and the genesis of its self contained power remains nearly as inexplicable as it ever was. The more Hawthorne confesses his sinfulness the more eloquent is his voice. Instead of exposing his guilt his work wins high praise.
—But...
—We are forced to ask...
—Where did all of this leave...
—his elder sister, Elizabeth?
—Called Ebe? Come, Charleton. Your dinner is ready. Eat. You will work later. We will get the essay off in the morning mail and Grotowski will be excited, as always, with the liveliness of your discourse as well as the originality of your ideas.
CHARACTERS
ALLISON— tall, in her fifties, elegant. CHARLETON— her younger brother.
SCENE
The kitchen/sitting room of an isolated farmhouse. It is winter. The snow drifts are seen on the windowpanes, backstage. Fireplace with fir blazing stage right. Study section of room stage left. Bookcases, plank desk, typewriter.
Charleton is stage left. It is his area. Allison prepares dinner, stage right. Sometimes, Allison crosses over to Charleton. Charleton never enters Allison's realm. At the end
she calls to him. He, with difficulty, enters her space, sits at table stiffly and with difficulty begins to eat.
Helen Duberstein was interviewed by Claire Sprague for Sister Talk, broadcast on WOMR (Provincetown) and streamlined around the world, about her use of her life in theatre in her novels, A Thousand Wives Dancing, and roma. It was broadcast on August 6, and will be repeated in the winter several times. The novels can be ordered through your local bookstore or through barnesandnoble.com. She was also interviewed by The New York Post, and a portrait of her in her studio was published Saturday, January 31, 2004.