Criticism Related to Indians in The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter Indians are peripheral one- dimensional stereotyped characters that are not overtly connected with the central characters, the Puritans, or the plot. Instead, mentions of their presences connect to imagery that is related to the wilderness, to being outcasts of society, to reminders of Chillingworth's captivity with them and to knowledge of the herbal remedies/poisons he gained from them. Each main character has a link to Indians and the wilderness. Dimmesdale, after visiting the Indians, temporarily loses the trappings of his religious piety. Chillingworth, a former captive of Indians, darkens the herbal healing arts he has learned from them by using them for evil purposes, associated

with the Black Arts. Hester lives on the fringe of society and chooses to stop short of banishing herself to live amongst the Indians where she would not be harshly judged, as she constantly is by the Puritans. Pearl symbolizes the freedom and oneness with the wilderness that the Indians have -- neither being tainted by the Puritans.

Criticism Related to Indians

Excerpts from chapters from Understanding The Scarlet Letter: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents by Claudia Durst Johnson (courtesy of Greenwood Press).

In "A Literary Analysis of The Scarlet Letter" (7), Johnson demonstrates that the intolerant Puritans punish and banish those that are different, including the drunken, vagrant Indians as well as Hester and Pearl. The Puritan children play at taking scalps and target Hester and Pearl with their cruel mockery.
In "A Literary Analysis of The Scarlet Letter" (18-19) Johnson relates how some Puritans believe that Chillingworth was tainted during his stay with the Indians. She captures the irony of the Puritan community embracing Chillingworth as a respected healer within the community when, in fact, he practices "the most heinous black magic," something they assume to be confined to evildoers (witches or Indians) in the wilderness forest.
In "Witchcraft and The Scarlet Letter" (115), Johnson associates Chillingworth with witchcraft and "Indian sorcerers."
In "The Scarlet Letter and the Puritans" (38-41), Johnson explores how "nature and the wilderness, which represented the dark evil in human life, became the transplanted Puritans enemy." She alludes to Hawthorne's description of the enduring qualities of the wilderness in "Main Street." Johnson discusses Hester's option to banish herself into the safe haven of the Indian community, Pearl's "uncontrollable" wildness, Chillingworth's reliance on "noxious weeds to make medicines the way the Indians have taught him to," and Hester's suggestion to Dimmesdale that they "escape into the wilderness" to be free of the judgment and oppression of the Puritans.
In "The Scarlet Letter and the Puritans" (42), Johnson focuses on the wilderness as the domain of the Black man or devil. Symbolically, "it is a place of loneliness, terror, the unknown, rebellion, palpable evil, mystery, lawlessness, unbridled joy, pleasure, emotion, and sexuality." Johnson explains how Chillingworth, Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl's behaviors and personalities are symbolically reinforced by their sojourns in the wilderness and their departures from the wilderness.
In "The Scarlet Letter and the Puritans" (43-44), Johnson indicates how Hawthorne shows that the Puritans have persecuted and attacked witches and Indians, trying to tame them. At the same time they attempt to falsely suppress the wilderness in their nature, as exemplified by Dimmesdale, who briefly emerges from his piousness to consider speaking cruelly to individuals from his congregation.
In "Crime and Punishment" (68), Johnson discusses how the narrator of the novel laments the "criminalization of essentially harmless human actions," ranging from laughing, being an idle Indian, to dancing.
In "Crime and Punishment" (71), Johnson shows the Puritan children "in imitation of their elders" pretending to scalp Indians. She looks at the horrific torture instrument, the scaffold, used in the first scene of the novel. The Puritans are "inhumane" in their punishments.
In "Crime and Punishment" (74-75), Johnson focuses on the psychological anguish of being 'banished' from the "hearts and minds" of the community that Hester faces when she chooses to live on outskirts of society and does not seek to join the less judgmental Indians.
In "Anne Hutchinson and Hester Prynne" (89), Johnson parallels the church's inquisition of Anne Hutchinson about her religious beliefs to Reverend Wilson's questioning of Hester. Ironically, the Puritans didn't kill Anne Hutchinson, but Indians massacred her and her family in New York where she had sought sanctuary.

Page citation: http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/page/11413/