An Angel of Judgment
by Elizabeth Moss

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne connects Mr. Dimmesdale’s destructive conscience to his daughter Pearl. As she flies at a group of evil Puritan children, Pearl is described as an "angel of judgment" who "punish[es] the[ir] sins" (70). Similarly, Mr. Dimmesdale’s conscience acts as an "angel" that judges him for his adultery.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, God’s angel of judgment reminds the Hebrews of their sins against God, and it punishes them accordingly. An example of this can be found in 2 Samuel 24:7 when the "angel [i]s striking down the people" of Israel for their immorality. Pearl’s function is similar to that of the angel. She "punish[es] the sins" of the children in the colony when she "rush[es]" at them and "put[s] them all to flight" (70). She herself is born "by . . . decree of Providence . . . as a direct consequence" (61) of her mother’s sin. She serves as "a retribution . . . [and] an ever-recurring agony" (78) to Hester. Likewise, the psalmist’s "bones waste[] away" (Psalm 32:3) because God’s angel is constantly reminding him of his unredeemed sin. This angel is described as "the Judge of all the world" (Genesis 18:25). It destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, just as Pearl "punish[es]" her enemies.

Mr. Dimmesdale’s conscience judges him just as closely as this divine being. It constantly "torture[s] him" (98) with "a self-acknowledged shame" (99). Mr. Dimmesdale is so obsessed with his guilt that he even imagines that he sees "an immense letter, – the letter A, – marked out" (107) in the heavens, as if the Angel of Judgment itself is concerned with flashing his sin across the sky. To Mr. Dimmesdale, it seems as if "the universe were gazing at [the self-inflicted] scarlet token . . . right over his heart" (102). Indeed, he is always seen "holding his hand over his heart" (78), as if he were trying to hide its contents from the judgmental gaze of heaven and his own conscience.

A major theme of The Scarlet Letter is a person’s accountability for their sins. As an "angel of judgment," Pearl holds the children of the colony responsible for their sins. In the same way, it is Mr. Dimmesdale’s own conscience, instead of any external forces, that finally compels him to confess to the people of the Puritan colony that he is Pearl’s father. In the end, it is Pearl’s very existence that reveals the truth about the scarlet letter, symbolized in Mr. Dimmesdale’s conscience.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Mineola, NY: Dover, n.d.

The Holy Bible, New International Version. BibleGateway. 6 Feb. 2007 <http://www.biblegateway.com>.