Revelation of the Scarlet Letter, from Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter"
Felix Octavius Carr Darley American
Related author Nathaniel Hawthorne American
Not on view
Darley here illustrates Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter, A Romance" (published 1850). The drawing was reproduced in 1879 as the first print in a set of twelve "Compositions in Outline." Set in seventeenth-century Boston, the story explores the consequences of a liason between Hester Prynne and the Puritan pastor Arthur Dimmesdale. When Hester becomes pregnant, she refuses to identify her child's father, is imprisoned, and forced to wear a red letter "A" on her dress (to mark her as an adultress). After release, she lives in an isolated cottage, supports herself as a seamstress, and raises her daughter Pearl. This image responds to the tale's climactic ending where Dimmesdale collapses after making a public confession. Before dying, he reveals a scarlet letter of his own–a red mark that has appeared on the skin of his chest. Lines from Hawthorne's text, inscribed below the image, are addressed by the pastor to Hester's revengeful husband, who kneels at left. See 14.111.2–.5 for other drawings from the set.
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