A Simple Duality

Humanity is dual and not singular in nature; a point, more or less, represented throughout all of history. There are many forms of this duality, small and great, known and unknown. One of these forms is aptly represented in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne depicts this nature most eloquently through, first, the forest and it's insecure freedom, second, the market place and its rigid structure, and last, the absolute need for both. Though a person may find solace or a temporary satisfaction in one or the other of these two extremes, they both deeply represent an aspect or singular part of us; part – indeed – of the particularly perplexing duality that is humanity.

The forest represents freedom, depth, individuality, secrecy, excitement and capriciousness. “The sunlight lingered about the lonely child [Pearl],... As she [Hester] attempted to... [grasp the light], the sunshine vanished; or, to judge from the bright expression that was dancing on Pearl's features, her mother could have fancied that the child had absorbed it into herself.” As shown in this passage, the

forest seems to be a place of magic and mystery, almost spooky, as also depicted in the following:

“'Who speaks?' answered the minister. Gathering himself quickly up, he stood more erect... throwing his eyes anxiously in the direction for the voice... It may be that his pathway through life was haunted thus by a specter that had stolen out from among his thoughts... 'Hester Prynne!', said he; 'is it thou? Art thou in life?'”

The mystery and unreality of the forest is almost frightening to Hester and Dimmsdale who find themselves asking each other if they are in fact “in the flesh” or alive, each perhaps suspecting -because of the ethereal dark, ghostly atmosphere- that what they beheld of each other was a spectral being, rather than one another. A feeling which was not assuaged until each grasped the others hand in greeting. There is also a reference...