One very interesting minor character is Mistress Hibbins, the witch. This woman chooses to follow Satan, while Hester Prynne labors to follow God but makes one mistake that haunts her for decades. Hawthorne said that the reason he wrote this novel was that he learned that one of his own ancestors was a judge who had ordered the hanging of witches during the Salem witch trials. What is the narrative and thematic function of the witch? What is the narrative saying about traditional (Puritan) notions of sin, virtue, magic, and the power of God, and how might the narrative prompt people to reconsider them?
Well does anyone else agree that the mayor is a hypocrite for allowing a witch to live in his house? How does this effect the ideals of family, and the furthering of the discrimination against women?
ReplyDeleteAgain it's just the notion that, puritans will have very strong beliefs until they break them, so they are always the exception (like Dimmesdale's reasoning for not confessing)
ReplyDeleteI think that Hawthorne points out some serious flaws with the notions of the Puritans regarding witches and necromancy. He is also highly critical of their punishment of sins. The way that he portrays a liberated Hester who feels that despite her sin she has served her penance. She does not feel condemned for her sin with Dimmesdale and rather feels that she is not the only sinner and rather is one of the only one to get caught. She has full confidence that she will meet Dimmesdale again in eternal life. She respects the omniscienct nature of God and realizes the notion that he has the power to condemn but feels that he is a merciful God contrary to the Puritan belief in a wrathful God.
ReplyDelete@Philosoraptor Could you clarify your thinking behind Dimmesdale's belief about confessing and why that violates the Puritan doctrine?
ReplyDeleteHawthorne is showing that Puritans view of magic and witches was very wrong in deed. Mistress Hibbins is actually a much more important character than one would think because she shows Hawthornes interpretation of how the Puritans viewed magic and witchcraft
ReplyDeleteI think the witch serves not only as a reminder of the romantic influences in the novel, but also as a character to compare Hester with. Even if the reader was a strict believer in no sex before marriage, they would have compared Hester to the witch and seen that really she's not all that bad.
ReplyDelete@ focopride
ReplyDeleteso you're saying that Hawthorne created the character of Mistress Hibbins to show the good in Hester
Why was Hester punished so severely for her one crime against God when Hibbens practices witchcraft undetered? Perhaps the Puritan society did not know that she was practicing witchcraft. I think however, that they did know. This means that either they were too scared of her to acuse her, or they knew they could not prove she was a witch. On the other hand, it was easy to prove that Hester sinned, Pearl is the evidence. I think that the failure to acuse Hibbens points out the amount of fear that Puritans had for magic and witchcraft.
ReplyDeleteEventhough the witch only pops up in small parts of the book, she is a prominent part to understanding Puritan notions. Hawthorne is showing how wrong the Puritans were about witchcraft and who conducted it. The mayor is a prime example with Mistress Hibbins living in the same house. I agree with Helen Keller about the mayor being hypocritical.
ReplyDeleteMistress Hibbins acts as an observer in this book. She is never too involved with the plot but she is always watching the people around her. At the end of the book, she approaches Hester and begins to talk about Hester's trip into the forest. She knows things without any logical explaination of how she would know them. This gives the reader the sense of the mystic or magical qualities that she is known for. I think that this is Hawthorne's way of calling out the Puritans for how they treated and punished people. They are all very hypocritical. They punish Hester increadibly harshly but let a supposed witch live in their community.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Helen Keller. Mistress Hibbins has clearly been identified by Hester, Dimmesdale and Hawthorne as a witch. I think that by allowing Hibbons to be accepted while Hester is osterized is highly hypocritical. But Hester's sin can be proved and to raid the Governor's house and burn Mistress Hibbon's without proof might cause too much trouble within the community. I think that it is more a political choice than a religious one, which is again hypocritical because Puritan ideas combine church and state.
ReplyDeleteThe witch shows that there is always someone who follows different beliefs. She follows Satan while everyone else follows God's will. Because of this, people don't treat her the same as someone in the society that follow God. But just because she has different beliefs, it doesn't reflect anything about her personality. When Hester was shunned by her community because of her sin, that didn't that she was a bad person, only that she made a mistake.
ReplyDeleteThe witch shows contrast with all the good God-fearing Puritans. She is seen to have some sort of power to know things about people and to be able to curse them. Hawthorn is saying that people in this time period really believed in magic and the power of sin, especially as it is connected to nature. The narrative is questioning the power of sin, God and magic by showing that everything that happens to the character is their own doing, even if it is mentally in their mind. I think he is saying that God, sin, and magic have as much power as you give them. Because Hester and Dimmesdale believe so much that they committed this horrible sin and that God is punishing them for it they accept and in Dimmesdale’s case are even glad for their suffering, feeling they are repenting. Hawthorn even says how most people of that time period believed that any natural phenomenon was caused by God and could fit it to their purposes. He even says it is arrogant to think that God would sent a meteor shower just for you or something similar.
ReplyDeleteThe narrative criticizes the Puritan's exclusively negative perception of sin. The governors and parishioners immediately deem Prynne's sin evil and punish it with interminable shame. Hawthorne would point out that Pearl, Prynne, and Dimmesdale aren't all that bad in their personalities or skills. Those two horribly deviant adulterers are also the best embroiderer and preacher in the whole community. Sinning is not an ultimatum in one's life.
ReplyDelete@ bluewave15
ReplyDeleteI think your not looking at it close enough. The entire point of the book was satire. It was making fun of an entire way of life. Everything about the book is meant to make fun of them, from the way the characters are set out to the ways they act. By throwing in the devil in here, it allows "darkness and sin" to enter their hearts. Its much alike the salem witch trials, how they were afraid of something that "might/could" be true.
This reminds me that there will always be single person in a society that is cast out based on the collective beliefs of the many. He chose a witch because they are the Puritans favorite person to hate, seeing as they are strict participants in a religion.
ReplyDeleteHawthorne doesn't create the witch to show the good in Hester. He created her to contrast the levels of sin in the Puritan society
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting that the Puritans choose Hester as the scapegoat of their own sins, when Hibbins would have been much more accurately the complete "sinner". I think it shows that Puritans would often want to equal the playing field by bringing down the strongest(Hester), also why Hester is singled out for her "adultery" even though it had been committed by so many others.
ReplyDelete@1093spaghetti
ReplyDeleteI think you're making a very good point.
I also think that the Puritans have some weird views on sin and what sort of crimes to punish. Their ideas about this didn't seem very stable. I feel like they were a little hypocritical because they would say one thing and do another. It also seems like they couldn't make up their minds on certain issues. It's like there has to be good magic, bad magic, and other mystical things, and they just picked one when they felt like it. Does that make any sense?
Philosorapter excellent point my friend. Its a food chain, which goes along with what i've been saying the whole time.
ReplyDeleteI agree with mysticprincess123 but I also think that Hawthorne created the witch to contrast her with Hester. At one point the witch asks Hester to come join her in meeting the Devil but Hester says no. I think Hawthorne is trying to say that Hesters sins aren't bad or evil by comparing it to what the witch does.
ReplyDeleteI think Hawthorne creates the witch to show that people that do not have the same beliefs will be punished if they don't follow the rest of ideas of the community. This Puritan society is trying to conform all the people to believe and act the same way. This punishment warns the other people who do not think the same way as the rest of the people.
ReplyDeleteMistress Hibbins, although only in a few parts in the book, plays a very important rols in distiguishing the good and evil in Hester. Hester is a good person even with the fact that she sinned and Mistress Hibbins accents that because witchcraft is frowned upon even more than adultery. The puritan society is terrified of pointing out her witchcraft and magic.
ReplyDeleteHelen Keller and Philosorapter are making the same excellent point. This entire book is a religious satire, the witch is there to show their extreme fear of "magic" while pointing out the ridiculousness of the Salem Witch trials
ReplyDeleteMistress Hibbins wishes to include many others in her witchcraft to rebel against the constraining Puritan values in which she lives. Abiding with the governor serves as an example of polar extremes and the fact that the rebellion is repressed by the proximity of power and governingship.
ReplyDelete