A Comparison Between Gilead and the Puritans Government in The Scarlet Letter

To examine the political regimes like the Puritans in The Scarlet Letter or the dominant government in Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale, first, we have to confess that what we deal with is not one of the thousands of dictatorships that existed in the human history, but a newborn type of a repressing system based on an ideology, which Vaclav Hovel in his book The Power of the powerless, prefers to call “post-totalitarian.” Being a post-totalitarian regime gives a dominant power specific traits, which all of them possess. However, the most significant similarity between the two regimes in these novels is that they are both religious and based on a different interpretation of the Bible. Therefore, in this article, in addition to introducing some conventional characteristics of all totalitarian regimes, there has been an effort to touch on some particular features that both Puritans and the radical Christians in Gilead own.

When an ideology dominates a society, the first and foremost danger it brings about is the elimination of diversity and its harsh force to not only invade individuality but to make everyone think and behave the way it wants. As Hovel continues in his book, "Within the system, every individual is trapped within a dense network of the state's governing instruments...themselves legitimated by a flexible but comprehensive ideology.” The same dilemma occurs in both stories. As we see, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, everybody is forced to obey their so-called morality, and when one disobeys, they face punitive reactions on the side of the government. Hester has listened to her heart and followed her passion, an action which is strictly repressed and illegalized in the Puritan society. Therefore, she faces punishment, the Scarlet letter, that is her everlasting companion till the day she dies. On the other hand, we see the community in Gilead where everything is predefined and no one, even the people from the higher social class, cannot disobey. For instance, all the maids wear the same clothes, as well as the wives of commanders. Even the way they talk and the phrases they use are so limited, praised be, may the lord open, and blessed be the fruit, to name a few. 

The other theme which undergoes in both stories is shame, declaration of guilt and public humiliation, which are fundamental policies of both of these governments. There is a scene in the Handmaid’s Tale where offred and ofglen are taking a walk alongside the river when they encounter the dead bodies of “sinners” who were executed. The Scarlet Letter begins with a public punishment scene as well. Hester, who is known as someone who committed a sin, is forced to walk among the people and stand on the scaffold while wearing the Scarlet Letter on her bosom. I believe there is a psychological reason behind this behavior and that is to penetrate fear into people’s minds by constantly reminding them of what will happen if you disobey the rules.

As governments imply certain ways in the exertion of their authority, they highly affect social behavior in their dominated society. For instance, the result of public declaration of guilt is for people to lose empathy for each other and become heartless judges. In our first confrontation with Hester, we read some harsh judgments by ordinary people and how they detest her to the point that we think if they were in charge of deciding on her penalty, they would have killed her in the most brutal way. Even though this point is a bit less observable in the Handmaid’s Tale, the scene when handmaids attack the so-called rapist and kill him savagely shows how brutal they have become and this is what the system did to them. There was no court and they only had aunt Lydia’s word. What if that man was falsely accused as it is the habit of totalitarian regimes? And for what reason he was killed? Rape? The exact same thing that happened to the girls every day by their commanders, the main rapists who were purified of their sin because of a different interpretation of Bible which no one had the right or the courage to question.

The other exceedingly emphasized topic in both novels is ignoring and even suppressing love and passion. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester does not love her husband. Nevertheless, she is married to him and is forced to have sexual intercourse with the old man. In our modern world, this is recognized as rape and it is an unforgivable crime. However, when she makes love to Dimmesdale whom she has feelings for, she is known as a sinner. The same story takes place in The Handmaid’s Tale. Commanders and wives are not allowed to sleep with each other, even though we see how Serena loves Commander Waterford and is hurt by not being allowed to make love to him. However, commanders are allowed to have mechanical sex with the handmaids, which is an obvious example of rape. It seems like the ultimate goal of having sex is to make babies not an act for expressing your love for the other.

Hypocrisy is the inseparable part of all the governments that are based on an ideology. Apparently, human beings boast different desires and neglecting them has not to result but corruption. Yet, Sipos (2009) formulated, a hypocrite is someone who strongly supports a standard, publicly applies that standard to themselves. However, they fail to be loyal to that standard, so they have to hide it to deny their failure. In both of these stories, we face a theme of hypocrisy, especially in the higher classes of society who possess the power to set rules and control others. Dimmesdale, who is one of the most pious men in his society, is Hester’s partner in sin but his hypocrisy does not allow him to reveal his sin even though he is forced to carry its burden with himself. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the commanders, who are deprived of having passionate sex, have made prostitution houses for themselves where they can get drunk and sleep with whomever they want. 

Both Puritans and Gilead governors were antifeminist even though its footprint is more obvious in Gilead. The whole ideology of Gilead is based on an antifeminist, religious movement that acknowledges women only as the means to give birth to men’s children. They are not allowed to read or take part in making the decisions for their country. Even Serena, who is the wife of a high-rank commander and was one of the masterminds of the whole Gilead project, is left out when her husband and the other commanders enter his room to talk about politics. Hester on the other hand seems not to be punished mostly because she is a woman, but because she made a shameful action. At least, there is no part in the story that mentions this point.

To sum up, both these governments were established based on strict religious doctrines which strongly believed in their own defined morality, shame, repressing human desires and individualism. Nature is based on diversity, but what ideology does to different societies is that it depicts its own version of truth as the sole truth and declines any other points of views. Therefore, it somehow declares a war against human nature and that is the primary reason why after a while, people revolt against ideologies to give their natural diversity back; what seems to have happened during both these stories, The Handmaid’s Tale in particular.

Sources:

Havel, Vaclav. The Power of the Powerless

https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/the-power-of-the-powerless-vaclav-havel-2011-12-23

Anitasari, Nurin. ARTHUR DIMMESDALE’S HYPOCRISY AS A PURITAN CLERGYMAN IN NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE’S THE SCARLET LETTER

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/12347428.pdf