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The purpose of this study is to analyze The Scarlet Letter in the theological context of the Antinomian Controversy of 1636-1638 in the Massachusetts Bay colony. Up until recently, the researches on the relation between The Antinomian Controversy and The Scarlet Letter had a tendency to compare the tragic life of Ann Hutchinson with that of Hester from the feministic perspective based upon the traditional belief that Hutchinson was the central figure in the controversy. Most of the scholars in this context emphasized the role of Ann Hutchinson and Hester as a prophetic woman in the male-dominated puritan society, thus marginalizing the theological framework and the role of Rev. John Cotton, the model of Dimmesdale.
However, according to David Hall, who collected the most comprehensive data about the controversy, the major figure is not Hutchinson but John Cotton. In this study, the emphasis is given on the theological context of The Antinomian Controversy and on the relation between the life of Rev. Cotton and that of Dimmesdale, thus giving the counter balance to the preceding researches on The Scarlet Letter in the context of the Antinomianism.
The body of this paper is divided into two parts: the historical and theological background of the controversy and the novel are examined in the first part, so that the theological climate of the Massachusetts Bay colony may be revealed in the light of reformation theology, and in the second part the historical episodes in the lives of John Cotton and Ann Hutchinson are compared with the fictional episodes of Dimmesdale and Hester in The Scarlet Letter.
The Scarlet Letter seems to express Nathaniel Hawthorne’s revaluation of the Antinomian Controversy by transforming the theological discourse into the artistic form of a novel : the “heretical” antinomians, when they are transformed into the characters of Dimmesdale and Hester by the imagination of the author, appear more faithful to the tradition of orthodox protestantism than the puritan leaders in Massachusetts who stigmatized them as heretics.