Character Sketches: The Observers

Based on a current book, Why Sin Matters, and a classic, The Scarlet Letter, this ongoing prose will look at “The Lost Son” from Luke 15 in a new way.  We will examine the consequences of sin in each character and in ourselves and the personal impact of prodigal, reckless grace.

Luke 15:1-2, 11-32; Luke 18:9-14

We’ll call this discussion character “sketches” for several reasons.  First, we would never be able to exhaust all that can be said about the important people in either “The Return of the Prodigal” or The Scarlet Letter.  That’s part of what makes them “classics”.  They never wear out.  Also, in order to make the points we want, we’ll need to narrow our focus – otherwise we would end up retelling the stories – a task that is neither necessary nor prudent.

In order to keep our focus we will examine each character from three points of view:  physical, behavioral, and psychological.  Because most believers will already know the main players in the parable, we’ll start our discussion with the cast from The Scarlet Letter.  As we look at each one, you may begin to see the parallel of each to someone from our scriptures.  Hopefully, as this develops the comparisons will be natural.

The first of our character(s) we’ll look at is actually a group of people we are calling Observers.  SL opens in seventeenth-century Boston with a scene set in a public assembly where, we learn shortly, justice is about to be served.  (We could follow a bunny trail here by discussing the fact that we all should be served justice, but we won’t do that now.)  Chapter 2 introduces us to a “large number of the inhabitants of Boston,  … (with) very much the same solemnity of demeanor on the part of the spectators”.    In other words, they look serious (and scary and grouchy). These are the Puritans we respect for their courage to come to a new county to escape persecution. 

Here Hawthorne focuses on the women in the crowd.  Those he introduces us to are not so much described in detail, but are set in such stark contrast to the main character, Hester, that they pale in comparison.  Her haunting beauty and presence – punctuated by her garment and the famous A of the title of the book, leaves them in the dark shadows of the scene.  Physically, the Goodwives (as described by one to the others) are drably dressed and are seen as decay and gloom incarnate. Think in your own mind of the picture you have of Puritan Boston.  What do you see?  Light? Promise? Hope?  Probably not.  We all know of the hard life they faced, not just to practice religious freedom, but to survive. 

Behaviorally these are vicious women.  They speak with intolerance, judgment and unsympathetic righteousness.  These five ladies, believing that the government and church leaders have been too easy on Hester, are wishing they could pronounce the punishment that would justly serve the crime.  One suggests that Hester ought to die for the shame she has brought upon all women, while another believes a brand of hot iron on her forehead would cause her “to little care about what they have put on the bodice of her gown”.  Yikes!   Even a man in the crowd nearby, says to them, “Mercy on us, goodwife. Is there no virtue in woman…. Hush, now, gossips!”

Psychologically, these women are frighteningly smug and pious.  Without saying so, they have pronounced Hester’s sin to be worse than any they have or will commit.  Sadly, their judgment is for the outward appearance, not the condition of Hester’s heart, or their own.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is known as one of America’s earliest writer of psychological issues:  loneliness, sin, guilt, and suffering.  In choosing early Boston for this setting he capitalized on the Puritan belief system.  It is known that they intended religious freedom.  However, it is often overlooked that their religious freedom was not for all people.  They left an old-world system of persecution of those who were “different” and promptly set up the same type of system in the new world.  If you were not “for” them, you were “against” them.  This is only one of the ironic paradoxes they demonstrated:  dealing harshly with religious dissenters.  Yet, they encouraged merchants and craftsmen to live among them without religion.  They also highly prized well-educated ministers, yet were superstitious in ways we would find humorous today.

Fundamentally, the Puritans believed in predestination:  all deserved damnation because of original sin, but some were elected to receive salvation.  One could not know his fate and could not influence it by good works, so they rigorously sought righteousness.  And, one could not assume being “elect” for that would be prideful.

One interesting point of consideration regarding the Puritans and ourselves is this:  “If the Puritans could not be sure of their own state of grace, they were confident they could recognize it in others” (site source here).  We will deal with this in earnest later as this is central to understanding the Older Brother in Luke 15.