Whig Party

The Whig Party appears in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" not as a direct participant in the seventeenth-century drama of Hester Prynne, but as the decisive political force that shapes the novel's framing narrative, the Custom-House sketch. The Whigs are the hostile administration that, upon winning the presidential election of General Zachary Taylor, strips the narrator of his position as Surveyor of the Salem Custom-House. This political upheaval, described as a "remarkable event of the third year of my Surveyorship," forces the narrator out of his comfortable but intellectually stifling official life and back into his long-abandoned literary vocation, directly enabling the writing of the tale of the scarlet letter itself. The Whigs thus function as the catalyst for the novel's creation, their victory representing both a personal calamity and a providential liberation.

Political Context and the Narrator's Position

The narrator, a Democrat in principle though not an active partisan, finds himself in an increasingly untenable position as the Whig victory approaches. He describes the experience of a public functionary at the incoming of a hostile administration as "one of the most singularly irksome, and, in every contingency, disagreeable, that a wretched mortal can possibly occupy." The narrator observes with distaste the "bloodthirstiness" that develops in the triumphant party, noting that the Whigs, in their victory, displayed a "fierce and bitter spirit of malice and revenge" that he had never seen distinguish the triumphs of his own Democratic Party. He contrasts this with the Democrats' habitual generosity in victory, stating that while they "know how to spare when they see occasion," the Whigs' axe, when it strikes, is "seldom poisoned with ill-will." The narrator's own head, he ruefully notes, was "the first that fell" in the ensuing purge.

Consequences for the Narrator

The narrator's ejection by the Whigs, though initially a blow, ultimately proves to be a fortunate fall. He describes his fortune as resembling that of a person who contemplates suicide but is instead murdered, a release from the wearisome and intellectually deadening routine of the Custom-House. The loss of his position, which he had held for three years, breaks the "unnatural state" of official life and allows him to return to his true calling as a writer. It is only after this "involuntary withdrawal from the toils and honours of public life" that he is able to take up the manuscript of Mr. Surveyor Pue and compose "The Scarlet Letter." The Whig victory, therefore, is the necessary precondition for the novel's existence, transforming the narrator from a "tolerably good Surveyor of the Customs" back into a literary man.

Thematic Significance

The Whig Party's role in the narrative underscores the novel's broader themes of hidden guilt, public reputation, and the capricious nature of institutional power. Just as the Puritan magistrates in the main story wield their authority to punish and expose Hester Prynne, the Whigs in the framing narrative wield their newly won political power to remove their opponents from office. The narrator's experience of being a victim of this political machine mirrors the experience of Hester, who is also a victim of a rigid, unforgiving system. The Whigs, in their pursuit of partisan victory, display a cruelty that the narrator finds morally repugnant, yet this very cruelty is what sets him free. The party thus serves as a complex symbol of both oppression and liberation, a force that, in its ruthless application of power, inadvertently enables the creation of a work of art that will outlast all political squabbles.