Devil

The Devil, also called Satan, the Black Man, or the arch-fiend, is a central supernatural presence in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, though he never appears as a tangible character. Instead, he operates through folklore, psychological torment, and the moral geography of Puritan Boston. The Devil is the dark counterpart to the scarlet letter itself: where the letter is a public emblem of sin, the Devil is the hidden tempter who writes his own mark on the hearts of the guilty. His presence pervades the novel's atmosphere of guilt, secrecy, and retribution, shaping the fates of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth.

The Black Man of the Forest

The most concrete form the Devil takes in the novel is the Black Man, a figure of Puritan folklore who haunts the forest around Boston. According to popular belief, the Black Man carries a heavy book with iron clasps and an iron pen, and those who meet him among the trees are to write their names in the book with their own blood; he then sets his mark on their bosoms. This legend is recounted to Pearl by an old woman in a chimney corner, and Pearl eagerly repeats it to her mother during their walk in the forest. Hester herself confirms the story when she tells Pearl, "Once in my life I met the Black Man! This scarlet letter is his mark!" The forest, with its wild, untamed character, becomes the Devil's domain—a place where the rigid laws of Puritan society do not apply, and where hidden sins can be confronted. The Black Man is also associated with Mistress Hibbins, the Governor's sister, who is widely believed to be a witch and who invites Hester to join her in the forest at night to meet the Black Man. Hester, at the height of her desperation, replies that she would willingly sign the Black Man's book with her own blood if only she could keep Pearl.

The Devil as Psychological Tormentor

Beyond folklore, the Devil operates as a psychological force, particularly in the life of Arthur Dimmesdale. The minister, tormented by his hidden guilt, feels himself "given over to a fiend, to be tortured with frightful dreams and desperate thoughts, the sting of remorse and despair of pardon, as a foretaste of what awaits him beyond the grave." This internal torment is externalized in the figure of Roger Chillingworth, whom the townspeople come to regard as "Satan himself or Satan's emissary." Chillingworth, having devoted himself to revenge, undergoes a transformation that makes him a "fiend" in his own eyes: "A mortal man, with once a human heart, has become a fiend for his especial torment." The novel thus blurs the line between supernatural evil and human malice, suggesting that the Devil works through human agents. Dimmesdale himself, after his decision to flee with Hester, experiences a "total change of dynasty and moral code" in his inner kingdom, and is tempted to commit blasphemous, wicked acts—to utter blasphemies to a deacon, to whisper an argument against immortality to an old widow, to corrupt a young maiden, and to teach profanity to children. He wonders, "Am I mad? or am I given over utterly to the fiend? Did I make a contract with him in the forest, and sign it with my blood?"

The Devil and the Scarlet Letter

The scarlet letter itself is repeatedly associated with the Devil. The townspeople believe that the symbol is "red-hot with infernal fire" and can be seen glowing at night when Hester walks abroad. The letter is described as having "the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself." When Hester stands on the scaffold, the Reverend John Wilson preaches a discourse on sin that makes the letter "assume new terrors in their imagination, and seemed to derive its scarlet hue from the flames of the infernal pit." The Devil's mark, in folklore, is placed on the bosom—just as the scarlet letter is worn on Hester's breast. Pearl, in her intuitive way, connects the two: she asks her mother if the scarlet letter is the Black Man's mark, and later tells the minister that she can identify Roger Chillingworth because he is the "old black man" who has already caught the minister. The meteor that appears during Dimmesdale's vigil is interpreted by the sexton as a portent of Governor Winthrop's death—the letter A standing for Angel—but Dimmesdale himself sees it as a revelation of his own guilt, a sign of the Devil's claim on him.

The Devil's Role in the Novel's Moral Structure

The Devil in The Scarlet Letter is not merely a figure of terror but a structural element in the novel's moral economy. He represents the temptation to despair, the belief that sin is unforgivable and that the sinner is irrevocably damned. Dimmesdale's struggle is precisely against this despair: he fears that he has sold himself to the Devil, that his repentance is hollow, and that his soul is lost. Yet the novel ultimately affirms the possibility of redemption through confession and truth. When Dimmesdale finally reveals his sin on the scaffold, he declares to Chillingworth, "Thy power is not what it was! With God's help, I shall escape thee now!" The Devil's grip is broken not by evasion but by exposure. The novel's final moral—"Be true! Be true! Be true!"—is the antidote to the Devil's work, which thrives on secrecy and hypocrisy. The Devil, in this reading, is the embodiment of the lie, the hidden sin, the unconfessed guilt that corrupts the soul from within.