The Sabbath

The Sabbath, or Lord's Day, is the central sacred time in the Puritan society of The Scarlet Letter, a day of rest, worship, and public religious observance that sharply contrasts with the ordinary workdays of the week. It is the day when the community gathers in the meeting-house to hear sermons, and it is the day on which the minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, is expected to be at his most holy and inspired. The Sabbath thus functions as a recurring public stage on which the profound hypocrisy of Dimmesdale's hidden sin is most painfully and ironically exposed, as he must stand before his flock as a paragon of virtue while bearing the secret of his guilt.

The Sabbath as a Day of Rest and Worship

The Sabbath was a day set apart from the ordinary labors of the week. The townspeople, who on other days were engaged in their various modes of rugged industry, would put on their Sabbath-day clothes and gather for worship. The blacksmith, for instance, would wash his sooty face and dress as if he would gladly be merry, if only he knew how. The day was marked by a solemnity that was a matter of both religious devotion and social discipline. The Puritans, who had left behind the sunny richness of the Elizabethan epoch, compressed whatever mirth and public joy they deemed allowable into this single holiday, which for the space of a single day made them appear scarcely more grave than most other communities. The Sabbath was a time when the severe and close application to work was relaxed, and the people were countenanced in this relaxation, though the general tint of life remained the sad gray, brown, or black of the English emigrants.

Dimmesdale's Sabbath Performances

For Arthur Dimmesdale, the Sabbath was the most excruciating day of the week. It was the day when he had to ascend the pulpit and deliver a sermon, meeting the eyes of his congregation who looked up to his face as if the light of heaven were beaming from it. He was forced to see his flock hungry for the truth, listening to his words as if a tongue of Pentecost were speaking, while he himself was inwardly aware of the black reality of what they idolized. He would laugh in bitterness and agony of heart at the contrast between what he seemed and what he was. The Sabbath was the recurring moment when his public veneration tortured him most, as he longed to speak out from his own pulpit and tell the people what he was—a pollution and a lie. Yet, paradoxically, his very suffering and hypocrisy seemed to fuel his eloquence. His most powerful sermons, those that brought souls to the truth, were delivered on the Sabbath, as when, after his midnight vigil, he preached a discourse on the Sabbath that was held to be the richest and most powerful that had ever proceeded from his lips.

The Sabbath and the Election Sermon

The most significant Sabbath in the novel is the day of the Election Sermon, which fell on a Sabbath. This was the day on which Dimmesdale was to preach the sermon that would be the climax of his public career, and it was the day he had chosen to finally reveal his sin. The Sabbath thus became the stage for his ultimate act of confession and death. The day began with the procession of magistrates and citizens to the meeting-house, where Dimmesdale delivered his sermon with such power that the people felt he was inspired. The Sabbath, a day of sacred rest and worship, was transformed into a day of public judgment and personal revelation. The minister, who had for so long used the Sabbath to hide his sin behind a mask of holiness, finally used it to tear that mask away, standing on the scaffold and revealing the scarlet letter on his breast. The Sabbath, the day of the Lord, became the day of his death, a death of triumphant ignominy before the people.

The Sabbath as a Measure of Time and Change

The Sabbath also serves as a recurring marker of time in the novel, a weekly rhythm that underscores the slow, grinding passage of Hester Prynne's penance and Dimmesdale's agony. The seven years of their suffering are measured in Sabbaths, each one a repetition of the same public ordeal. For Hester, the Sabbath was a day of particular torment, as she might enter a church only to find herself the text of the discourse. The Sabbath was the day when the community's judgment was most publicly and religiously affirmed. Yet, over time, the Sabbath also witnessed a change in Hester's reputation. As she became known for her good deeds, people began to look upon the scarlet letter as the token of her many good deeds, and the Sabbath, once a day of shame, became a day when her presence was acknowledged with a kind of reverence. The Sabbath, therefore, is not merely a static religious observance but a dynamic temporal structure that measures the moral and spiritual journeys of the characters, from the depths of public shame to the heights of public veneration, and finally to the ultimate revelation of truth.