Year completed: 1850 (when the USA was still younger than a centenarian)
Personal enjoyment:9/10
Would I read it again: YES!
When this novel was released it became an instant hit, selling like hot potatoes. It's no wonder why with a plot as brilliant as this, full of enough passion, wild emotion and rule-breaking to make an EastEnders episode look as pathetic as a piece of cardboard floating in the wind.
Plot:
(Bear with me, this might be long)
(Bear with me, this might be long)
When Hester becomes pregnant the only conclusion that can be reached is that she is an adulteress, as she has been separated from her husband for two full years. She gallantly refuses to reveal the name of her daughter's (Pearl) father, so that he might be saved from punishment. However she is ordered to wear a scarlet letter "A" on the bodice of her dress, so that everyone can know about her adultery (yes yes, as we know, the feminist movement was a long way off...)
But then.
DUN DUN DUUUUN.
Man and the Natural World
The way nature is often personified as listening, commenting on, and interacting with other characters makes it almost seem like an individual character. The society itself (Puritan Boston society) is like an island surrounded by nature. The town is bordered on one side by a huge expanse of woods, home to Native Americans (the Wampanoag tribes). On the other side lies the big blue Atlantic Ocean. From the beginning of this story, our narrator tells us that nature is “kind” and generous, contrasting heavily with the cold and strict ways of Puritan society.
This is seen especially in the narrator's description of the forest. The town and the surrounding forest represent opposing behavioural systems. The town represents civilization, a rule-bound space where everything one does is on display and where transgressions are quickly punished. The forest, on the other hand, is a space of natural rather than human authority. In the forest, society’s rules do not apply, and alternate identities can be assumed. While this allows for misbehavior— Mistress Hibbins’s midnight rides, for example—it also permits greater honesty and an escape from the repression of Boston. When Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the woods, for a few moments, they become happy young lovers once again. Hester’s cottage, which, significantly, is located on the outskirts of town and at the edge of the forest, embodies both orders. It is her place of exile, which ties it to the authoritarian town, but because it lies apart from the settlement, it is a place where she can create for herself a life of relative peace.
Hester Prynne’s long lost husband arrives...and the story soon gets pretty interesting.
He visits her in prison before her release and asks her not to tell anyone that he’s in town. His plan is to disguise himself so that he can ferret out and seek revenge on her lover. Like an undercover James Bond, Hester’s husband tells the townspeople that he’s a physician, and he adopts a fake name: Roger Chillingworth (you can tell he thought he badass by the surname he chose). Hester keeps his secret. Chillingworth is quite a successful spy, as he quickly catches on that the minister, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, is the likely father of Hester’s baby, and he haunts the minister’s mind and soul, day and night, for the next seven years.
Now that is one psychopathic spy.
Now that is one psychopathic spy.
The minister is too afraid to confess his sin publicly, but he's such a lovely honest guy his guilt eats away at him anyway. And Chillingworth’s constant examination makes him paranoid, and practically verging on having a nervous break down. After seven years, Hester finally catches on and realizes the evil her husband has done to the man she truly loves. She reveals Chillingworth’s true identity to Dimmesdale, and the two concoct a plan to leave Boston and go to England, where they might hide from Hester’s husband and create a new life together.
BUT
BUT
You know how I said the minister was an honest guy? Yeah, turns out he's too honest. So much so that it becomes a bad thing. Dimmesdale confesses his sin to the townspeople on the scaffold that had, seven years earlier, been the scene of Hester’s public shaming. His dying act is to throw open his shirt so that the scarlet A that he has carved onto his chest is revealed to his parishioners.
Big Themes:
Sin and judgement
Hester Prynne has sinned by committing adultery. As a part of her punishment, Hester and Pearl must both stand on the scaffold every day. This punishment publically humiliates Hester and forces her to acknowledge her sin each and every day. But is Hester's initial crime a sin? She had to live without him while he was abroad (for all she knew he could have been dead) before falling in love with Dimmesdale--perhaps discovering the feeling for the first time.
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale sin is perhaps even worse, because as well as being an adulterer he allows Hester to take the full blow of society's displeasure while he stands by in silence. He is also an authority figure, looked up to by others.
And what is Chillingworth's sin? Essentially abandoning his wife for so long upon their marriage, or failing to forgive her once he knew of the crime?
For each kind of sin, we wonder if the punishment fits the crime and what must be done, if anything, to redeem the sinner in the eyes of society as well as in the eyes of the sinner himself or herself.
Femininity
Hester Prynne is willing to take on her own shame while protecting the man she loves from his share of the public condemnation. She keeps his secret faithfully, for seven long years. Even when she might have been able to demand his help, she does not seek it. Alternatively, the two men in Hester's life, her husband and her lover, are cowards and hypocrites, unwilling to reveal their true identities. Women, although the "weaker sex" in this heavily religious society, prove to be incredibly strong in this novel.
Big Themes:
Sin and judgement
Hester Prynne has sinned by committing adultery. As a part of her punishment, Hester and Pearl must both stand on the scaffold every day. This punishment publically humiliates Hester and forces her to acknowledge her sin each and every day. But is Hester's initial crime a sin? She had to live without him while he was abroad (for all she knew he could have been dead) before falling in love with Dimmesdale--perhaps discovering the feeling for the first time.
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale sin is perhaps even worse, because as well as being an adulterer he allows Hester to take the full blow of society's displeasure while he stands by in silence. He is also an authority figure, looked up to by others.
And what is Chillingworth's sin? Essentially abandoning his wife for so long upon their marriage, or failing to forgive her once he knew of the crime?
For each kind of sin, we wonder if the punishment fits the crime and what must be done, if anything, to redeem the sinner in the eyes of society as well as in the eyes of the sinner himself or herself.
Femininity
Hester Prynne is willing to take on her own shame while protecting the man she loves from his share of the public condemnation. She keeps his secret faithfully, for seven long years. Even when she might have been able to demand his help, she does not seek it. Alternatively, the two men in Hester's life, her husband and her lover, are cowards and hypocrites, unwilling to reveal their true identities. Women, although the "weaker sex" in this heavily religious society, prove to be incredibly strong in this novel.
Man and the Natural World
The way nature is often personified as listening, commenting on, and interacting with other characters makes it almost seem like an individual character. The society itself (Puritan Boston society) is like an island surrounded by nature. The town is bordered on one side by a huge expanse of woods, home to Native Americans (the Wampanoag tribes). On the other side lies the big blue Atlantic Ocean. From the beginning of this story, our narrator tells us that nature is “kind” and generous, contrasting heavily with the cold and strict ways of Puritan society.
This is seen especially in the narrator's description of the forest. The town and the surrounding forest represent opposing behavioural systems. The town represents civilization, a rule-bound space where everything one does is on display and where transgressions are quickly punished. The forest, on the other hand, is a space of natural rather than human authority. In the forest, society’s rules do not apply, and alternate identities can be assumed. While this allows for misbehavior— Mistress Hibbins’s midnight rides, for example—it also permits greater honesty and an escape from the repression of Boston. When Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the woods, for a few moments, they become happy young lovers once again. Hester’s cottage, which, significantly, is located on the outskirts of town and at the edge of the forest, embodies both orders. It is her place of exile, which ties it to the authoritarian town, but because it lies apart from the settlement, it is a place where she can create for herself a life of relative peace.
My verdict:
Dimmesdale.
What a guy.
He. Ruined.The. Entire. Story.
If he had just gone off with Hester, the story would have had a happy ending.
Words are beyond me.
Note: There's a slightly boring bit at the beginning of the book though...and it is slightly (cough, very) unneccessary to read if you're only reading it for personal enjoyment. If you're the impatient type, AVOID IT LIKE YOU WOULD A KID WITH HEADLICE.
Further reading for students:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet/
http://www.shmoop.com/scarlet-letter/
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-scarlet-letter/
Further reading for students:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet/
http://www.shmoop.com/scarlet-letter/
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-scarlet-letter/
