The Scarlet Letter

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Kathryn Harrison (Introduction)

Introduction by Kathryn Harrison
Commentary by Nathaniel Hawthorne, W. D. Howells, and Carl Van Doren
 
A stark tale of adultery, guilt, and social repression in Puritan New England, The Scarlet Letter is a foundational work of American literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s exploration of the dichotomy between the public and private self, internal passion and external convention, gives us the unforgettable Hester Prynne, who discovers strength in the face of ostracism and emerges as a heroine ahead of her time. As Kathryn Harrison points out in her Introduction, Hester is “the herald of the modern heroine.”
 
Includes a Modern Library Reading Group Guide

• ISBN10: 0679783385
• ISBN13: 9780679783381
• Publish Date: 19 September 2000 (first published 1 January 1850)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Modern Library Inc
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780679783381

Reviews

[celinenyx]

A tale of a woman marked by the sin of intercourse outside of marriage and the Puritan community that will never let her forget it. Hawthorne's prose is incredibly lofty and high-brow, but it has a certain beauty that reminds me of early Romanticism. Though I don't share the ideas towards religion and sin that the characters of The Scarlet Letter espouse, I enjoyed the novel for what it is. The story itself is actually quite simple, but it is couched in heart-felt purple prose.

[cherryblossommj]

--
Own the Dover Thrift Edition from high school. Also have a MMP Signet Classics, but cannot find that edition or the cover image anywhere online.

[bumblingbookworm]

DNFed at page 54. I know this is a product of its time, but the story and the writing style are both annoying me and I don't want to keep reading.

[Rinn]

Never again.

[Linda]

I have only read the two stories, not the critical esssays, I'm keeping those for class :) The Scarlet Letter was beautifully written, and I loved the irony and the pointing out of the hyphocricy of most of the characters. There were some things that made it very obvious it was written quite a while ago, and that made it all the more interesting. And the whole story was very believable, too, that a woman who had a child while her husband had not been with her for the past two years were to be punished, first by a jail sentence, then to stand by the scaffold with her baby, and having to wear the scarlet letter A on her breast for the rest of her days didn't even seem to be too much.

It is kind of scary that some people who left Europe for America did so in order to avoid prosecution for their religious beliefs, however, some of those puritans must have been a lot worse than those religious zealots cleaing up in Europe? And throughout the whole book, I had one phrase stuck in my mind : the one who has never sinned should cast the first stone.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is an intriguing and complex work that operates as a forceful commentary on both the Puritan era and Hawthorne’s own time. Hawthorne is thoughtful in his portrayal of the adulteress Hester Prynne and the society that condemned her absolutely for a single moral failure. By choosing such a woman as his protagonist and exploring in detail her thoughts and emotions, Hawthorne generates sympathy for her from his readers and compels them to question the moral quality of the Puritan theocracy and of their own contemporary society—whether it be nineteenth or twenty-first century America. The Scarlet Letter is a provocative work that questions the traditional role of women and that raises moral questions that deserve legitimate consideration. The lack of plot and Hawthorne’s in-your-face use of symbolism make the book seem straightforward, but it presents important social and spiritual issues that the reader will be pondering long after the pages are closed.

Subtlety with symbolism is not one of the author’s talents; he is about as understated as the gold and red embroidery on the letter A that Hester must wear upon her chest as punishment for her crime. The reader barely makes it to the second page before finding a description of a rose bush that is followed by the instruction: “It [a rose] may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human fragility and sorrow.” Once the scarlet A makes its appearance, it is denoted immediately as a “token of shame.” In case this is not explicit enough, the letter will later flash through the night sky in the wake of a meteor and the narrator explains that Hester’s paramour sees it as a symbol of his guilt. Hawthorne is not entirely misguided in his employment of symbolism; the Puritans did have an affinity for signs themselves and their presence in the book lends something of historical accuracy. However, their overuse is somewhat problematic—and not solely because the readers must begin to question whether. Hawthorne believes them to be as obtuse as he renders his fellow custom-house workers in his autobiographical introduction. Because Hawthorne is so direct presenting some of the meaning of his work, readers might miss the places where he leaves them room for interpretation.

One such instance is his representation of the role of women. Hester’s marriage was oppressive to her youth and beauty, a portrayal that contradicts the expected place of women in both Puritan society and Hawthorne’s own. No happily married woman in the book marks Hester as an exception. Later Hester asks herself:

“Was existence worth accepting, even to the happiest [women] among them? … As a first task, the whole of society is to be torn down, and built up anew. Then the very nature of the opposite sex, or its long hereditary habit, which has become like nature, is to be essentially modified before woman can be allowed to assume what seems a fair and suitable position. Finally, all other difficulties being obviated, woman cannot take advantage of these preliminary reforms, until she herself shall have undergone a still mightier change; in which, perhaps, the ethereal essence, wherein she has her truest life, will be found to have evaporated.”

Her thoughts begin as radical, suggesting some of today’s theories about gender as a social construct, but they end pessimistically and with doubt that change for women is possible. Hawthorne never answers completely the question of what a women’s role or nature is and what should be done about it, leaving it for his readers to muse.

Hawthorne’s second major question is whether society should judge an individual or whether that is God’s job alone. Modern readers, if they are not personally religious, may not see this as a legitimate debate, but its importance to the Puritan theocracy is obvious, and Hawthorne clearly wants his own Christian readers to ask themselves this question. Hawthorne depicts the Puritans as hypocritical, and Hester wonders whether “the outward guise of purity [of her neighbors] was but a lie, and that, if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on a many a bosom.” Her thoughts lead readers to ask themselves whether they too have failed and if they are eager to criticize others in order to draw attention away from their failings. The conclusion of The Scarlet Letter indicates Hawthorne’s own opinions about personal confession and societal judgment, but, again, he does not give a complete answer.

The Scarlet Letter is in many ways very direct, featuring open criticism and obvious symbolism. Hawthorne did not intend to write a didactic work, however. He is interested in raising what he considers essential questions, but he only hints at his own answers, leaving interpretation primarily in the hand of the readers. The combination of strong authorial voice and subtlety make this one classic worth reading.


This review was also posted at Pages Unbound Book Reviews

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is profound piece of literature, and the characters and imagery are beautifully written. Hawthorne takes the concept of morality and adultery and just descripts the struggles from the effected parties extremely well. The one thing that stood out most for me was just how well written all the characters were, you can’t help to feel their pain and understand what they are going through.

Hester Prynne, the bearer of the Scarlet “A” on her breast, her badge of shame. Branded for adultery for everyone to see, Hester still has a desire to redeem herself. She never reveals her lover’s identity and for that she has been publically shamed.

Her lover is a well respected member of the community (I won’t reveal who it is just in case people aren’t aware and don’t want a spoiler). He is faced with carrying the burden of his sin in secret, always putting his hand over his heart, an expression of the pain that is dwelling up inside him. He lives with his sin until it all begins to unravel and he breaks.

Roger Chillingworth is Hester’s husband; ashamed of the betrayal, he had changed his name so no one would know. He takes up the role of the local doctor, in an attempt to find and get close to his enemy. He has asked Hester to keep his true identity a secret, while he searches for her lover and the father of Pearl.

Pearl, Hester’s daughter, known as the demon child, is a devilish by nature. I have the feeling that she is very aware of what’s going on and knows who her father is, and she is just baiting them all to reveal the truth. I always thought of Pearl as the-demon-on-the-shoulder type character.

Each character is simply amazing and with the judging townsfolk, the struggle feels so real and you can’t help but feel for the characters. I found this book more enjoyable after I finished reading it and began reflecting on it. The Scarlet Letter did at times feel drawn out but overall it was well worth reading.

[jamiereadthis]

If the point of the book is UGH PURITANS: I get it.