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| THE SCARLET LETTER , Nathaniel Hawthorne |
by: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Introduction
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Massachusetts in 1804. His father was Captain Nathaniel Hathorne (without the “w”) and he had one sister named Elizabeth. Hawthorne graduated from Bowdin college in Boston in 1925. He then moved back home to Maine where he lived with his mother and published him first book Fanshaw: A Tale at his own expense. Later he burned all the copies he could find of that book. He got a job at a custom house to support his family. There, he got lots of information for his novel The Scarlet Letter. In 1851, Hawthorne became good friends with Herman Melville who was writing Moby Dick at the time. Other books by Hawthorne are The House of the Seven Gables and Tanglewood Tales. Hawthorne died in 1864.
This book deals much with sin and romance and the consequences of sin and romance (namely Pearl). Another book that dealt with a similar theme was The Grapes of Wrath.
The plot
The plot seemed to be contrived. It had too many symbols to be real and I didn’t find myself in the place of one of the characters. To me, it was just a story. There was no human struggle in it and I didn’t find myself rooting for any of the characters. The use of the letter A was good at first but later I thought it was overworked and was just fluff without the content of a good plot. There was one saving grace though. The ending was a good one. It resolved the story not by killing the characters as in East of Eden, but actually resolved it. Hester grew into a wise lady learning from her experiences being rejected. The fact that Chillingworth died added to the mystical symbolic nature of the book by showing that the sole purpose of his existence was to torture Dimmesdale, and once Dimmesdale was dead, there was nothing more to do.
Characters
As I said before, I didn’t feel for the characters. I never really got to know them and I didn’t care for them. I did have certain opinions of the characters but most of them were more bad than good. First of all, I did have sympathy for Hester for falling into this situation where she thought her husband died, plus she didn’t even want to marry her husband in the first place. Even though I felt sympathy, I didn’t feel that it was right for her to sleep with Reverent Arthur Dimmesdale for the reason that they weren’t married. Dimmesdale, I thought was largely a hypocrite. He was seen by his congregation as holy but he knew he wasn’t. He did have the virtue of feeling very guilty about his sin but he shouldn’t have done it in the first place. He is a Reverend! He has a congregation to think about. Also, I thought the puritan society was too harsh on them. Sure Dimmesdale and Hester sinned, but it is not a sin against society, it is a sin against God. Let God deal with it. Also, years after the sin, they never forgave Hester for her sin but continued to treat her as an outcast. Chillingworth was like a tank. He drove forward toward his goal and never stopped, until he could go no further which was when Dimmesdale was on the scaffold out of Chillingworth’s reach. This drive that Chillingworth had could be in a sense commendable in the sense that he did have a goal that he tried to reach, but that goal was nevertheless evil and deceitful. Pearl, although she was cute, was in my eyes a brat. Her mother was suffering but she didn’t comfort her, she added to the suffering. Perhaps I lost much of my interest in the story because I saw no one that was good, that I could associate myself with.
Dimmesdale:
Father of Pearl. He was a Reverend that in the beginning of the book begged Hester to reveal the father of the child, who was himself.
Hester:
The adulteress. She sinned by having a child that wasn’t from her husband and was punished by all of society.
Pearl:
The result of the sin. Pearl was the daughter of Hester and Dimmesdale. Even before she knew that Dimmesdale was her father, even when she was an infant she was drawn toward Dimmesdale. She was always a reminder to Hester of her sin and grew up in my opinion to be a brat.
Chillingworth:
The avenger. This guy was MAD! He not only was mad-crazy but he was mad-angry. He had the goal of torturing Dimmesdale and worked toward it with incredible
Setting
The novel takes place in Salem Massachusetts. Salem is known for its witch trial and witch burnings, of which one of Hawthornes ancestors was part of. Many people during this time was publicly humiliated so the punishment that was put upon Hester could have really happened. The sin could have really happened. But the way Chillingworth drove for revenge is unrealistic. The entire book is too symbolic to be realistic. This setting is probably the best place possible for this story, not only because of its history but because there is a forest for Mistress Hibbens and a puritan society. If it took place in California, we Californians would probably say, “A reverend had a child with someone else’s w
Style
I didn’t like Hawthorne’s style. He showed a large vocabulary from through this work. The style sounded archaic and all the people spoke alike. This wasn’t natural speech. Everything that was said was like prose, as a novelists would have written narration, but not as one should write speech. Hawthorne used a lot of figurative language. All these things together made the reading difficult and slow. The book dragged sometimes and at some points became downright boring. He did have some creative uses for the letter A but that was
Theme
The Scarlet Letter revolves around the theme of sin. Who had the greater sin? Was it Hester for adultering? Was it Dimmesdale for adultering while being a Reverend? Was is Chillingworth for seeking revenge? Hester came forth with her sin and should have been forgiven. Dimmesdale sin should have been more harshly punished than Hester’s since he never came out with his sin and kept it hidden. I guess you could say that he did have a harsher punishment because he died as a result of it. Chillingworth had, I believe, the worst sin of all. He drove at revenge and never felt guilt. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth punishment is an example of punishment from God: death. People didn’t kill them but God took their lives.
Conclusion
I didn’t really enjoy this book as much as some of the others I read for the book report. But some of the ideas of sin can be applied to real life. It’s better to come out and confess your sin. It’s not good to judge other peoples’ sin and leave the judging to God. And finally, “Do not seek revenge or bear grudge against your people.”
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