Pastor Dimmesdale “had spoken the very truth and transformed it into the veriest falsehood”!

The adulteress Hester Prynne, judged guilty of an unforgivable crime against an unforgiving God, is compelled to bear the demeaning shame of the pillory and, for all time after, to wear the letter “A” visibly attached to her clothing.

THE SCARLET LETTER, by presenting Hester Prynne as a proud, iconoclastic, self-forgiving feminist, is a severe critique of the sanctimonious, deeply hypocritical, and extremely misogynistic religious strictures of a Puritan New England community in the seventeenth century. Within a few years, those beliefs would materialize in the Salem witch trials.

Writing in the middle of the nineteenth century, author Nathaniel Hawthorne was not expressing his own beliefs or making any statement about the degree to which he personally regarded adultery as a sin. In fact, he was making a crystal-clear statement about his cynical loathing of 17th-century Puritan beliefs and how those beliefs were manifested in the ugly, intolerant behavior of a community and their punishment of those they considered to have violated those beliefs.

Looking forward to Hawthorne’s 19th century and beyond to the present-day 21st century, it must surely be evident to a modern reader that he would probably look even more askance at the evolution of those beliefs into modern-day evangelical Christianity, more than three hundred and fifty years after the original time setting of the novel.

It’s also worthwhile to make a special note of a quotation from THE CUSTOM HOUSE, written in 1850, which was used as an introduction to the novel. He's discussing the internationally recognized symbol of the USA, the stern-faced bald eagle clutching thunderbolts and barbed arrows in its talons:

\\"... many people are seeking at this very moment, to shelter themselves under the wing of the federal eagle: imagining, I presume, that her bosom has all the softness and snugness of an eider-down pillow. But she has no great tenderness, even in her best of moods, and, sooner or later, - oftener soon than late, - is apt to fling off her nestlings with a scratch of her claw, a dab of her beak, or a rankling wound from her barbed arrows.\\"

Hawthorne was also very clearly cognizant of the typical arrogant, hubristic American belief that God was somehow on their side and looking after the American people:

“The belief was a favorite one with our forefathers, as betokening that their infant commonwealth was under a celestial guardianship of peculiar intimacy and strictness.”

One hundred and seventy years later, it is clear that \\"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose\\"! THE SCARLET LETTER must stand as a prescient condemnation of the behavior of modern-day evangelical Christianity and xenophobic right-wing Trump supporters. The USA simply provides no compassion, good will, generosity, or tolerance to either its citizens or those who would seek refuge on its shores.

Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss

Another required read that truly took me by surprise was "The Scarlet Letter." I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it.

This book delves deep into the consequences of guilt on a person's psyche. It is incredibly layered, with moments where you're not entirely sure if what's happening is exactly as it seems. It's not exactly surreal, but it's written in a way that leaves a bit of question about supernatural elements. For example, did Dimmesdale really have that scarlet A branded on his chest due to the overwhelming guilt he carried? Is Pearl really a normal little girl, or is she a devil child? And is Roger Chillingsworth just a cuckolded husband, or is he the true evil in the village?

I loved all the unanswered questions and the power of this story. I greatly admired Hester for not breaking down and remaining strong in the face of the censure she received. As a woman who got pregnant from an adulterous liaison, she couldn't hide her actions. It seems the town didn't even care about who the father was. They had their sinner and tried to make Hester pay for both of their sins.

This story does indeed explore the puritanical roots of the United States and our complex relationship with sex. While sexual attitudes have mellowed, there are still valuable lessons to be learned. Unresolved guilt can have the power to undermine a person, becoming a burden too heavy to bear. This book truly resonated with me because I believe this message to be true. It also criticizes the tendency of groups to be judgmental towards an individual who may have deviated from societal norms or, more likely, simply got caught. Without a doubt, this is one of my favorite books that I had to read in school.

Another one of those classics that I probably should have read years ago but didn't.

Written in around 1850 and set in Puritan New England in the mid 17th Century, the plot of "The Scarlet Letter" is well known. However, if you haven't read it, there are spoilers ahead.

Hester Prynne travels to New England while her husband is to follow later. She has an affair with the local minister Arthur Dimmesdale, resulting in a child. Adultery is a major offense, and Hester experiences jail and public humiliation. She is forced to wear a bright red A on her breast. Dimmesdale does not come forward to accept his responsibility.

Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth, arrives in town just in time to see his wife's humiliation. He decides not to make himself known and befriends the minister, eventually guessing his secret. Hester lives alone on the edge of the community with her child Pearl. This situation persists for seven years until a meeting in the forest leads them to decide to leave together. But this doesn't happen as the strain shows on the minister, and he confesses his guilt and dies. Hester continues to do good works.

A great deal has been written about this novel. It is a satire/commentary on Puritanism and the legalism associated with it. Attitudes towards Hester change over time as she lives apart, does good works, earns money by sewing, and is regarded more kindly. However, for a real Puritan, good works and time do not erase sins. The novel is also allegorical, representing the Fall, with Hester and Arthur as Adam and Eve.

The character of Hester Prynne has been much discussed. She is a strong and independent character, a single mother who earns her own living and is not tied to a husband, father, or brother. She could have left and led an easier life elsewhere but chose to stay. She doesn't fit into many female stereotypes. She brings up Pearl to be a free spirit, and the Scarlet Letter is transformed from a symbol of sin to a symbol of strength.

Both male protagonists keep their silence, one for revenge and the other out of cowardice, in contrast to Hester.

For me, the novel was well-written, and I enjoyed spotting the symbolism. I understand why it has endured. However, I had some issues with the portrayal of Pearl. Overall, it set me thinking and was worth the effort.

Salem, Massachusetts, which serves as the setting for The Scarlet Letter, is truly a remarkable place to visit. Hawthorne's vivid and detailed descriptions of the small town, with its charming old wooden buildings and the air of local witchery, evoke a sense of nostalgia and curiosity. It makes one long to walk the streets once again, although definitely not back in the Puritanical times. (By the way, I actually met a real witch when I was there...or so I think)

This classic novel is completely different from what I had expected or remembered from the movie. As I delved into the pages, I was pleasantly surprised. It is a dark and thought-provoking work, rich in symbolism within its diction. It explores the pros and cons of living with guilt and sin, whether to display it outwardly or let it fester inside and consume one's soul. I have great admiration for Hester Prynne and the way she courageously faced adversity, with her beautifully embroidered A on her bosom. She dedicated her life to helping those in need, was astonished by Pearl's inheritance, and in the end, I felt that Rev. Dimmesdale and Doc. Chillingworth probably received their just deserts.

You'll notice that the introduction is rather lengthy, spanning 38 pages. However, if you have an interest in Salem and wish to understand how Hawthorne came to write The Scarlet Letter, it is an interesting read and not one to be skipped. That being said, you may choose to leave it until the end if you prefer to first immerse yourself in the main story.

The star for the very simple parts that I really struggled with due to extreme boredom and sleep, and the second star is usually for me to be able to endure and finish this story. How rewarding it is after my skin for my soul to finish it

Nor do I, she declared firmly, whom the scarlet letter has disciplined to truth, though it be the truth of red-hot iron, entering into the soul. She stood there, her eyes filled with a mix of determination and sadness. Nor do I perceive such advantage in his living any longer a life of ghastly emptiness, she continued. That I shall stoop to implore thy mercy. Her voice carried a hint of pride and defiance. Do with him as thou wilt! she exclaimed. There is no good for him, she said, her tone solemn. No good for me, she added, a tear threatening to escape her eye. No good for thee! She emphasized. There is no good for little Pearl! Her voice rose slightly. There is no path to guide us out of this dismal maze! she cried out, her heart heavy with despair.

The writer Henry James once said that "if I came to believe in the power of literature to charm souls, this was due, above all, to the stories of Hawthorne."

Hawthorne, a representative figure of American literature in the middle of the 19th century, is remarkable for his famous works such as "The House of the Seven Gables", "The Marble Faun" and "The Blithedale Romance". He is also my kind of writer, a moralist and a fine psychologist.

It is important to note that American historians divide literature in the middle of the 19th century into two dominant directions: the transcendentalists, who uphold Truth and Goodness as basic concepts, and the other, according to Poe's vision, which upholds Beauty as the supreme value. The author is on the side of Poe, being an artist of Beauty.

In 1850, Hawthorne's most important work, "The Scarlet Letter", was published. The book opens with an introduction called "The Custom-House", a first-person narrative in which we have a rich description of the custom-house and the workers there.

The actual action begins in the 17th century, in Puritan Boston, when a huge crowd gathers in front of the prison, waiting for Hester Prynne to come out. She had been marked with the scarlet letter 'A', which means that she is an adulteress and that she has to endure public shame. The young woman has a baby in her arms, is noble and dignified, and is not at all ashamed of her situation. When she is imperatively asked to reveal the name of the man with whom she has sinned, that is, the father of the child, she categorically refuses.

Later we learn that Hester was married to an English scholar who chose to stay in Amsterdam and sent her ahead to Boston. Hester waited for him for two years, but her husband never came after her. And as fate is always cruel, while she is on the scaffold and enduring public disapproval, she recognizes her husband among the people. He is a doctor and by cunning and cruelty he swears that he will discover the man she is trying to protect.

The ending is a moralistic one, rather unsatisfactory for the reader, who will remain with a bad feeling and pity for Hester, because, after all, love is not a sin.

However, I chased away the sad ending with a share of smiles, remembering that on page 33 there is a mention of a tough and impossible-to-eat turkey (which easily becomes a leitmotif in my reviews): "it had a promising appearance, but which at the table proved to be so tough that the carving knife could not make any impression on the carcass, and in the end it could only be cut with an ax and a chisel."

In conclusion, I would like to appreciate the preface and the criticism written by Dan Grigorescu, which I found very professionally written, useful and elegant. I also attach some quotes that I found beautiful:

"I believe that there is no letter embroidered that has not been felt in the heart."

"Extraordinary is the power and generosity of a woman's soul! She will not speak!"

"... and the stronger the desire is, the darker the pain that touches it."

"Wherever there is a soul and a mind, the physical ills of the body are influenced by these characteristics."

"For the unjust man, the whole universe is false and impalpable and reduces to nothing, in the end."

"It is to the praise of human nature that, except in the case where egoism appears, it is rather disposed to love than to hate."

"Let those men tremble who win a woman's hand, but not the whole passion of her heart!"

"As lost as my soul is, I would still do everything in my power to save other human souls!"

"Litera stacojie" is a novel that questions the nature of sin and the way it is perceived within a community.

It presents an interesting subject for research and study, namely, whether hate and love are not essentially the same thing. Each of them, in their most developed form, implies a high degree of intimacy and knowledge of the heart. Each makes an individual depend on another individual for their spiritual or soul food. Both the one who loves passionately and the one who hates no less passionately feel equally lost and abandoned when the object of their passion disappears. Philosophically speaking, then, the two passions seem essentially identical, with the only difference being that, by chance, one appears to us bathed in a celestial radiance, while the other in a dark and sinister light.

This exploration of the nature of hate and love challenges our traditional观念 and forces us to look at these emotions from a new perspective. It makes us wonder if our perception of good and evil is as clear-cut as we think. Maybe there is more complexity and ambiguity in the human heart than we are willing to承认.

The novel "Litera stacojie" thus invites us to engage in a deeper思考 about the nature of sin and the emotions that drive us. It encourages us to question our assumptions and to look beyond the surface to the true essence of things.

This is one of those books that can easily lend itself to a variety of critical readings, each one just as legitimate as the next. On one hand, it treats Hester almost like a proto-feminist figure. She is undaunted and dignified in the face of public disgrace, earning her own living to raise her child. On the other hand, she readily accepts her own persecution.

Similarly, Dimmesdale is torn between his emotional urges and his allegiance to a doctrine that denies him his humanity. Oppressed by the faith he clings to for meaning and validation, he consciously chooses private anguish over a public fall from grace. In a way, he willingly remains a cog in the wheel of the Puritan machinery while subconsciously resenting his bondage.

The author's treatment of Chillingworth is perhaps the most paradoxical. He is cast as the Biblical snake, a decrepit-looking man of intellect, yet he is shown to be a strangely sympathetic cuckold who refrains from slut-shaming Hester and even admits to his own failings as a husband, an astonishing and laudable character trait. However, I'm not sure what the point was of linking natural intelligence with evil.

But let's decontextualize first. Because what good would it do to pan the tyranny of the Puritanical worldview in this day and age? And haven't re-envisioned Biblical scenarios already lost their sheen?

Let's take the scarlet letter instead - the incriminating 'A', a mark of a woman's ultimate disgrace that Hester bears like a badge of honour in the end, perhaps having appropriated its connotative worth as a social censure and transmuted it into part of her identity. Undoubtedly, it is the most interesting thing about the novel, as the very weapon of social ostracism wielded against Hester contributes to her maturation as a character and unwittingly bestows on her the capacity for unfettered thought and freedom of movement. By cementing her status as an outsider, it gives her the unique opportunity to spot the limitations of a community imprisoned by its own conservatism and aids in the process of her liberation and education.

It might be a stretch to call the letter a symbol for female emancipation, but the text is my guide and the author is dead (in the Barthesian sense), so I'll draw my own conclusions.

Sample one of her observations as evidence -

"Indeed, the same dark question often rose into her mind with reference to the whole race of womanhood. Was existence worth accepting even to the happiest among them?"

My biggest quibble with the book is its insistence on viewing Dimmesdale as a co-equal sufferer with Hester, a victim of his own mounting contrition and Chillingworth's insidious revenge. As if Dimmesdale suffers as much as the woman banished to the very margins of society, where she is forced to raise a child on her own and endure the objectifying gaze of men and women silently pillorying her existence. It seems only Pearl, often referred to as a 'demon offspring', a living embodiment of the repudiation of all doctrinal dogma, is quick to identify her father's moral hypocrisy -

"What a strange, sad man is he!" said the child, as if speaking partly to herself. "In the dark nighttime he calls us to him, and holds thy hand and mine, as when we stood with him on the scaffold yonder! And in the deep forest, where only the old trees can hear, and the strip of sky see it, he talks with thee, sitting on a heap of moss! And he kisses my forehead, too, so that the little brook would hardly wash it off! But, here, in the sunny day, and among all the people, he knows us not; nor must we know him! A strange, sad man is he, with his hand always over his heart!"

Even the denouement is fashioned with the sole purpose of salvaging Dimmesdale's lost self-esteem and paving the way for his atonement. His guilt-ridden conscience is the center of his universe, not the welfare of the woman he abandons to a fate of enduring countless indignities. And his decision to go out in a blaze of pseudo-heroic glory by finally confessing to his'sin' publicly is further evidence of his self-serving nature. If anything, it proves to be his second act of traitorous desertion of Hester, in which he cruelly stamps out her last hope of beginning a new life elsewhere with the father of her child.

Thus, I'd remember him as a representative figure of the Puritan moral machinery that flounders in its attempts to maintain its infallibility in the face of sobering reality.

Further, the elevation of Hester to a Christ-like symbol of suffering and self-sacrifice who graduates beyond the confines of the world of flesh to attain a near-mythical status is deeply problematic. It vitiates the fact of her growth as a woman of independent means whose very presence, albeit on the fringes of society, serves as an existential threat to the patriarchal Puritan set-up.

The omniscient narrator's interjections serve as additional irritants, especially because he feels like he has to expatiate on the symbolism of the letter, Chillingworth, and Pearl time and again for the sake of the reader's benefit. We get it, Mr Hawthorne. You like insulting the reader's intelligence. Lastly, since the narrative mostly develops around the tension between conflicting ideologies, it becomes a bit too involved with its own didacticism, often reducing its characters to mere stiff mouthpieces or symbols. It fails to create any dramatic suspense. As a result, there's very little pleasure to be derived from reading.

Tl;dr, this is probably not a feminist novel. But of all the things that stand out for me, the author's indirect indictment of slut-shaming remains the foremost. For obvious reasons. Also, Chillingworth over Dimmesdale any day.

Another School Book

Updated. I did read this in school, and I was among the kids who took pleasure in the book. Hester is one of the earliest stories featuring a true outcast from her society. She had to be robust and pay the price not only for herself but also for her partner. I firmly believe this is an excellent story that sheds light on a strict society and reveals how such a system fails to function properly. People are diverse, and life unfolds in various ways. We must be capable of tolerating mistakes and differences.

The world we inhabit is all about variation. There isn't just one kind of ant or beetle; rather, there are approximately 30 thousand different species. Similarly, there isn't merely an oak or a maple; there are numerous varieties of oak. The world adores differences, as is evident all around us. For some reason, society often attempts to impose rules to make everyone the same, yet we are not all identical. I think I read this in 10th grade, and it somewhat opened my eyes to the diverse types of stories available. I wasn't an advanced reader as a child, so this was a revelation. In fact, I enjoyed most of the stories we read in school, with the exception of Hemingway and Steinbeck. I didn't have any interest in their works, but I always relished the discussions.

That's precisely why I loved English. I loved engaging in discussions with people about the events and themes in the stories. Hester lived in arduous times. There are still remnants of those times in America that contribute to the division within our country. Anyway, I think this is a remarkable story, and now that I have a better understanding and more life experience, I should re-read it.

I always experience a sense of guilt whenever I attempt to read one of the so-called 'great classics'. It often feels like a Herculean task to merely get through the initial pages, let alone finish the entire book. This particular book was no different in that regard.

As I opened its cover and began to read, I was immediately confronted with the complex language and convoluted plot. The words seemed to dance on the page, eluding my comprehension. I found myself constantly having to refer to the dictionary, hoping to make sense of the archaic terms and phrases.

Despite my best efforts, I struggled to maintain my focus. My mind would wander, thinking about other things that seemed more interesting and engaging. I would question why I was bothering to read this book in the first place. Was it really worth the effort?

Yet, deep down, I knew that there was something valuable hidden within the pages of this classic. I just had to keep pushing forward, hoping that eventually, the fog would clear and I would be able to see the beauty and wisdom that had made this book a classic in the first place.

Boom! Another case of youthful idiocy corrected.

Probably the most significant issue with The Scarlet Letter is that we have kids read it when they are still too naïve to truly appreciate it. I was one of those naïve kids who thought it was overly wordy and dull. And yes, it is overly wordy, but in a similar way that the zombie scenes in The Walking Dead are overly described. It's not a negative thing! And by no means is this book dull either. I was captivated from beginning to end.

For those who have never heard of "words" or "books" before, The Scarlet Letter is the tale of Hester Prynne, a woman in mid-17th century Puritanical New England who is ostracized for her involvement in an extramarital affair - an affair that resulted in a child (which probably gave her away). But rather than the focus of the book being on Prynne herself and the hardships she endured while living among a bunch of judgmental people, it is instead about the revenge sought by the man she wronged (i.e., her husband). The subsequent situation comes to redefine the concept of sin and moral degeneracy. Of course, we're talking about Puritanical sin here, where it's off to the gallows if your sleeves are too short or if you're caught smoking in the street. (God only knows what might have happened if anyone discovered you receiving a blow job in the horse alley that one time.) In fact, those prudish individuals are so careful not to appear improper that Hawthorne compares them - during a day when they should be having the most fun ever, mind you - to infirmary patients.

\\n  Into this festal season of the year - as it already was, and continued to be during the greater part of two centuries - the Puritans compressed whatever mirth and public joy they deemed allowable to human infirmity; thereby so far dispelling the customary cloud, that, for the space of a single holiday, they appeared scarcely more grave than most other communities at a period of general affliction.\\n  
\\n

Anyway, I've gotten sidetracked again. The Scarlet Letter is exquisitely well-written and I'm glad I gave it the second chance it so richly deserved.

\\n  \\n
Hester Prynne, modern day, Boston, Massachusetts