Hester Prynne, a complex and tragic figure, wears an A embroidered on her clothes. This scarlet letter is a blatant symbol that reveals the nature of her sin to all. She had an affair with a man other than her husband, resulting in the birth of little Pearl.

Two other characters, Arthur Dimmesdale, the young pastor, and Chillingworth, the doctor and Hester's husband, complete this vivid and stunning picture of Puritan America.

This novel has intrigued me for a long time. After reading it, it is challenging to form a definite opinion. After a difficult start and time to adapt to the author's style, we discover a Hester who accepts her fate and does not rebel against the Church's decision. She is aware that her daughter only sees this letter on her and becomes increasingly intrigued by her mother's evasive answers.

Chillingworth's character is rather demonizing. He persecutes the young pastor, driving him to the brink of madness. All the scenes in the story are rich in religious symbolism. The end showcases the dominance of puritanism: the lovers have failed to flee far from this insane world.

One question that obsesses me is whether it is love between Hester and the pastor. She protects him from her husband, but apart from their last conversation, they are never truly together. Their desire to flee seems more like a passion for freedom rather than love. This reading has allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of this era in America and how difficult it is to find one's place when deviating from the prescribed path.

Nismo se našli ova knjiga i ja :( jedva sam je završila.

It was such a disappointment. I finally managed to get my hands on this book, but it just didn't meet my expectations.

I had high hopes for it, especially after hearing so many good things from others. But as I started reading, I quickly realized that it wasn't going to be the great experience I had anticipated.

The story seemed to drag on at times, and the characters didn't really come alive for me. I found myself losing interest and having to force myself to keep reading.

By the time I reached the end, I was just relieved to be done. It's a shame, really, because I was looking forward to enjoying this book. Maybe it's just not for me.

JUST ONE OF THOSE CLASSICS THAT I DON'T GET

✨ Popsugar Reading Challenge 2019✨
✨✨A book with a plant in the title or on the cover✨✨

I'm not sure if it's an American vs. European thing or something else entirely, but I have to be honest and say that I really don't understand this book. I can't fathom how it managed to become a classic. I had no liking for the characters, the plot was uninteresting, and the writing style didn't appeal to me at all.

WHAT I DISLIKED

Tragic hero: In my opinion, Mr. Dimmesdale is the villain of this story. He lures a young, married woman all by himself. When the affair is uncovered, he abandons her. He allows her to take all the blame alone and be humiliated without standing up for her. However, here he is depicted as a kind of tragic hero, wasting away due to the guilt that consumes him. He is presented as much of a victim as Hester, but in my eyes, he was simply a villain.

Writing: The sentences were extremely long and difficult to get through. I found myself spacing out more than once and losing my train of thought. It definitely failed to capture my attention.

Words vs. action: As I mentioned earlier, there are an abundance of words in this book. Yet, hardly anything actually happens.

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**The Scarlet Letter: A Review with Expansions**

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a classic that has been the subject of much study and discussion. The audiobook narrated by Dick Hill was a great experience. The mp3 files were conveniently separated by chapter, although they tried to combine the "Custom House" preface with the first chapter, which I quickly remedied with my audio remixing program. Dick's performance was exemplary, but I still rated the book at 3.5, rounded up to 4. Some parts of the story are truly great, while others seem to drag on.

I have a confession to make. I was taught this book in school, read it 10 years ago, watched the Thugnotes webisode, and read the corresponding entry in the Thugnotes book. However, during this reread, I had to look up what was wrong with Dimmesdale's chest. I knew he mutilated it, but I had no idea he carved the letter "A" into it. This oversight is quite embarrassing, considering it's implied multiple times and explicitly stated in the last chapter. I must have been asleep or not paying attention during previous readings.

The word "ignominy" or its variations appear 24 times in the book, roughly once every seven pages. While it's a good word, it does seem a bit overused.

The original review from 7/30/11 shows my initial struggle with rating the book. I bounced between three and four stars, ultimately settling on 3.5 rounded up to 4. The story itself gets a three, but the enjoyable phrasing earns it a bonus. I was supposed to read this in 11th grade but didn't appreciate prose back then. I thought it was a romance, but it's actually about adultery in a puritanical community.
The "Custom House" introduction is nearly 40 pages long and has little bearing on the novel. I highly recommend skipping it unless you're a classics purist. I've summarized it for you to save time. The novel itself is about 175 pages and tells the story of Hester Prynne, who commits adultery and must wear a red letter "A" on her breast. The other major characters include Arthur Dimmesdale, the father of her child; Roger Chillingworth, her husband; and Pearl, their daughter.
The chapter summaries provide a quick overview of the story. From Hester's public shaming at the pillory to Dimmesdale's最终的忏悔 and death, each chapter reveals more about the characters and their struggles. The story explores themes of sin, guilt, and redemption.
In conclusion, The Scarlet Letter is a classic that is worth reading. While it may have its flaws, such as the slow pacing in some parts and the overuse of certain words, the prose is rich and the story is engaging. It's a great example of American literature and a must-read for anyone interested in the genre. I hope my review has given you a better understanding of the book and encouraged you to pick it up and read it for yourself.

Reading The Scarlet Letter, I once again realize how safe the realm of classical literature is. And yes, in most cases, no matter how passé the theme or the setting may be for today's reader, the ancients have said it better, expressed it in a way that is difficult or even rare to match today. Obviously, times change and we are people of our era, but it is no coincidence that the charm of the writing of the ancients still strongly affects the reader of the 21st century. In the case of Nathaniel Hawthorne, this observation is confirmed.

The Scarlet Letter, written in 1850, is an excellent example of literature. The reader becomes an observer and a companion of a bold medieval tale that takes place in the early 17th century in New England, where the witch hunt is in full swing, public shame is maximally accountable, the position of women is in the pits, and the mores are so strict that they seem like a noose around the neck.

Through a human triangle, an intricate plot is woven, inspired by a discovery of Hawthorne during his time as a customs official and introduced to us in the introductory chapter. The reader is already "poisoned" with the necessary curiosity that will push him to read with eagerness further. The author has already given us an idea of the worthiness of his writing.

A woman with her baby tightly in her arms is publicly paraded in the central square of Boston. The bloodthirsty crowd will writhe with all sacrifice to crush the scene with its bloodthirsty gaze. The scarlet letter will burn in her chest for years, a visible sign that will always remind of her shame. Her daughter is wrapped in the myth of the curse to grow up apart from every similar being, in a crib delimited by the invisible electrified wires of social exclusion. How can such a wound of universal shame be healed - if ever - in such a dark era for human justice? Right and wrong, good and evil are known by the measures and standards of the most conservative and strict moral injunctions of an era that we hope has passed forever.

In The Scarlet Letter, there is something of the cursed, submissive atmosphere that I found in Wuthering Heights by Brontë. A metaphysical dimension gilded by a worthy hand on a dramatic story. The color of this story is red, like the scarlet letter on Hester's chest - like every deep wound that bleeds, like every true passion for love, for justice, for revenge, for repentance. Visible from every point, even in the dark.

[34th book of 2021. Artist for this review is French painter Hugues Merle. Hawthorne considered his painting "The Scarlet Letter" as the finest illustration of his novel.]

3.5. "The Scarlet Letter" is a fine novel that commences very well. Hawthorne, a great writer, exceeded my expectations initially. However, as the plot advanced, I noticed his prose became overworked and dense, reminiscent of Henry James. This novel is often highly regarded as a strong candidate for the "Great American Novel." The term was coined in 1868 by John William De Forest. Interestingly, Forest didn't view "The Scarlet Letter" as a contender, yet it is now considered one of the most famous. Personally, I don't understand why. It's not a bad novel, but when compared to other candidates from the century like "Moby Dick" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," it seems to pale in comparison. For me, the latter still holds the title of the GAN of the 19th century.

A significant number of people have read this novel due to studying it at school. I never did, but have long intended to read it. The novel mainly focuses on the themes of sin and redemption. Set in Puritan Boston in the 1640s (but published in 1850), it tells the story of Hester Prynne who has a child through an affair and is compelled to wear a scarlet letter 'A' on her chest for adultery. There are two men intricately involved in her story in different ways, which I won't disclose, but they are depicted in the background of Merle's painting above. Prynne's daughter, Pearl, grows up throughout the novel until she is about 7 years old. She is a great little character, an "elvish" child whom some of the townspeople suspect to be some sort of Devil-child. Witches and the concept of witchcraft also surface now and then due to the novel's time period.

Although the novel addresses some interesting themes, I didn't find it as comprehensive as some of the other GAN novels, nor as representative of America as I believe "Huckleberry Finn" is. Certainly, it has some aspects that are, but I concur with Forest's original assessment. It's a good novel, but not a potential contender in my eyes. Disregarding its GAN status, it is a strong 19th-century novel with a good plot leading towards redemption. At least, it's a worthwhile read.

Though I’d reread The House of the Seven Gables not too long ago, I wasn’t planning on rereading this Hawthorne. But then, a series of events changed my mind. I read I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem with its powerful, intriguing scene reimagining Hester. In an author interview, Maryse Condé said she rereads The Scarlet Letter quite often. Almost immediately after that, I came across this in Louisa May Alcott’s Moods: As Hester Prynne seemed to see some trace of her own sin in every bosom, by the glare of the Scarlet Letter burning on her own; so Sylvia, living in the shadow of a household grief, found herself detecting various phases of her own experience in others. Okay, okay, I told my books, I give in.

I first read this in high school as an assigned text. The prose was dense for high-schoolers, but it was short and full of things to talk about, including the recurring Hawthornian theme of guilt. Since I went to an all-girls’ school, I wonder if it was also to be seen as precautionary: girls, you will be publicly shamed if you become extramaritally pregnant; your partner-in-crime, nope. Hawthorne does unite his guilty pair in an iron link of mutual crime; and though the community doesn’t know of the man’s sin, he can’t escape himself.

While the two men of the novel seem more embodied symbols than flesh-and-blood (their names are almost Dickensian), Hester is a much more realized character. Hawthorne grants her an agency the men, stuck within religion and society’s rules, don’t seem to have, …she cast away the fragments of a broken chain. The world’s law was no law for her mind. When Hester could've discarded her badge of shame, she decides not to, wholly owning it in what can be seen as a quiet act of defiance. Hester works for her living as an accomplished seamstress; later, she’s also an unselfish provider of succor to those in need, assuring other suffering women that, at some brighter period, when the world should have grown ripe for it…a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground…showing us how sacred love should make us happy.

Hawthorne also notes the inequality of women, having Hester contemplate the worth of her individual existence, comparing it to the whole race of womanhood. Though a jealous Hawthorne later fumed in a letter to his publisher about the “damned [American] mob of scribbling women” who was selling “their trash” (i.e., their books were selling and his weren’t), his portrayal of women in his novels is arguably much more sympathetic and fuller than those of his men.

What had remained from my first reading was a memory of Hester and her child on the edge of a forest while danger lurked just inside. The scene isn’t exactly how I’d remembered it, but its atmosphere is. For Hawthorne, America’s (and his own) Puritan ancestors have a lot to answer for in sucking the joy out of daily existence.

I read this in high school back in 1999. At that time, I truly hated it. However, now, upon reflection, I think I consider it just okay. I want to make it clear that I'm not knocking Nathaniel Hawthorne at all. In fact, I absolutely loved The House of the Seven Gables and the short story Young Goodman Brown. But when it comes to this particular story, I found it both boring and long.

To be honest, I really had to force myself to read it all the way through. It just didn't capture my interest or engage me in the way that his other works did. It seems that this story is simply not my cup of tea. Maybe others have a different opinion and can find something more valuable or interesting in it, but for me, it just didn't hit the mark.

Nevertheless, I still respect Hawthorne as a great writer and appreciate his contributions to literature. I will continue to explore his other works and see if there are more hidden gems waiting for me to discover.

Published in 1850, "The Scarlet Letter" is one of the most important American novels of the 19th century.

In the author's intentions, it was supposed to represent an analysis of the Puritan spirit of the colonial American era, in which the freedom of the individual coincided with the good of the community, which had to be purified from every foreign element by adapting to the iron rules of a lifestyle marked by an unyielding moral rigor. Those who seriously violated the rules could even incur the death penalty, with the approval of the entire community.

The novel begins with one of these transgressions, set in Boston. It tells the decisions of a woman in love, Hester, who, believing her husband dead, gives in to passion for another man, becomes pregnant, and then has to face the unexpected return of her husband. What complicates everything is also the fact that the woman's lover is the town's reverend, a man of the church, and the protagonist decides to protect him at all costs, saving him from the social scorn that she herself cannot escape.

The novel is rich in symbols, but the most important is represented by the scarlet letter, the "A" for adulteress embroidered on Hester's chest, which initially represents sin, but later becomes the symbol of love and life.

There are many themes that intertwine in this novel: the different conceptions of honor and moral integrity between men and women, the religious aspect, the interference of people unrelated to the facts in the judgment of private events, jealousy and revenge, but especially love in its many nuances. Hester is indeed a woman who loves and pays the consequences of this love with a strength and pride capable of protecting both her daughter and the man she loves. Personal strength thus proves capable of facing public shame, accepting it as necessary despite the injustice and reacting with pride, carrying the letter on her chest as if it were a characteristic of her being and, indeed, almost drawing strength from it.

It is a novel that is always relevant and powerful.

0.5 - 1/5 stars

I "read" this book for my junior American Lit class in high school. It was the very first book that I actually resorted to using SparkNotes for. I was extremely excited about this book initially. When I heard that we were going to read it, I immediately went out and bought it. I was really pumped because I thought it was going to be like the movie "Easy A", but set in the 1800s. I started reading and got through the first 100 pages or so. However, then it just became incredibly boring. It was all around disappointing. In fact, it was also the first book that not a single soul in an entire 25-person class actually read. Thank goodness for SparkNotes, as it saved us from having to struggle through this uninteresting book. We were able to get by with just the summaries and still participate in class discussions. It's a shame that the book didn't live up to my expectations. Maybe if it had been more engaging, I would have actually enjoyed reading it and gained more from the experience.

The Scarlet Letter is often regarded as a classic, but for me, it was a real letdown.

Ughh
I'm typically a big fan of classic literature, but this one just didn't do it for me. The concept behind the story was actually quite interesting. I was eager to explore how the life of an adulterous woman would unfold in the Puritan society of the American colonies. However, the writing style completely killed my enthusiasm. Nathaniel Hawthorne's prose was just not to my taste. Nope.

Regrettably, I found myself bored throughout the entire book. I'm aware that there are significant symbols and themes within the story, but at this moment, I simply can't be bothered to analyze them.

Maybe I'll give it another chance in the future, but for now, The Scarlet Letter remains one of my least favorite classics.

Maybe 2.5 stars if I were just rating this based on how much I actually enjoyed reading it. The 40-page Custom-House introduction was truly a pain to get through, no kidding. There are also many slow parts where Hawthorne gets overly focused on details.

However, it gets 5 stars for the richness of Hawthorne's language, the fascinating symbolism, and the way he explores the human heart. So I'll settle on 4 stars.

The Custom-House part (which is just a framing device; seriously, I'll skip it if I ever read this again) tells of a man who discovers the fateful piece of red cloth: a scarlet A, beautifully embroidered with gold thread, along with a 200-year-old manuscript telling the story of Hester Prynne. This man then retells her story.

In the mid-1600s, Boston is a Puritan settlement, so adultery is a huge scandal. Hester Prynne is led out of jail in front of a crowd, her baby daughter Pearl in her arms, and with the scarlet A on her dress, representing "Adultress."

She is placed on a scaffold and publicly shamed. Her elderly husband has been missing for years, so it's obvious he's not the father of Pearl. But Hester firmly refuses to name the actual father. What she doesn't initially realize is that her long-lost husband is in the crowd, hiding his identity from everyone. Going by the name of Roger Chillingworth (*shivers*), he settles in and patiently waits for his opportunity for revenge.

Boston officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but a young minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, pleads her case. The popular Dimmesdale has his own issues: a mysterious wasting disease and heart trouble. Maybe - just maybe - his problems are mostly psychological? And then (the secretly suspicious) Chillingworth decides to "befriend" Dimmesdale.

The use of a scarlet letter on clothing to publicly brand adulterers is a historical fact, but Hawthorne transforms it into a powerful symbol. I adored this interpretation, as seen in an excellent critical review and analysis in The Atlantic:

We may understand its significance in this case by imagining the book without the scarlet letter. It's not essential to the plot in a practical sense. But the scarlet letter elevates the theme from the material to the spiritual realm. It is the essence and symbol of the entire argument. It turns the prose into poetry. It serves as a means to convey ideas that are otherwise too complex for words, as well as to enhance the gloomy and picturesque moral landscape. It burns on its wearer's breast, it casts a lurid glow along her path, it isolates her from mankind, and at the same time, it is the mysterious talisman that reveals to her the guilt hidden in other hearts.

The entire story - every character, every event, people's appearances, even objects - is filled with symbolism. Light and darkness, sin and secrecy, suffering and redemption, all play a part. It can be a bit - or a lot - challenging to navigate through the old-fashioned language and perspective of The Scarlet Letter, but it truly rewards the reader who is willing to look deeper.