The Scarlet Letter--Erica's Review

Upon picking up The Scarlet Letter, I was thrown into a new world. One very different from the beliefs and customs of the world I live in today, which is expected considering the book was first published in 1850, and the story set in the 1600s. The story takes place in the Puritan town of Boston. In this strict puritan town, any sin, petty or significant, is not tolerated. In this town, everyone is scrutinized and it seems like everyone is forced to live a pious life style. The views of this town play a very important role in the actions and attitudes of each town member including the main characters. For instance, in order to keep his honor and respect of the town’s people, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale hides his sins, which would be shamed by all if he were to expose them. 

The book focuses on the lives of four people living in the town. The first being Hester Prynne, who is being punished for committing adultery with an unknown person, which as a result, gets her pregnant. As her punishment, she is forced to serve jail time, is displayed on the town scaffold with her child for all to ridicule, and must wear a scarlet A upon her bosom as a symbol of her infidelity. She bears a child named Pearl who becomes her one true treasure and a beauty. Another character is Reverend Dimmesdale, who is one of the town’s most respected clergymen but who withholds a sin from the knowledge of the public. The last main character is Roger Chillingworth. He is a physician and Hester’s estranged husband, who came into town just in time to witness his wife stand on the scaffold in all her shame.

The story takes place over the next seven years, in which Hester Prynne loses her natural beauty and continues to bear her penance for all to see, Pearl grows up to become a mischievous and perceptive child, Reverend Dimmesdale finds himself struggling with the guilt of the sin he has performed and has been put under the care of Roger Chillingworth, and Chillingworth becomes so obsessed with revenge, that it’s all he cares for making him seem truly evil. You soon learn that Reverend Dimmesdale is the other adulterer and once Chillingworth learns this, he tortures and toys with the Reverend. Dimmesdale decides to run away with Hester and Pearl to become a family, but their plan of escape falls short when Dimmesdale decides to declare his sin to the town and dies soon after on the scaffold in Hester’s arms with Pearl and Chillingworth around him. Chillingworth dies just a year later and leaves Pearl all his property, allowing her and her mother to finally leave the town. Prynne returns a few years later, still wearing the scarlet A and spent the rest of her life in the town.

Sin, love, revenge, social organization, and human nature are all major attributes found in Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Each one of these parts plays a key role in making the book effective and worth reading. Through Hawthorne’s somewhat complex writing, which becomes easier to understand as you continue reading, the reader explores the dreadful effects of sin especially when living in such a devout town. Each character has their own unique traits, giving the story a more realistic feel and allowing the reader to identify with the characters. Hawthorne was able to intertwine the aforesaid attributes well and allowed me as a reader to become engaged with the text. As the story progressed, I was able to formulate my own opinions about the actions of the characters as well as the attitudes of the town’s people. It is easy to see why this book is timeless, because although the story was set four hundred years ago and our society different from their generally pious nature, many people can recognize the want to fit into society unscathed, protecting the ones you love, and ultimately the struggle of trying to do the right thing.