The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

One of the categories left in my Back to the Classics Challenge is to reread a classic that you read in school. Since this is also my month to read banned books, I decided to pick a title that fits both themes. I first read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 11th grade. That makes it a full 14 years since I've picked this one up. I remember liking it at the time, since I was a pretty bookish kid, even back then. Did a new look at this old classic change my opinions on it?  Let's find out!

This novel begins with one of the most memorable scenes in literature. A woman is led from a prison cell to stand on a scaffold and face the judgement of the crowd below. In her arms is an infant, and on her chest is embroidered a red letter "A." The woman, we soon learn, is named Hester Prynne, and she has committed the sin of adultery - a crime punishable by law in Puritan Massachusetts. The first part of her sentence is stand on display in front of the crowd for a few hours, branded with the symbol of her sin on her clothing and the evidence of that sin cradled in her arms.

While Hester faces her punishment, members of the community implore her to name the father of her child, so that he can join her in the public shaming. She steadfastly refuses to do so, and suffers her punishment alone. Eventually she is allowed to come down off the scaffold and is released from prison, but the scarlet letter must always remain on her chest, as a reminder to others about the consequences of surrendering to temptations of the flesh.

Much of the novel is introspective, and explores Hester's complex thoughts about her situation. She acknowledges her sin and accepts her punishment, but struggles, at times, to understand exactly why what she did was wrong. She is deeply in love with the father of her child, but knows she is forbidden to interact with him in any way. To do so would reveal his identity and ruin his life the ways hers has been ruined. To add to the trouble, her daughter, Pearl, is an odd child. Wild, capricious, and almost otherworldly, Hester fears that her sin might have affected Pearl's soul.

To make matters even more complicated, Hester's husband, missing for two years and assumed dead, suddenly reappears in the colony. He had been waylaid by Native Americans and held prisoner for years. His captors decide to bring him to Massachusetts to sell him back to his people on the very same day Hester was sentenced to stand on the scaffold. After viewing her shame, he decided to live life under an assumed name, Roger Chillingworth, and vowed to figure out who Pearl's father was so that he could take his revenge.

This is quite a dark little book, and reading it for the second time proved to be quite a different experience. When I was in high school, I had no idea who Hester's lover was. I was reading for the plot, and was pretty shocked when I learned the truth of the situation. This time through, I already knew what was going to happen, so I could focus on other elements of the novel. Hawthorne's writing, I realized, is really quite beautiful. His sentences are substantial and meandering. You need to concentrate to read them, but the rewards for doing so are stunning imagery and deep symbolism. It's obvious why this is a favorite of English teachers - there's layers and layers of technique to analyze. The Scarlet Letter contains some of the most intricate and deep language I have ever read. If you can fall into Hawthorne's rhythm and style, it's quite an experience.  I was much better able to appreciate it this time around, although some passages were still a challenge.

Another aspect that struck me was the strength of Hester's character. For a Puritan woman, she's pretty brave. Much braver, in fact, than the father of her child, who doesn't reveal himself to the colony until the very end of the story. She's branded as a fallen woman by her community and becomes an outcast, but she doesn't run away from her problems and try to start again somewhere else. She sticks it out, provides for herself and Pearl through her embroidery, helps the poor as best she can, and eventually earns a grudging respect from the town. There's even talk among the elders of letting her remove the letter after several years pass by, although she chooses not to. Her thoughts also sound a bit feminist from time to time, when she wonders why her sin of adultery cost her so much. Her love for Pearl's father, she believes, had its own kind of holiness about it. How could that be a sin?

It's easy to see why some religious readers had an issue with this book back when it first was published in 1850. It was banned in some places because people thought that Hawthorne was too kind to Hester - they felt that she should have suffered more, or been more sorry. I really like the fact that there is some ambiguity to her feelings, and that she is still shown to be a good person despite her "sin."

The Scarlet Letter is certainly deserving of its status as one of the great American classics, and I really enjoyed reading it for a second time. It's gloomy, dark, and completely lovely; I appreciated it on a whole other level than I was able to when I was a student in high school. This may not be a favorite of those who enjoy happy endings, but for readers like myself, who like getting into a plot full of sadness and scandal, it's an old-school treat.