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3.19 AVERAGE
3.19 AVERAGE
Obviously dated views but interesting from historical perspective. Hester is a strong sympathetic character. I don't think there's another in the book. Gets bogged down with descriptive prose, some amusing, some not. For an amusing example, regarding the evil Chillingworth:
"Would not the earth, quickened to an evil purpose by hitherto unknown, that would start up under his fingers? Or might it something deleterious and malignant at his touch? Did the sun, which shone so brightly everywhere else, really fall upon him? Or was there, as it rather seemed, a circle of ominous shadow moving along with his deformity, whichever way he turned himself? And whither was he now going? Would he not suddenly sink into the earth, leaving a barren and blasted spot, where, in due course of time, would be seen deadly nightshade, dogwood, henbane, and whatever else of vegetable wickedness the climate could produce, all flourishing with hideous luxuriance? Or would he spread bat's wings and flee away, looking so much the uglier, the higher he rose toward heaven."
The dramatic death is about as realistic as witches.
One question - why does Hester tell Dimmesdale "That old man! - the physician! - he whom they call Roger Chillingsworth! - he was my husband!" He is STILL her husband at that moment, is he not?
"Would not the earth, quickened to an evil purpose by hitherto unknown, that would start up under his fingers? Or might it something deleterious and malignant at his touch? Did the sun, which shone so brightly everywhere else, really fall upon him? Or was there, as it rather seemed, a circle of ominous shadow moving along with his deformity, whichever way he turned himself? And whither was he now going? Would he not suddenly sink into the earth, leaving a barren and blasted spot, where, in due course of time, would be seen deadly nightshade, dogwood, henbane, and whatever else of vegetable wickedness the climate could produce, all flourishing with hideous luxuriance? Or would he spread bat's wings and flee away, looking so much the uglier, the higher he rose toward heaven."
The dramatic death is about as realistic as witches.
One question - why does Hester tell Dimmesdale "That old man! - the physician! - he whom they call Roger Chillingsworth! - he was my husband!" He is STILL her husband at that moment, is he not?
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Even though the flowery language still remains hard to read, it was easy to remember why I enjoyed this book so much in school. Many years later, the same remains true.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Annoying men in this book
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Though I’d reread [b:The House of the Seven Gables|90192|The House of the Seven Gables|Nathaniel Hawthorne|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348244293s/90192.jpg|1483780] not too long ago, I wasn’t planning on rereading this Hawthorne. But, then I read [b:I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem|89526|I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem|Maryse Condé|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1223646894s/89526.jpg|86405] with its powerful, intriguing scene reimagining Hester, along with an author interview in which [a:Maryse Condé|93912|Maryse Condé|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1220159791p2/93912.jpg] says she rereads [b:The Scarlet Letter|12296|The Scarlet Letter|Nathaniel Hawthorne|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1404810944s/12296.jpg|4925227] quite often. Almost immediately after that, I came across this in [a:Louisa May Alcott|1315|Louisa May Alcott|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1200326665p2/1315.jpg]’s [b:Moods|17550|Moods|Louisa May Alcott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390107366s/17550.jpg|19105]: 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. Though the prose is dense for high-schoolers, it is short and full of things to talk about, including the recurring Hawthornian theme of guilt. Because 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 first read this in high school as an assigned text. Though the prose is dense for high-schoolers, it is short and full of things to talk about, including the recurring Hawthornian theme of guilt. Because 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.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated