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jgn's review
5.0
I first read the Scarlet Letter perhaps 40 years ago, then again in grad school. It's been a long time. I read it because it was assigned to my daughter who's 14.
For a 14-year-old . . . I'm kind of amazed that she stuck with it. In true 19th-century style, Hawthorne agonizes over everything. For me . . . well: I am not sure I could have possibly grasped the severe probing of hypocrisy enacted in this book.
"Persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society."
For a 14-year-old . . . I'm kind of amazed that she stuck with it. In true 19th-century style, Hawthorne agonizes over everything. For me . . . well: I am not sure I could have possibly grasped the severe probing of hypocrisy enacted in this book.
"Persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society."
manxomemia's review
3.0
I did not find The Scarlet Letter very accessible to me, and I think most of that is to do with the language; it is incredibly poetic and flowery, but coupled with the "thees", "thous", etc. that were popular in literature of the time (if not actually real-life conversation), I found that I had to read many sentences a few times to understand them. Though a few parts gripped me, generally I was fairly disengaged, though the book is really more of a novella, so this wasn't too much of a problem for me. I think if you can understand and appreciate the writing of this book, you will really like it. Over all, it was a little too flowery for my taste.
krystalsalenski's review
4.0
I have so many emotions. The ending is frustrating for the romantic in me, but wonderful for the AP literature student in me.
spellbindingstories's review
3.0
Not my favorite classical novel but still very clear as to why it is considered a classic!
amythebookbat's review
3.0
This one is on the 1001 books you must read before you die list. I was supposed to read this back in high school, but didn't. It was an interesting enough story, a glimpse into the times of the Puritans.
themarkofareader's review
2.0
I understand this is supposed to be a classic, but I could not get into this. I had to read The Scarlet Letter for school, and being honest, I read litcharts for over half the book. The plot didn't interest me, and the characters didn't feel relatable and someone I could attach to. The language was very strong and seemed too descriptive to dive into the book. I might possibly reread this when I'm older, but for now I can settle with not liking this book.
missleiton's review
5.0
Estoy muy indignada, pero me encantó. Tengo el examen de aquí a unas horas. Rezad por mi alma.
jeeleongkoh's review
2.0
Of Fatality
To be perfectly honest, I would not have stuck with The Scarlet Letter if it is not reckoned generally to be an American classic. The action is reduced to sketches (typical chapter titles are "The Prison-Door," "The Interior of a Heart," and "Hester and the Physician"), the characters are predictable and unsympathetic, the psychology of hidden guilt is coarsened into symbolism. As for the style, the attendant on the my flight into London hit it on the head, Hawthorne takes fifty words to say what can be said in ten.
Take for an instance, the narrator in the tedious introductory sketch "The Custom-House" says:
It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.
The age was more tolerant of rotundity in style, but "It contributes greatly towards" is not great style in any age, nor is the letter-to-the-editor cliche "a man's moral and intellectual health." The sentence wavers from the man to his unlikely companions, and back to him; it lacks direction.
Hawthorne also loves to swell his sentences with parenthetical clauses. When he explains why Hester Prynne does not leave Salem, the parenthetical clauses get in the way, instead of performing little hops of insight:
It may seem marvellous that, with the world before her--kept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan settlement, so remote and so obscure--free to return to her birthplace or any other European land, and there hide her character and identity under a new exterior, as completely as if emerging into another state of being--and having also the passes of the dark, inscrutable forest open to her, where the wildness of her nature might assimilate itself with a people whose customs and life were alien from the law that had condemned her--it may seem marvellous that this woman should still call that place her home, where, and where only, she must needs to be the type of shame.
The three parenthetical clauses (between the repetition of "It may seem marvellous") are syntactically equivalent but are not equal ideas. The first ("kept by no . . . Puritan settlement") is a condition of her liberty, the second and third ("free to return to her birthplace . . ." and "having also . . . the forest open to her") are that liberty's possible destinations. The syntax hides that relationship between the three places (Puritan settlement, Europe, and forest), instead of clarifying or amplifying it.
The narrator continues:
But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the colour to their lifetime; and still more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it.
Fatality is "a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom," and so the appositive phrase adds very little to the idea of fatality. Consider the difference if the two were switched: "But there is a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, a fatality . . . ." The single word "fatality" would then not only concentrate the idea before it, but also give it the force of a recognition. Also, the qualifier "almost" in the passage quite spoils the effect of inevitability; what to make of a fatality that is almost invariable? And what is "still more" irresistible than irresistible? or more like a ghost than to haunt?
To be perfectly honest, I would not have stuck with The Scarlet Letter if it is not reckoned generally to be an American classic. The action is reduced to sketches (typical chapter titles are "The Prison-Door," "The Interior of a Heart," and "Hester and the Physician"), the characters are predictable and unsympathetic, the psychology of hidden guilt is coarsened into symbolism. As for the style, the attendant on the my flight into London hit it on the head, Hawthorne takes fifty words to say what can be said in ten.
Take for an instance, the narrator in the tedious introductory sketch "The Custom-House" says:
It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.
The age was more tolerant of rotundity in style, but "It contributes greatly towards" is not great style in any age, nor is the letter-to-the-editor cliche "a man's moral and intellectual health." The sentence wavers from the man to his unlikely companions, and back to him; it lacks direction.
Hawthorne also loves to swell his sentences with parenthetical clauses. When he explains why Hester Prynne does not leave Salem, the parenthetical clauses get in the way, instead of performing little hops of insight:
It may seem marvellous that, with the world before her--kept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan settlement, so remote and so obscure--free to return to her birthplace or any other European land, and there hide her character and identity under a new exterior, as completely as if emerging into another state of being--and having also the passes of the dark, inscrutable forest open to her, where the wildness of her nature might assimilate itself with a people whose customs and life were alien from the law that had condemned her--it may seem marvellous that this woman should still call that place her home, where, and where only, she must needs to be the type of shame.
The three parenthetical clauses (between the repetition of "It may seem marvellous") are syntactically equivalent but are not equal ideas. The first ("kept by no . . . Puritan settlement") is a condition of her liberty, the second and third ("free to return to her birthplace . . ." and "having also . . . the forest open to her") are that liberty's possible destinations. The syntax hides that relationship between the three places (Puritan settlement, Europe, and forest), instead of clarifying or amplifying it.
The narrator continues:
But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the colour to their lifetime; and still more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it.
Fatality is "a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom," and so the appositive phrase adds very little to the idea of fatality. Consider the difference if the two were switched: "But there is a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, a fatality . . . ." The single word "fatality" would then not only concentrate the idea before it, but also give it the force of a recognition. Also, the qualifier "almost" in the passage quite spoils the effect of inevitability; what to make of a fatality that is almost invariable? And what is "still more" irresistible than irresistible? or more like a ghost than to haunt?
theinstantreader's review
3.0
Definitely a classic and one that should be read if not fully experienced.
foreverreading's review
2.0
Even though this is one of my least favorite school assigned books, it still had a good message.