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spaceisavacuum 's review for:
The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-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
I took my time with this book for my second reading of it, and I even watched an old PBS miniseries from 1979 that told the story and told it well, though I am sure there are more up-to-date adaptations of this book, but this one I watched was very true to the source material, even though it was about ~4 hours long. ð
Someone asked me why I read only old books, and I said for the same reason I only like old movies... 'And that reason is?' and that is because I have always felt like an anachronism here. ðŠĪ
"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."
This is ultimately a story of revenge, Mano a Mano, a jealous cuckolded witch doctor and his nefarious ploy to poison the Minister of his heart and mind. So that, Hester Prynne, the heroine of the novel, will not reveal the name of her child's paternal father, while by insinuating the only father she has is the heavenly paternoster... Hester wears a patchwork gilt of the letter A, which could mean Abaddon for all we know, but only Hawthorne keeps the truth of its significance from us. Arthur Dimmesdale on a feckless night wanders to the scaffold where the town exacts judicious punishment once upon Hester, when she tells him the truth of his doctor, the cretinous ð§ Roger Chillingworth, concocts the perfect revenge in the guise of a concerned friend.
"Here, there was the taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life, working such effect, that the world was only the darker for this woman's beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne."
Essentially it's a good story about the duplicity of men upon women's reproduction rites. But Hester is a victim, Arthur is not wholly innocent, either are stained with ruin, and the facilitator of their bane was a jealous pot-bellied Rump-arsed goblin who designed upon them the deed of ill-portent, and like a snake, bit its own tail- what object he sought-(have you ever wondered?) Was this efficacy of animadversion turned on himself. ðŠ
"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."
This is ultimately a story of revenge, Mano a Mano, a jealous cuckolded witch doctor and his nefarious ploy to poison the Minister of his heart and mind. So that, Hester Prynne, the heroine of the novel, will not reveal the name of her child's paternal father, while by insinuating the only father she has is the heavenly paternoster... Hester wears a patchwork gilt of the letter A, which could mean Abaddon for all we know, but only Hawthorne keeps the truth of its significance from us. Arthur Dimmesdale on a feckless night wanders to the scaffold where the town exacts judicious punishment once upon Hester, when she tells him the truth of his doctor, the cretinous ð§ Roger Chillingworth, concocts the perfect revenge in the guise of a concerned friend.
"Here, there was the taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life, working such effect, that the world was only the darker for this woman's beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne."
Essentially it's a good story about the duplicity of men upon women's reproduction rites. But Hester is a victim, Arthur is not wholly innocent, either are stained with ruin, and the facilitator of their bane was a jealous pot-bellied Rump-arsed goblin who designed upon them the deed of ill-portent, and like a snake, bit its own tail- what object he sought-(have you ever wondered?) Was this efficacy of animadversion turned on himself. ðŠ