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marc129 's review for:
The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
This was a tough one. Hawthorne's style is very verbose and bombastic, with frequent archaic words and phrasing. This book really breathes 19th century pathos, with a lot of hyped-up feelings, and chock full of symbolism. The central theme of sin, punishment and redemption of course makes it very heavy-handed, together with an omniscient narrator that constantly debites general wisdom. And then there are the slightly misogynistic and the downright racist statements (especially about the Native Americans). This makes reading this mid-19th Century book very difficult for an early 21st century person.
But at the same time this story is intriguing. Because it deals with themes that still are relevant. The scarlet letter of course is a social stigma, but by making a saint of protagonist Hester, Hawthorne highlights the hypocrisy of American Puritanism all the more. In our 21st Century-eyes that puritanism seems to have a very patriarchal touch, because it is mainly men who do not come out well in this novel. And that in turn makes Hester a feminist avant la lettre, who thinks deeply about the wretched fate of women, and even points to the need for “an internal and external revolution”.
There is also a strong 'gothic' accent to this novel, especially in the ambiguity surrounding Pearl, Hester's angelic and lively child, regularly suggesting that there also is something devilish in her. On closer look, almost all characters carry this ambiguity between good and evil to a greater or lesser extent, in a spectrum that starts with the heroine Hester (who herself admits that she could just as well belong to the party of devil worshipers), over the fallen minister Dimmesdale (whose portrait is a bit too contrived for me) to the demonic Doctor Chillingworth. For me this was all a bit too over the top to be enjoyable, but I can understand why this, especially in America, is still considered a classic. Rating 2.5 stars.
But at the same time this story is intriguing. Because it deals with themes that still are relevant. The scarlet letter of course is a social stigma, but by making a saint of protagonist Hester, Hawthorne highlights the hypocrisy of American Puritanism all the more. In our 21st Century-eyes that puritanism seems to have a very patriarchal touch, because it is mainly men who do not come out well in this novel. And that in turn makes Hester a feminist avant la lettre, who thinks deeply about the wretched fate of women, and even points to the need for “an internal and external revolution”.
There is also a strong 'gothic' accent to this novel, especially in the ambiguity surrounding Pearl, Hester's angelic and lively child, regularly suggesting that there also is something devilish in her. On closer look, almost all characters carry this ambiguity between good and evil to a greater or lesser extent, in a spectrum that starts with the heroine Hester (who herself admits that she could just as well belong to the party of devil worshipers), over the fallen minister Dimmesdale (whose portrait is a bit too contrived for me) to the demonic Doctor Chillingworth. For me this was all a bit too over the top to be enjoyable, but I can understand why this, especially in America, is still considered a classic. Rating 2.5 stars.