The Scarlet Letter: A Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne was an arduous, yet fascinating read. I enjoyed the well-thought out and challenging diction that Hawthorne uses, and I learned quite a few new words including “ignominy,” which means public shame. Hawthorne used this word in some form or another an impressive 27 times throughout the novel. The descriptions are occasionally challenging to decipher such as “Walking in the shadow of a dream, as it were, and perhaps actually under the influence of a species of somnambulism (Hawthorne 2017, pg. 71)…” In the descriptions there was also interesting archaic language such as peradventure, phantasy and chirurgical, with the dialogue holding second-person pronouns like thou, thee and
thy.

I appreciated the characters in The Scarlet Letter, especially Hester Prynne and her daughter, Pearl Prynne. Hester was a strong woman who prevailed through difficult times and was shunned by society while being a single parent. She created her own business, grew her own food and gave anything that was left over to charity. Pearl was a young child whom we watched grow up from a new-born to a three year old and then a seven year old. She was sprite-like, headstrong and mischievous. I liked Hester because she was such a tenacious and persevering character, during a time where women could not be any of these things. Interestingly enough, this was one of the first books presenting a strong female character. I liked Pearl because she was somewhat of a “wild-child” and is smart and observant. The historical allusions, such as the one to Anne Hutchinson and the extensive symbolism were also very interesting to me.

The plot portrays how Puritan Hester Prynne was ostracized after she committed adultery with Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Because her husband was thought to be dead, she was given a (more) mild punishment. She had to wear a scarlet “A”, branding her as being an adulterer for the rest of her life. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth appeared and vowed vengeance on Dimmesdale. While many people think that the “romance” in the title is rather non-existent in the story, the title refers to Romantic literary elements such as light vs. dark, love of nature, and themes of freedom.

One thing I might recommend is to read The Scarlet Letter along with a modern translation, such as Spark Note’s here <ahref="here">sparknotes.com/nofear/lit/scarlet</a>. I did not read the whole book along with the translation, but if there was a confusing passage I found it helped me understand the content better.

I read The Scarlet Letter for my online Honors English Language Arts class. While I am a big reader, I do not think I would have picked this one up to read without my class. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book. It was a difficult read, especially in the long-winded descriptive parts, yet I appreciated the characters and word choices.