Book Review: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter is one of those stories that has entered the culture so deeply that people are aware of it without knowing the details (or even having read the work), much like George Orwell's 1984 or Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Maybe you had to read it in high school or college where it was more of a chore to get done than a work of art to appreciate. I never read it in school and have let it sit on the shelf until now, with a commentary by the good folks at A Good Story is Hard to Find inspiring me to read it after all this time.

The familiar story is that Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" (for "Adultery") because she has had a child out of wedlock in 1600's Puritanical Massachusetts Bay Colony. That's about all that popular culture will tell you. The story is so much deeper and fuller than that. The story begins, not with a torrid affair or the crime of passion, but with Hester and her newborn child taken out of jail to the town's pillory where she is made to stand for several hours while the public jeers. She's left alone because the father has not been identified--not by Hester nor by his own admission. Her public penance doesn't end as she is forced to wear a highly embroidered "A" on her chest.

Surprisingly, she is the one who crafted the "A" since she is a highly talented seamstress. She accepts the symbol of her sin willingly and lives a lonely and penitential life. She works creating garment for the rich and the poor in the colony as a way to support herself and her child. People still scorn her even if they don't scorn her work. Hester also provides help to the poor and needy, transforming her reputation somewhat among the colonists. Some even think of the "A" as representing "Able" or "Angel."

Hester adorns her child Pearl, the other symbol of her sin, in beautiful clothes while Hester wears plain grey garments. The child is wild and imaginative, often flitting around like a bird and speaking her mind. She has no friends as the other colonial children point and stare or make fun of her. Pearl is not meek and humble like her mother. She fights back. Hester tries to rein her daughter in with moderate success. She teachers her as best she can and accepts the difficulty as part of her redemption.

Hester's other difficulty is the secret arrival of her husband from England, just in time to see her standing with the child on public display. The husband assumes the identity of Roger Chillingworth. He becomes a doctor for the colonists and a prick for Hester's conscience. He promises to ferret out who the father is and get vengeance. He does not seek legal redress but opts for the slow burn of ongoing torment by befriending the father and "helping" him. Chillingworth is clearly and deliberately evil; his sin is a crime of reason. He has no sense of repentance, only malevolence.

If you haven't read the story, you should. It draws a fascinating portrait of Hester and the way she works through her redemption under terrible conditions. She's a lot more than a woman forced to wear a token of her sin. The other characters are fascinating and the text is rich with imagery and honesty.

A word of warning. the introduction (called "The Custom House") describes Hawthorne's discovery of the story moldering in a forgotten corner of the Boston tax office while he was working there. It sets up some of the themes but goes on for 38 pages. I was a bit bored by it (and almost stopped reading the book!), so you might want to do some skimming.

Highly recommended.

Also, check out the much more thorough commentary at A Good Story is Hard to Find.