Book Review 1

I am such a geek. I read all of the time, but I wanted to read something that I loved for this book review. I re-read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is a wonderful story. I’m sure you’ve either read or heard of it, but the assignment says to give a summary, so I’ll go ahead and tell you about it. The book is about a woman whose husband has not been seen for a long time. Her name is Hester. She becomes pregnant and refuses to tell anyone who the father is. She is required to wear a scarlet letter A on the bodice of her dress. People are mean to her. Conversely, the secret father of her child, a man of the cloth, does not openly declare himself as the father of the child, Pearl. Instead, he punishes himself by hurting his body. Although that is never said outright, it is the implication for the welts on his skin. The book raises the question of who suffers more. It would seem that Hester does, because she is openly shunned. But she makes beautiful needlework, and is very much in demand for her skill. She openly wears the letter A that she stitched herself and made ornamental in design. On the other hand, Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister, suffers in silence. No one else knows of his sin, but his silent carrying of the sin is tormenting him. Another fascinating aspect of the book is the townspeople’s reaction to the situation. They are very two-faced: condemning the woman, but acting no better in other areas themselves. Hester’s husband appears in the beginning of the book. He doesn’t openly acknowledge his wife, but ferrets out who the father of her child is and works to torment him. Most people ignore Pearl, the little girl in the book, but I think she is the most interesting of all of the characters. She lives with the other children tormenting her; she lives with the attitudes of the adults toward her; She becomes a strong character, and I think, a good person. Every time I read this story, I find something new that I missed and something else to think about. I love The Scarlet Letter, and would recommend it to anyone to read. As a side note, Rapuccini’s Daughter is also a wonderful story, although I have not read it in a long time.