The language would have put her off immediately. I love the language within this novel, but it’s definitely more complex reading than what some other classics may contain, and I can’t imagine my daughter, who is also in Year 12, coping with this novel. The dialogue is rather Shakespearean, in keeping with the era in which it’s set. Quite a slog for a school read, if you ask me. It was put back onto my radar by my niece who had to read it for one of her Year 12 English units. I’ve read it before, many years ago, but decided on a re-read as part of my Classics Eight challenge. It was one of the first mass-produced books in America. Originally published in 1850, The Scarlet Letter is a novel of historical fiction set in the puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649. Adapted to numerous plays, films, and operas. The story of Hester Prynne, who bears a scarlet “A” upon her breast as a symbol of her adultery, and that of her pious lover who atones in tormented silence, is one that has captivated readers since its publication in 1850. One can only hope that the European aristocrat that the adult Pearl married lives in a less prudish and judgmental society than that of the Puritans.In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne takes readers back to the puritan days of the American colonies, into a society as unforgiving as its harsh New England winters.

Moreover, he’s a coward for choosing only to admit his role in Hester’s adultery in death, while Hester must endure it for the rest of her life. He should have never committed adultery if he was so dedicated to such humanitarian philosophies. It’s difficult to understand Dimmesdale’s hypocritical motivations to continue preaching to others like he didn’t just sleep with a married woman, even if you bend them to be some sort of vain attempt to influence the community to treat Pearl more humanely. Chillingworth can expose and ruin Dimmesdale’s reputation as soon as he becomes aware of the physical ties between Pearl and Dimmesdale, but he chooses more indirect methods and becomes too focused on revenge to the point that it consumes his identity. Hester Prynne wants a better life for herself and her child, but presumably cheated on her husband while aware of the social consequences.

Every character in “The Scarlet Letter” expresses an incredible number of inconsistencies with regards to what they want. Chillingworth, constantly seeks revenge against her Hester for her infidelity and goes so far as to torment Arthur Dimmesdale, a local minister whom Chillingworth believes to be Pearl’s biological further. Adding to these problems, her estranged husband, Dr. As one might imagine, this makes Hester’s attempts to take care of her child, Pearl, incredibly difficult. what the book is titled after), and to endure the ostracization from of her and her child by society. Ever hear that someone has “Puritanical” standards of modesty or ideals when it comes to sexuality? Well, Hester Prynne, the protagonist of “The Scarlet Letter” lives in an actual Puritan community, forcing her to endure the humiliation of having literal labels (i.e.

Scarlet letter