The Scarlet Letter

  Kenny Rebecca's first attempt at reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter' was when she was fifteen years old and on holiday in France. However, after only reading a few pages, she put it down because it bored her. Three years later, Kenny Rebecca is eighteen and will hopefully be starting university in October. She finds her old copy of The Scarlet Letter in the dark abyss that is her bedroom whilst tidying up and she decides to try reading it again as she is now more mature and a legal adult. Will she like it, or will it nearly bore her to tears like it did last time? Read on to find out!

   I am sad to say that Kenny Rebecca didn't really enjoy The Scarlet Letter after giving it a second chance and I need to stop referring to myself in the third person. The Scarlet Letter was written by Hawthorne in 1850 and it is set in 17th century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649. It is the story of a young woman named Hester Prynne, who begets a child through an adulterous affair and is shamed and forced to wear a scarlet 'A' (for adultery) for the rest of her life as a punishment, as well as being ostracized from the town. The idea of a red 'A' might sound familiar to you because the 2010 film, 'Easy A', which stars the very talented Emma Stone, was a loose adaptation of the novel, with the plot being reversed in a way. I enjoyed this film a lot and I was initially quite excited to read The Scarlet Letter as it is kind of the film's source material. Let me explain exactly why I didn't dig the book.

  In my opinion, Hawthorne waffles a lot. And I mean a lot. I personally think that some of his long descriptions with the olden day style language were unnecessary as they didn't particularly advance the plot. In fact, I found myself skipping a few of them and sighing with relief whenever he'd finally start with some dialogue. Secondly, I feel that Hawthorne could have built up the reveal of the man that Hester committed adultery with more and he could have made more of a mystery of it. I also didn't like how Hester's wronged husband, Roger Chillingworth, was portrayed as the villain throughout the novel as he tried to find out who the second guilty party was. Now, I'm not going to ruin the surprise of who the guilty man is. However, it annoyed me how it is not properly explained how the affair between them came about and I didn't believe that he loved Hester as he lets he suffer alone and in shame with their child, Pearl (a VERY irritating character, even for a child), for seven years, before finally confessing. If that's love, I definitely don't want it.

  Despite all my dissin', I'll admit that there are good parts to the novel. In America, it is one of the most studied novels in high school and this is evident in the way that there is a lot to analyse in it. For example, from a feminist reading, the patriarchal society is really evident as only the woman, Hester, is made to suffer even though both the man and woman committed the act. A major theme in the novel is sin and this is emphasized by the fact that Prynne rhymes with it. Another name that you can analyse is Roger Chillingworth's as he is a very 'chilling' character with ulterior motives. In addition, in the book, Hawthorne raises many questions such as whether religious leaders can be flawed and if this should prevent us from putting them on such high pedestals, a notion that was quite controversial when the book was published. Also, one big question that haunts me is whether one big sin can ruin your life and hope of heaven and if this sin can be undone by many good acts for the rest of your life. Adultery is a big sin to me and I found it hard to deal with how this was glossed over sometimes, with Hester being depicted as a saint. However as the Bible says, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone (John 8:7)'.

  I may have just committed 'book blasphemy' by bashing a literary classic like The Scarlet Letter but I guess I can't help my opinions. I hear the film version starring Demi Moore and Gary Oldman is atrocious though...

Rating 3/5 ***

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scarlet-Wordsworth-Classics-Nathaniel-Hawthorne/dp/1853260290