While Hester is enduring the stares of her neighbors, she notices a familiar face on the edge of the crowd -- that of Roger Chillingworth, the husband she had left behind in Europe. As soon as Chillingworth understands Hester's situation, he vows to have his revenge against her fellow sinner. Thus begins a seven-year dance between Hester, who wants to protect her child's father, Chillingworth, who will use any means to achieve his evil ends, and Hester's fellow sinner, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who cannot do proper penance for his sin because he is so beloved by the community.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter tells a cliched story. Its plot and themes, though perhaps not used in many stories before Hawthorne's time, have been reused frequently since. And Hawthorne often uses far more words than needed to make his points. Rather than flowing as modern writing can, Hawthorne's writing overflows. Yet it is still a novel very much worth reading.
The Scarlet Letter offers insights into both Hawthorne's time and into the time of the Puritans about whom he is writing. Not only does Hawthorne's lengthy introduction to the novel, "The Custom House," give the reader a glimpse of daily life in 1860s New England, but his literary conventions also make for a fascinating comparison with modern writing. And his own biases come through when he talks about the strictness of the New England Puritans, showing how our attitudes about history are influenced by the time in which we live.
As someone who has never been a fan of the classics, I wasn't expecting to enjoy The Scarlet Letter when I had to read it for English class. But I found that it is actually a wonderful book, not only because it is a timeless story, but also because, written more than a hundred years ago, it reveals as much about Hawthorne's New England as it does about the scarlet letter itself.
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