The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Valentina Vargas

Cleland

30-11-15

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne takes place in Boston in the United States during the early 1600s. It is considered a classic novel, not only because of its age, but because of its timeless themes and innovative statements about American society in the time period. The author starts by introducing the main character Hester Prynne, a young woman who has committed an offense of adultery outside of her marriage, earning a scarlet letter “A” pinned onto her clothing. She is first subjected to the village’s hatred with her newborn baby daughter clutched in her arms. Throughout much of the novel, she refuses to reveal the name of the man that preceded adultery with her. Many questions first arise as there is a lack of information regarding Hester’s past, her crime, and the upbringing of which she came from. Later, we find that her husband appears as Roger Chillingworth who has a thirst for vengeance on his wife. The rest of the novel describes Pearl’s childhood, Hester’s daughter, who carries the mystery of the crime. Hester continues to work in her quiet manner, mothering not only Pearl, by the poor performing all sorts of charity work. Eventually, to escape their current life, Hester and her lover buy tickets to travel to England and live out the rest of their livelihood; however the question is whether Chillingworth will get in the way.

I recommend this book because it is an American classic and shows a lot of the stereotypes we have had and have evolved in our culture. It shows what life was like in a Protestant based community and the beginning of the U.S.’s views on sex out of marriage. Nowadays it has become more acceptable to have multiple relationships, even though it has developed a double-standard between men and women, a man a player and a woman has no self-respect. Regardless of the new social standards, our culture has changed with time. This novel is important though to understand how we have changed and why some of these issues exist in our current society. The Scarlet Letter exemplifies what it meant to have a relationship under different circumstances 400 years ago to today.