#17 - The Scarlet Letter

Ignomy. Ignonimoose? Ignoninomy. Ignominy! Hawthorne loved this word more than the Puritans loved public displays of shame. It was used so much that I feel as though the letter should have been a big red "I" instead of the "A"-dultress the book actually refers to. The Scarlet Letter is either one of the best or one of the worst romances ever written, depending on your definition. This is a romance without sex, without humour or happiness or any of the things associated with romcoms today - not even a sassy gay friend! The two go from somber to stricken, and readers are even deprived of and account of or even a not to the act that consummated their forbidden love. In its place is some of the most powerful emotional writing I've seen. The passion, suffering (real suffering, and not angst) and sadness perpetuated through everything from trees to brooks to items of clothing were compelling enough to force you to care for the two of them.

The Scarlet Letter begins with a short story-cum-introduction, The Custom House. As well as introducing us to the story of Hester Prynne, it gives the reader a taste of Hawthorne's desciptivist style. The story consists of multipage sketches of each of his coworkers and the buildings they inhabit. But read collectively, it explains his view about how true artists cannot work in mundane surroundings - a distinctly author-to-author story. These sketches were so unflattering that the city of Salem demanded Hawthorne retract the story of his hometown. He refused. Scarlet Letter might be on minds recently because of a LOOSE adaptation, Easy A. The reason that they could take so many liberties in modernizing the plot is because the book works on two levels. First there is the Puritanical religious element, with God putting out signs and Hell and sin weighing on everyone's minds. But there is also the social element, with the public's rebukes and varied reactions often being more chilling than the religious fire and brimstone. The double standards in terms of treatment of women, the use of shame as the greatest punishment all still ring true today - especially in our high schools. Finally on an unconnected note, Pearl, the daughter of sin. is one of the coolest child characters ever.

This, as well as the next four books, were all read over the last two weeks of July whilst I was at Red Pine Camp. Collectively, they were a very interesting spread of American writing, going from the Puritans to the Beats. Out of the five, however, Scarlet landed at the bottom for me, scoring a:

6/10