Nathaniel Hawthorne

 Book Review: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

To be quite frank, I am not sure why I keep forcing myself to read these books on the "Top100" or "GoodReads Essentials" lists. The first half of Hawthorne's masterpiece novel was like swimming out of quicksand while dragging an obese elephant. It was the writing style. Once I got use to the semantics and language of 200 year old English, I was finally able to appreciate the book, and I understand why its top 100 lol.

In summary, the story takes place in a New England Puritan town, and the main character Hester is condemned by the town to wear the scarlet letter 'A' for the rest of her life (A for adultery). She and her daughter Pearl survived the ridicule and ostracization of the town, but eventually, the townsfolk grew to respect her because in truth, she was a good person who made a single mistake. On the latter, the father of the child never revealed his identity - he was also one of the town's ministers (OOF). The guilt ate at his heart for the next 7 yrs... young boy was declining in health and no one knew why. To make things even juicier, the doctor (Chillingsworth) that mysteriously arrived from out of town was suppose to be Hester's husband (YIKERS). Young boy finally found happiness after admitting his faults at the moment of his death - fatality induced by chronic stress. The end.

Hawthorne very clearly sends the message of own up to your mistakes. Guilt is a terrible thing. There was another message though, and it was that vengeance can be worse than the original offence. We originally root for Chillingsworth in the beginning because he has been wronged, but eventually, we see the darkness that is revenge. (I caught myself and was confused lol, like why am I rooting for these goons... they deserve it right?) Wrong. With character development, we see that Hester and minister were changed people who were truly sorry for their actions. They were good people who stumbled and they sought to make up for it. I mean Chillingsworth's life was hijacked, but he could have fixed it if he tried (but he woke up and chose violence instead). Bruh idk... but if you read it again, trust me, aint nobody ever rooting for Chillingsworth. Fk that guy.

Gonna read something fun like Tolkien next haha