The Scarlet Letter

I may be dooming myself to Literary Hell here, but this is quite possibly the only book I've ever hated. I've disliked quite a few, certainly, but this is the only one that evokes pure, utter hatred. What did I miss? Was I too jaded by the fact that I had to read this during the last semester of my senior year, when it seemed as though all of my teachers were trying to cram as many bits of wisdom as possible into my head before sending me off into the world?

I have a theory that schools teach books like this with the intent to scare 16, 17, 18 year olds away from books that make you consider the validity of the world one lives in and whether that world is the one one should live in. The point of course is to bore the students silly with the "Classics" that they'll never pick up another one, thus ensuring they will be pedestrian and more easily controlled in later life, what with no experience, directly or indirectly, in other ways of living, or in asking basic questions about human life and society.

Hawthorne had an interest in the mysogynistic world he lived in. It's been a while since I read The Scarlet Letter, but what I remember him discussing is the relationship between men and women, the facts of its inequality and how the framework of 19th century male-female relationships worked against women and preserved the male position in the society. (Yes, I know these people were all "Pilgrims", but trust me, he's talking about his times, as well.)

Put this novel away for twenty years, then come back to it and see if you've caught up to it, yet.

If the point is teaching language and writing instead of the transmission of knowledge through art, any Hemingway, or Sci-Fi, or other page turner genre read will accomplish this much better than a classic.

I moderately enjoyed this book the first time I read it. When I went back to it (of my own choice for independent study in a class in college) I was blown away by it. Hawthorne is a very precise and lyrical writer. His tangents and insight into Hester Prynne's thoughts were just amazing. I agree with geneg that this may be a book to set aside until you are ready for it.

One thing that may make the book more interesting is to know that Hawthorne's heritage was Puritan. He condemns their judgmental attitudes (thereby judging them himself!) but it's not so clear-cut as that; they are human as well. He admires their strength of mind and willpower. You get the feeling that he can't just dismiss them as prudes — and I don't think he was really able to resolve his own feelings toward them in the story.

Hawthorne described the book as a romance — not a romantic story per se, but like viewing a room normally seen during the sunlit hours on a dark moonlit night. Familiar things seem shaped differently by the play of moonlight and shadow. This is a terrible paraphrase of what he wrote about it, but I love this metaphor and it added to my enjoyment of the book.

I hope you are able to enjoy the book eventually. It's worth it, even if just for the writing.

I never read The Scarlet Letter until I was in college, and I was very lucky because I had a wonderful American literature teacher who took the time to really concentrate on the book and its characters. I absolutely fell in love with the book and after reading it for the first time, immediately turned around and read it again.

I am with wisewoman (#3) and hope that you can enjoy the book eventually, but I certainly can understand if you do not. I feel the same way about some of the so-called classics. And let's face it, not every book is for every body.

Truthfully, I see a lot of similarities between then and now. One could take the mores of any time and bring to mind that old axiom "No matter how things change, they stay the same."

I think it would behove me to try reading this book again-it was assigned in highschool by the same vile teacher who turned me off of almost all American lit and her shrill voice is finally getting out of my head (it's only taken a decade LOL). However, when we had the test on this in highschool, I only read the first chapter and made the highest score in my class. Go figure.

I had to read The Scarlet Letter for my junior year of high school, and I think it was the only book I was utterly unable to get through. Not that I actively disliked it, but I wasn't able to get very far into it without falling asleep. I even tried reading it with Metallica blasting on my stereo system. Even that was unable to keep me awake.

I am planning to tackle another of Hawthorne´s works The House of the Seven Gables later this year. (Hopefully, I will have more luck staying awake this time.) Another thing worth mentioning about Hawthorne (or at least I found it interesting) was that he actually had an ancestor who persecuted Quakers and another who was a judge at the Salem witch trials. I think his emphasis on the hypocrisies of Puritan morality aren't just about the politics of his time but also dig back into questioning the premises America was founded on.

Of course, nothing makes a book boring to me like someone explaining why it's important, so I hope the above doesn't turn you off to it. (I'm agnostic on Hawthorne at the moment, since I'm mostly just hoping I can get through House of the Seven Gables without relying on prescription stimulants.)

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful responses! In reading through them, I've decided to give this book another shot. I think my dislike came from the way my history teacher presented this book: he basically hammered "Adultery is bad, mmkay?" into our skulls while ignoring any deeper themes. geneg, you pretty much hit the nail on the head here:

The point of course is to bore the students silly with the "Classics" that they'll never pick up another one, thus ensuring they will be pedestrian and more easily controlled in later life, what with no experience, directly or indirectly, in other ways of living, or in asking basic questions about human life and society.

That was basically my entire senior year. I'm looking forward to re-reading The Scarlet Letter with a fresh pair of eyes, and more importantly, a much more open and mature mind.

I think it is a mistake to read this book straight up. One of Hawthorne's ancestors was a judge during the Salem Witch hysteria and the suffering he caused affected the author deeply. Read Young Goodman Brown first to set the right tone, then try the Scarlet Letter.

The last time I read the book I had the sense that the adultery, itself, was not all that awful: peoples' reactions were. (Hawthorne is not kind to piety, hypocrisy, or arrogance in his other works.) If you don't find the minister's denunciation of Hester a festival of dark ironies, then you're reading the book with the wrong mental tone.

Don't expect Pearl to come across a real child: you'll be disappointed.

I've also spent years wondering if the book is really about Chillingworth and the minister: read Hawthorne's ending comments about love and hate.

I liked it. It was very subtle, but I just loved the story, it was so Springer, and yet the woman who everyone hated was actually such a good person despite her mistake. I thought Hester was such a moving character. I found this was a book more about an interesting story and lessons than action and excitement. And I'm not a reader of fiction, especially fiction with dated language.