Review: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Published by Modern Library 2000
Genre: Classics, Historical Fiction

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This is a troubling story of crime, sin, guilt, punishment and expiation, set in the rigid moral climate of 17th-century New England. The young mother of an illegitimate child confronts her Puritan judges. However, it is not so much her harsh sentence, but the cruelties of slowly exposed guilt as her lover is revealed, that hold the reader enthralled all the way to the book's poignant climax.

POSITIVE THOUGHTS

• Okay, so. I did not enjoy this book at all, but I do have to admit Hawthorne's writing style is quite ok, I mean it's good. I think if he didn't write as good as he did, I wouldn't have finished this. So yes, on a positive note: the writing makes up for what is actually written.

NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

• Can I just get this over with: what the actual fuck is wrong with that CHILD?! Throughout the entire book I just went so crazy because of that bloody child. What's her name again? Oh right, Pearl. The thing that I just couldn't get over was that this Pearl is like a three year old child and she asks these deep, meaningful questions as if she's a 69 year old philosopher. Just, no. And the other thing was how in the book they keep saying again and again and again and once more that she is possessed or the devil itself or whatever because she is a product of sin. Now that's all very nice and all, but she is still a child, a 3 year old, so stop making her act like she's so wise and knows stuff she obviously can't know.
• Just the overall message of this book made me so angry. Why does the woman who commits adultery get to go to prison and be frowned upon for the rest of her life, while the man who was part of it wasn't even discovered until he finally crumbled under the weight of his conscience, or whatever. No Hester, listen up girlfriend, when a crime is comitted by two people, two people have to be punished. Especially for a crime like adultery. How can you just blame it all on the woman? I just can't deal with this. 

Have you read The Scarlet Letter? Do you disagree with my hateful feelings?