Rating: 
Summary: Slow, Overwritten Drama
Review: It started with a great plot...until he actually wrote it. It was overwritten (it takes pages before something happens) and the protagonists were hard to like. Boring, sappy novel written as if he trying to imitate Victorian prose. There are a couple twists, but the main characters are such morons, it underscores the little action that does happen.
Rating: 
Summary: Hester was a better man than Arthur any day.
Review: Since the 1970s I have probably read this book at least three times. It is a powerful book about sin and redemption, guilt and pardon, and revenged and forgiveness. I will let other reviewers deal with the great literary themes presented within this novel, but for this review, I want to look at Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester's lover and the father of Pearl. As an evangelical pastor, the character of Dimmesdale has always intrigued me. I can understand how godly men fail. I can understand how godly men can fall into sexual sin. Just because a man is called of God does not mean that he cannot fall for temptation, especially sexual temptation, became sexual temptation is common to all men. A quick survey of biblical heros makes this point clear. For instance, David, who is described as a man after God's own heart, certainly did not behave himself sexually. Aside from his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, David also, in addition to taking many wives, took to himself concubines for his sexual pleasure. One can argue all he wants about the cultural acceptability of such practices, but the fact remains that most Hebrew contemporaries of David did not take concubines, and although the Law of Moses does not directly address the concubine issue, the plan of God clearly states that God desires one man married to one woman for one life time. Back to Rev. Dimmesdale. Ok, the guy made a mistake. Two lonely young people fell in love and in the passion of the movement conceived a child. Sin happens. Even the godliest man can fail. The problem is not that he failed, but that Dimmesdale proved to be such a wimp about his failing. He allowed Hester (who was a better man than Dimmesdale) to bear the shame alone while neglecting his responsibility to his daughter Peal. Lets face it; this guy was a wimp, not a man. Why did he not accept responsibility for his actions and take care of Hester and Pearl? Instead, he sets on a course of self-destructive behavior that, in the end, leads to his death and abandonment of any responsibility to those whom he loved. Dimmesdale, get a life. Be a man. Quit whining and accept responsibility for your behavior- that is what a truly godly man does. Hester was a better man than Arthur any day.
Rating: 
Summary: the letter
Review: I thought that the book was good as far as the issues in the book, but as far as me reading it for my own pleasure, I can't say that I would. I did enjoy the discussions that could arise from this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Of Puritans
Review: This is a very interesting book. I started reading it in my 4th period English class. I think it is a good book because somehow it relates to what people do, when they feel superior to other people. I think you should read this book, because it is very interesting. Plus, it was written by the great Nathaniel Hawhthorne!
Rating: 
Summary: Scarlet Letter
Review: Some people immediately dismiss the worth of this book by criticizing its seemingly cliché plot, centered around adultery and the guilt which follows. I say, Hawthorne's novel is not revolutionary or amazing in its subject, setting, or even characters, but rather in the way in which it unfolds. The story delves remarkably into the souls of several individuals in a New England Puritan town, gradually and ephemerally casting beams of soft light on new aspects of everyones personalities and struggles. Each character is masterfully and magically revealed, and the tale strives for intimacy and understanding of each point of view in a complex circle of deceit and secrecy. I think everyone who appreciates detailed and beautiful analysis of character, sentiment, thought, and human nature will enjoy it, but may not be ideal for those seeking constant action.
Rating:
Summary: About the Scarlet Letter
Review: The Scarlet Letter Set in Boston in the 1640s, The Scarlet Letter is the story of three people who suffer for their wrongs and a strict Puritan community which enforces obedience. The author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, writes the story of Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Author Dimmsdale who each commit wrong and suffer for it.
The Scarlet Letter begins before the door of a jail on a gloomy day in Puritan New England. Hester Prynne, a woman who has committed adultery, is being led out to public view on the town scaffold. According to Puritan law, Hester should have been burned on that scaffold for her wrongdoing, but the townsmen have been merciful to let her live. However, she must always wear a scarlet letter A, made of her own needlework, as a symbol for adultery unless she tells who her partner was. She refuses to divulge this information and is dispatched to live awall the town in a cottage in the nearby woods. There she keeps herself busy working as a seamstress and raising her daughter, Pearl. During the same day that Hester was viewed on the scaffold, a physician named Roger Chillingworth appears in the town. The townsfolk immediately think him to be a blessing, for their well-loved minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, seemed to be growing weak, and a well-learnt physician was what they thought he needed. Unknown to all the townsmen, Chillingworth was Hester's rightful husband. When he sees her on the scaffold for committing adultery he vows to revenge her partner. This kind of revenge reduces him to a kind of demonic work which he begins on the minister once he becomes his live-in physician. The minister seems to be suffering from something more than physical infirmity. Hester Prynne begins to feel bad about her own quietitude and tells Dimmesdale who Chillingworth really is.
I think that this a good book for anyone interested in reading an exciting story that has a moral lesson too. It contains some particular information about Puritan Boston although it is not an in-depth study on this matter. Nathaniel Hawthorne also wrote The House of the Seven Gables, a novel that takes place in the Regional New England era. It is also a good book and contains a moral lesson.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Miss the Classics
Review: My personal rating system is simple.
* = Stay away from this junk!
*** = I did not like the book.
**** = I did like the book.
***** = Years later the book is still etched in my mind and elicits an emotion or life change. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne rates a *****
Rating:
Summary: Absolute Waste of Time
Review: My 11th grade English teacher tortured me with this morbid book and I can't say if I'll ever forgive her. Not only was this this book boring but Hawthorne unnecesary uses all sorts of complex language to convey one simple thought. The only reason that I didn't give this book 1 star was because there was some art in the book and symbolism. WAY OVERRATED.
Rating:
Summary: Dark tale
Review: I was introduced to Hawthorne rather late in life, having shunned the classics and literature during my high-school and college years as impractical and not relevant. Now almost twenty years removed high-school, I recently started reading some classics, on my own terms, to find out what I had missed. The Scarlett Letter, on its face, is about the impact that an adulterous liason has on Hester Prynne and the small Puritan community she resides. Hester, as punishment for breaking the moral code of the era, is sentenced to wear the scarlett letter A - signifying her as an adulteress. Hawthorne, through this short tale ,seems also to be making a statement about the self-righteous hypocrisy of the Puritans. While Hester is portrayed as the scourge of the community for having been caught in a moral lapse, the scarlett letter seems to endow her with the power to see the hidden transgressions of her accusers: "She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing that it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts. She was terrorstricken by the revelations that were thus made." Although a very dark tale, allowing us a glimpse into the darkside of zealotry and revenge, I thoroughly enjoyed Hawthorne's depiction of it. His style, which I initially found to be ponderous and wordy, especially in the introductory piece The Custom House, grew on me as I progressed and at the end found myself enjoying.
Rating:
Summary: Read the intro first, don't skip it like I did.
Review: I will recommend that if you read this book, to not skip the introductory, it's crucial. (I did and I had to start over when I was almost finished.) To sum up the introductory: it's long and talks about the nameless narrator and how the story started. The narrator finds some documents in the unoccupied second floor of the building he works at. After going through the documents he finds a large scarlet "A" with beautiful embroidery wrapped around some manuscripts, which he later rewrites. He soon discovers that the manuscripts were 100 years old and written 100 years before he found them.
If you are seeking for a book with more meanings then one and a harder vocabulary you might have found the book for you. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is aimed for an audience with a higher vocabulary and a good understanding of irony and symbolism. While reading this book it also might be helpful to know that motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help develop and inform the text's major themes; because they are throughout the story and occur from the beginning. This book would be good for either male or female of an age that can do well in a 12.0 accelerated reader book. Just remember that is a 24-chapter book with a long introduction.
I had a hard time enjoying this book because I didn't read the introductory and had to start over. I also wasn't prepared for the vocabulary and all of the symbolism. Another thing I didn't understand was that there was more meaning to the book then just the words. If anyone asked me I would give it a 3 on a scale of 1-5. It's not that The Scarlet Letter was a bad book, because it is very well written, but I just didn't get into it.
12/18/03
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