The Scarlet Letter

Just finished The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. What a book! I loved it. I didn't think I would like it at all, as I definitely remember starting it once before and not getting far at all, but I loved it this time. Sometimes the only way to get yourself to read a book like this is to be on a plane and have nowhere to run from it!

What did I like about it? First of all, the language. It's like a King James Bible, and it makes the Puritanism of the characters so much more tangible. They are very somber and staunch, and their language is the same way. It fits the story perfectly.

Secondly, I love the character of Hester. She is one awesome woman. She has done something wrong, and instead of running away and starting a new life where no one would know that she had committed audultery, she stands up, sews herself a scarlet letter, and stays in the town, serving her punishment. She is honorable from that day forward, even when it would have been so easy not to be. I respect her decision to do the right thing and stick to it.

I really liked this book because it examines the effect of one mistake on three lives, and I love how it turned the husband who was cheated on into the bad guy. While Hester and the minister were paying for their crime, Roger Chillingworth was taking revenge, and his fate showed that revenge leads nowhere... loved it!!

One really interesting part was at the very end, and the narrator points out that hate and love seem to be almost the same thing...
"It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in its utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual life upon another; each leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate hater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his object. Philosophically considered, therefore, the two passions seem essentially the same, except that one happens to be seen in a celestial radiance, and the other in a dusky and lurid glow."
Very intriguing!

All in all, I loved this book. Tons. Can't entirely put my finger on it, except that it seems to be a triumph over past sins... which is a theme I love, and it reminded me in a small way of East of Eden by John Steinbeck.