The other day Stephen and I were trying to make conversation in the car, and I found myself apologizing, “I can’t think of anything to talk about. I literally haven’t had a thought about anything except milk and baby diapers all day.” I decided to give some dormant parts of my brain a workout by picking up a nice classic. I remember hating The Scarlet Letter when I read it in high school, and I wondered if I’d still feel that way now that I have twelve additional years of reading and maturity under my belt.
Hester Prynne lives in an early Puritan colony. Her husband is believed to have been lost at sea, so when she becomes pregnant, she is jailed and punished for adultery by being forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her clothes. She refuses to name her Baby Daddy, although it becomes quickly obvious that he is the beloved young preacher, Arthur Dimmesdale. As years go by, Hester devotes herself to being a mother to her daughter, Pearl, and to performing acts of charity for the people of the town. In contrast, Dimmesdale is weakened and tortured by his hidden guilt. His suffering is compounded by his relationship with his “physician,” Roger Chillingworth, who keeps Dimmesdale’s guilty wound festering under the guise of medical attention. Why? Well, Chillingworth is actually Hester’s husband, and this is his way of getting revenge.
On this second go-around, I enjoyed the story much more, and I found it much easier to follow than I remembered. However, fifteen-year-old me was right about one thing, which was irritation at Hawthorne’s blatant vendetta against Puritans. I’m not saying that their “cities on a hill” were perfect by any means, but I think that they should get some respect for their place as part of our cultural and religious heritage.
Examples:
“Here, it is true, were none of the appliances which popular merriment would so readily have found in the England of Elizabeth’s time, or that of James [examples: theater, music, dancing, juggling, magic shows, Merry Andrews]. All such professors of the several branches of jocularity would have been sternly repressed, not only by the rigid disicpline of the law, but by the general sentiment which gives law its vitality.”
“The picture of human life in the market place, though its general tint was teh sad gray, brown, or black of the English emigrants, was yet enlivened by some diversity of hue [Indians and Spanish pirates who come to observe the Puritan "holiday"].”
“[These emigrants] wore the blackest shade of Puritanism, and so darkened the national visage with it, that all subsequent years have not sufficed to clear it up. We have yet to learn again the forgotten art of gayety.”
…in addition to a general portrayal of all Puritans as being hypocrites and intolerant legalists. A little harsh, if you ask me.
I never thought I’d say something like this to you, but I actually remember liking that book in HS. Of course, after reading A Tale of Two Cities, and Red Badge of Courage twice, it was a much more enjoyable read. Maybe that contrast tricked me into thinking it was a good book
Remind me of how Chillingsworth can be Hester’s husband, if he was lost at sea? Does she not know who he is? I can’t remember how this worked. And I agree; the Puritans got slammed on this one. What was Hawthorne’s problem, anyway? Guilty conscience?
And I love A Tale of Two Cities. Lindsey did not like it b/c she totally missed the ending.