The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American classic, is an odd story of love, loss, and guilt. Nathaniel Hawthorne creates an odd story, mainly because the narrator keeps interrupting the story with all sorts of different scenarios, ideas, and sometimes even tells you what his personal opinion is. Sometimes, the narrator will even tell you that something in the story is really not what it is, and at one point even interjects himself into the story to offer you a flower, and a warm hello.

While this is definitely unique on one hand, it really pulls you out of the story on the other hand.

The plot follows a woman who’s been caught up in an Adultery scandal. The village she lives in forces her to wear a red letter A to denote her infidelity, and wants her to confess of her sin and name the other person involved. When she refuses to out her lover, she goes off and hides for years, raising a daughter. The wrench in this scenario is that her lover is a well known preacher in the town! When the adulteress’s husband returns from a long journey, he stays with the preacher, and slowly tries to get a confession out of him.

That’s the general idea of the story, and the tension grows throughout the book into a boiling point, and just when things are going to explode like a powder keg, the narrator jumps in to distract you completely. Not the greatest literary device, but then again, this book was first published in 1850 so this was probably a great thing.

The book reads slow, and hard. Although, I read this in high school, reading it today doesn’t really help to enjoy the text. The book is really slow to me, and hard to really get into, all things considered. I kept trying to put myself in the story, and it just didn’t work.

The Crucible worked great because it was in play format, but as a novel, the time frame that this story takes place in, just doesn’t fit or entertain me too much.

While this is a classic, and is required reading for a lot of High Schools, I just don’t see the real connection. The final act of this book does try hard to sew it altogether, and really does pack a major punch. Hawthorne’s greatest piece in this book is how the climax really ties all the themes together. On a religious note, I loved how the guilt ate the preacher alive while the congregation thought he was more holy. I feel like that so much sometimes, even though I have done nothing of this man’s sort. I just feel guilty sometimes, for different things that I do. Although, to differ from the person in the text, I do not keep a whole lot hidden from people, and really am as open as I can possibly be. I mean just look at my other blog (sirjorgeofculver.blogspot.com) if you really want to see me confessing to it all.

The Scarlet Letter is a great piece of literature to most, but to me, it is a painful reminder that not all required reading is great. While I still stand behind my love for The Crucible, I can’t get behind this one as fervently, but you might enjoy it. So don’t just dismiss this book because I don’t like it. Go back and read The Scarlet Letter, and make a judgment call for yourself. There’s a reason why its classic, and while I might not see it…you might see it as something great.