Recent Reads {The Scarlet Letter}

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - This classic American novel is on the reading list for American Literature (Notgrass Exploring America) and even though Spencer will not be reading it this year, I decided I would like to read through everything on the list.  I vaguely remember reading it many years ago, and oddly enough I couldn't remember exactly how it ended.  I read it this week and once I'd adjusted to Hawthorne's style, I found it hard to put down!  In keeping with the story's theme, the tone of the narrative is rather dark, and the reader is immediately drawn into sympathy with Hester Prynne as she stoically faces her public humiliation for adultery, and wears her beautifully embroidered letter almost as a badge of honor.  She refuses to name the man who fathered her child, but the reader is left to decide why she withholds the information - whether love or fear motivates her.  As fate would have it, her husband, whom all had presumed dead, shows up and takes it upon himself to discover her fellow-sinner and take revenge, and he convinces Hester to keep the secret of his identity as well.  Over the years, the townspeople gentle in their treatment of Hester, although she and her child are never accepted as part of the town's society.  Hester finally decides to tell Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale (who is the child's father) the true identity and intent of the man acting as his physician when she sees how Arthur's health and spirits are failing.  Arthur and Hester decide to run away and return to Europe, but Arthur realizes he is near death, and so he mounts the scaffold where Hester was punished and confesses his sin.  Definitely not a happy ending, feel-good book, but thought-provoking.  It's easy to understand why it is considered a classic.