The Scarlet Letter

"Had there been a non-Puritan among the crowd of Puritans, he might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and appearance, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have competed with one another to represent;
something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world. Here, there was the taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life, working such effect, that the world was only the darker for this woman’s beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne."

The paragraph above is an excerpt from the american classic "Scarlet Letter", by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

It has been a long time since the last time i wrote a book review, so  i thought "Why not?"

Well, as you may inspect from this excerpt, the writer loves to play with contrasts, in order to paint beliefs,ideologies, sentiments etc. under different shades. So, he dares to compare Hester Pryne, an adulteress, a sinner, to Holy Mother. Well, that takes a lot of courage, to be able to ascend over norms through your writing, so he definitely was a brave author.

Now, for those who are not familiar with the book, it is a gothic novel which follows the life of a woman, Hester, who committed a sin, thus she is forced to wear a sign of her sin in her bosom and remain an exile for the rest of her life from her community.

Of course, even though this woman is exile, there are two men who are deeply affected by her. The husband and the lover. Even though none of them is truly evil or coward, sadly they are mediocre. They fail to rebuilt their life and move on.

Contrary to the woman, who was not only burdened with most of the shame, but she also had to raise a child on her own. Nonetheless, she ended up victorious, since she never let the hatred overcome her, like it happened to her husband, none did she vanished from the guilt and the fear, like her lover.

No, she was brave and kind-hearted enough and this is what made her blossom, despite the hostility of an entire society against her. Besides, how could she ever be a sinner, since her child, Pearl, proved to be a beautiful elf-like lady?

So, even though most of those who read this novel think that is revolved around puritanism and hypocrisy, i personally believe that the main theme of this book is about the strength of the spirit.

As a young woman, like most women out there, we face a lot of problems, disputes etc. in everyday life. So, being hateful, envious or at the other side afraid or coward is an easy way to escape our problems. But the hard and the best way is to never cease to be brave and kind-hearted and always allow a place for love in our heart. Not only for the sake of others, but mostly for ourselves.

Love, Eliza K