The Scarlet Letter

A novel by Nathaniel Hawthorn. The story is set in colonial times when the Puritans came to America searching for religious freedom. Oh, how ironic. Seeing as how the main character of this novel (Mrs. Hester Prynne) finds herself the the victim of a new kind of punishment in the form of the scarlet letter. What does the 'A' stand for ? Amorous? If Mr. Hawthorne mentions what it means it passed right over my head.
It's hard to review this book, I mean, of course it's awesome. Every paragraph is so poetically written and charged with spiritual and patriotic indignation that it's hard to pin anything down and say "here, this is the best part!" If you haven't read this book yet, you are missing out on an incredible story. No, do not see the movie. Get your history from a man who knows it.
I usually search through hundreds of pictures to find the one I like the best to put up on this here blog-of-the-universe. And if you google The Scarlet Letter and hit 'images' you'll come up with some real nastiness. (This is not a suggestion) Point is, the book is not as sexually charged as people like to make the story out to be. It doesn't start with sin. It starts with the CONSEQUENCE! In fact there are no love scenes. Only the aftermath. Which is the point of the story.
Hawthorne doesn't see fit to make Hester a victim, nor is she a heroin, but equally she is not a villain. She is a woman who screwed. up. big. She is now living with it. It is walking beside her in the form of a child who is also doomed to live life as an outcast.
The story starts with Hester walking out of a prison cell holding a babe that is the source of the controversy. She walks over to a scaffold for the entire town to view her and her new symbol. This is the most famous scene from the novel.
The story carries through her life as the town outcast. The priests use her constantly as a reference point in sermons and even in the middle of the street they will stop her and say "take this example of a woman given over sin."
The sin that earned her the scarlet letter was adultery. Her husband sent her to this town to establish a home for them until he could join her. Cut to two years later and we find Hester on the scaffold, her husband in that time had never made an appearance. Which is what made it so obvious that she had committed the offense.
I am by no means done with the discussion on this book. There is simply too much to try and force into one article. I'm going to pick up again on How Hester has established herself in her life as the town scandal.