The scarlet letter full book. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 2022-12-16
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1898
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The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman living in the Puritan town of Boston during the 17th century. Hester is accused of adultery and is forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest as punishment for her sin.
The novel begins with Hester standing on a scaffold, holding her newborn daughter Pearl and wearing the scarlet letter. Hester is shunned by the townspeople, who view her as a pariah and a symbol of sin. She is forced to live on the outskirts of town and make a living as a seamstress.
As the novel progresses, it is revealed that Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth, has been living in the town under a false identity and has been seeking revenge on the man who fathered Hester's child. This man is revealed to be Arthur Dimmesdale, a respected minister in the town. Chillingworth becomes obsessed with tormenting Dimmesdale and manipulating him, eventually leading to Dimmesdale's physical and emotional collapse.
Throughout the novel, Hester is shown to be a strong and resilient woman who is able to find hope and meaning in her difficult circumstances. Despite being ostracized by the community, Hester is able to find solace in her relationship with Pearl and in the love of a few close friends. She also uses her talents as a seamstress to create beautiful and intricate embroidery, which serves as a form of self-expression and a way to resist the oppression of the Puritan society.
The Scarlet Letter is a powerful exploration of sin, redemption, and the consequences of breaking societal norms. It is a poignant tale of one woman's journey to find meaning and acceptance in a world that judges and condemns her. Through the character of Hester Prynne, Hawthorne asks readers to consider the complexities of human nature and the role of punishment in society.
The Scarlet Letter: Full Book Summary
It behooves you, therefore, to exhort her to repentance, and to confession, as a proof and consequence thereof. It was well for their venerable brotherhood that the new Surveyor was not a politician, and though a faithful Democrat in principle, neither received nor held his office with any reference to political services. This uncaptivating effect is perhaps due to the period of hardly accomplished revolution, and still seething turmoil, in which the story shaped itself. Gainesville, FL: Scholar's Facsimiles and Reprints, 1957. Not a stitch in that embroidered letter but she has felt it in her heart. I cared not at this period for books; they were apart from me. Hester meets Dimmesdale in the forest and tells him of her husband and his desire for revenge.
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nor did it quit me, when, late at night, I sat in the deserted parlor, lighted only by the glimmering coal-fire and the moon, striving to picture forth imaginary scenes, which, the next day, might flow out on the brightening page in many-hued description. Read more about Quotes Explain what the following quotes mean and how they relate to the story: "This Custom-House sketch has a certain propriety, of a kind always recognised in literature, as explaining how a large portion of the following pages came into my possession, and as offering proofs of the authenticity of a narrative therein contained. Studies in the Novel 33. Suffice it here to say, that a Custom-House officer, of An effect—which I believe to be observable, more or less, in every individual who has occupied the position—is, that, while he leans on the mighty arm of the Republic, his own proper strength departs from him. Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. If sages were ever wise in their own behoof, I might have foreseen all this.
XII "It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hester and Pearl join him, and the three link hands. I looked upon it as an evidence, in some measure, of a system naturally well balanced, and lacking no essential part of a thorough organization, that, with such associates to remember, I could mingle at once with men of altogether different qualities, and never murmur at the change. Administer this draught, therefore, with thine own hand. Some witnesses swear they saw an "A" on his chest, but can't confirm it.
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Read it now for Free! (Homepage)
To confess the truth, it was my greatest apprehension,—as it would never be a measure of policy to turn out so quiet an individual as myself, and it being hardly in the nature of a public officer to resign,—it was my chief trouble, therefore, that I was likely to grow gray and decrepit in the Surveyorship, and become much such another animal as the old Inspector. Not that the Surveyor brought the lesson home to himself, or admitted that he could be so utterly undone, either by continuance in office, or ejectment. Finally, little heroic as he was, it seemed more decorous to be overthrown in the downfall of the party with which he had been content to stand than to remain a forlorn survivor, when so many worthier men were falling: and at last, after subsisting for four years on the mercy of a hostile administration, to be compelled then to define his position anew, and claim the yet more humiliating mercy of a friendly one. It converts them from snow-images into men and women. Take heed how thou deniest to him—who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself—the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips! Moonlight, in a familiar room, falling so white upon the carpet, and showing all its figures so distinctly—making every object so minutely visible, yet so unlike a morning or noontide visibility—is a medium the most suitable for a romance-writer to get acquainted with his illusive guests.
Rusty through long idleness, some little space was requisite before my intellectual machinery could be brought to work upon the tale, with an effect in any degree satisfactory. Pearl felt the sentiment, and requited it with the bitterest hatred that can be supposed to rankle in a childish bosom. Why, gossips, what is it but to laugh in the faces of our godly magistrates, and make a pride out of what they, worthy gentlemen, meant for a punishment? It starts off a bit slow in the beginning but it soon completely draws you in. However, others perceived the letter to be the symbol of an angel. More frequently, however, on ascending the steps, you would discern—in the entry, if it were summer time, or in their appropriate rooms, if wintry or inclement weather—a row of venerable figures, sitting in old-fashioned chairs, which were tipped on their hind legs back against the wall.
Her mind, and especially her memory, was preternaturally active, and kept bringing up other scenes than this roughly hewn street of a little town, on the edge of the western wilderness: other faces than were lowering upon her from beneath the brims of those steeple-crowned hats. It was not merely during the three hours and a half which Uncle Sam claimed as his share of my daily life that this wretched numbness held possession of me. It went with me on my sea-shore walks, and rambles into the country, whenever—which was seldom and reluctantly—I bestirred myself to seek that invigorating charm of Nature, which used to give me such freshness and activity of thought the moment that I stepped across the threshold of the Old Manse. If he possesses an unusual share of native energy, or the enervating magic of place do not operate too long upon him, his forfeited powers may be redeemable. It could hardly have been more violent, indeed, had he burned down the Custom-House, and quenched its last smoking ember in the blood of a certain venerable personage, against whom he is supposed to cherish a peculiar malevolence.
Chillingworth loses his vengeance and dies as well, leaving Pearl a substantial inheritance. My good townspeople will not much regret me, for—though it has been as dear an object as any, in my literary efforts, to be of some importance in their eyes, and to win myself a pleasant memory in this abode and burial-place of so many of my forefathers—there has never been, for me, the genial atmosphere which a literary man requires in order to ripen the best harvest of his mind. It had been wrought, as was easy to perceive, with wonderful skill of needlework; and the stitch as I am assured by ladies conversant with such mysteries gives evidence of a now forgotten art, not to be discovered even by the process of picking out the threads. I could account for their being included in the heap of Custom-House lumber only by the fact that Mr. It has already been noticed, that directly over the platform on which Hester Prynne stood was a kind of balcony, or open gallery, appended to the meeting-house. Gradually, they have sunk almost out of sight; as old houses, here and there about the streets, get covered half-way to the eaves by the accumulation of new soil.
As the public disapprobation would weigh very heavily on him, were he conscious of deserving it, the author begs leave to say, that he has carefully read over the introductory pages, with a The author is constrained, therefore, to republish his introductory sketch without the change of a word. Prynne began to believe that a person's earthly sins do not necessarily condemn them. When no longer called upon to speak or listen—either of which operations cost him an evident effort—his face would briefly subside into its former not uncheerful quietude. The greater part of my officers were Whigs. It would be greatly for the public behoof, if we women, being of mature age and church-members in good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne.
And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. The Scarlet Letter incorporates supernatural elements with historical fiction. . Even had there been a disposition to turn the matter into ridicule, it must have been repressed and overpowered by the solemn presence of men no less dignified than the governor, and several of his counsellors, a judge, a general, and the ministers of the town, all of whom sat or stood in a balcony of the meeting-house, looking down upon the platform. Bred up from boyhood in the Custom-House, it was his proper field of activity; and the many intricacies of business, so harassing to the interloper, presented themselves before him with the regularity of a perfectly comprehended system. It may serve, let us hope, to symbolise some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow II.
