The All-Time All-Timers (part 2 of 3): The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter

I had a great English professor at Y.S.U. (go Penguins!) who used to say that he was known in the department as “the fool who’s in love with Hester Prynne.”  We used to laugh with him when he delivered this well-worn line, but now? I see you, Dr. Hughes.

Hester’s physical attractiveness is made clear from the start.  When we first see her she is described as having “deep black eyes” and “dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam.” Much later in the book, when she meets her lover in the woods, she decides to remove the scarlet letter, her symbol of shame.  Hawthorne details her sensuality at this moment:   

“By another impulse, she took off the formal cap that confined her hair; and down it fell upon her shoulders, dark and rich, with at once a shadow and a light in its abundance, and imparting the charm of softness to her features. There played around her mouth, and beamed out of her eyes, a radiant and tender smile, that seemed gushing from the very heart of womanhood. A crimson flush was glowing on her cheek…”

So there’s that. 

 But what Dr. Hughes and many others find most attractive about Hester is not her physical beauty but her spirit.  Hester fights against her society – not naming her partner in adultery -- because of her commitment to the man she loves.  She fights them again – this time to stop the leaders of her village from taking her bedeviling daughter -- because she knows her daughter is a symbol of both her love and her sin.  She wears the scarlet letter fiercely, not in deference to the city fathers who are punishing her but in defiance, and because she knows she has sinned.  She accepts her own fallibility, and she accepts and understands and forgives others’ fallibility.  In her embrace of human weakness, Hester rises above the simple efficiency of her village’s organized laws and her faith’s organized rules.  She is a model of faith, and compassion, and strength.

This is also a book about guilt, about the freedom of the individual in an ordered community.  It’s also about the false power of shame and the dark strength of revenge. 

But it’s also about Hester. 

And no matter where you are in your life, this book will resonate with you for some reason.  At about 180 pages in most versions, it doesn't take long to read, and I can promise you that you won’t regret it.  One final PRO TIP:  Skip the introductory “Custom House” chapter – you won’t miss much.  Just don’t tell your English teacher I said that….