The Scarlet Letter

When I saw that we had to read "The Scarlet Letter", I was slightly scared because I was aware of how hard that book was. Now after reading it I can see it is probably one of the hardest books I have read. The language is drastically different then the language that we speak today, so at times I had to read a passage over and over again just to understand it. My favorite character in this book would have to be young Pearl. She was compared to an elf, whom tend to be mischievous if somewhat evil little creatures. People said she was a demon and in the chapter before Dimmesdale died, a women stated that perhaps satan himself was her father. Pearl is, not necessarily wise but more mature beyond her years. Demanding her mother tell her of her origin shocked me, at such a young age I did not think she would ask those sort of questions especially considering they are in Puritan times.

One of the major themes in this book is sin, one sin is what created these long chain of events. It is Dimmesdale's sin that eventually killed him, his fear of god. That's something else I realized was big in that time, they feared god and his wrath. They saw things in holier lights, for example when they see that meataor and believe it to stand for angel symbolizing the governors entrance into heaven. It sort of confused me when Chillingworth's character took on the appearance of evil, because was his demeanor changing or was there really that drastic changes in his appearances? Both Dimmesdale's and Chillingworth's death's are somewhat ironic. Dimmesdale is supposed to be a man of god and he goes against one of the ten commandments and dies due to his guilt over committing such a crime. While Chillingworth's search for revenge ends up killing him, which proves that when you seek revenge, dig two graves, one for your enemy and one for yourself.

The one part of the book that I found interesting was when Hester and Pearl were in the forest and Pearl remarked that the sunshine avoided Hester because it was afraid of the A on her breast, then how when Hester took off her A she was practically bathed in sunshine. I didn't know exactly why Pearl would've been afraid to go to her mother when Hester removed the A, which further complicates Pearl's character in my eyes because at times she can act like a normal child other times she acts so much more mature. Hester's grave next to Dimmesdale's grave was unexpected, but befitting. The letter A ended up taking a life of it's own, and became a legend. It's interesting how easily a town will turn it's back on one person for one mistake.