Hawthorne directly writes that among the many morals in the story of Hester and Dimmesdale, there is a moral of “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!" Be true here: What did you like/enjoy most about the novel? least? learn? Share a quote/passage that that made you think. (The deadline to post a response to this question is midnight, April 11, 2014.)
3 comments:
The intense, complex wording used in The Scarlet Letter made me both like the book, but also slightly made me not enjoy it as much. It was really nice seeing a book with such exquisite vocabulary that is becoming virtually extinct in literature. I hope to have gained a few new words in the files of my memory, and I believe that this book has helped me widen my vocabulary slightly. On the contrary, because the vocabulary is so little used today, it was very difficult for me to not become lost in Hawthorne's rants. I constantly found myself rereading and still being confused, and I'm sure that took away a good bit of this novel's power, and message for me. In saying that I did catch on to the many themes as we discussed, and the theme of doing things for ones self and not the opinion of others, which Hester showed, was what I really enjoyed about the book. The passages that really made me think, about the characters in the book as well as myself, was when Pearl asks the Minister many times if he will claim her and her mother in public. She asks him if he will go onto the scaffolding with them at noon and he tells her no. She asks will he walk hand in hand with them and Hester tells her no. Until the very end, Dimsdale put's himself and the opinions of others in front of his family. These occurrences made me question Dimsdale's character and judgment, but it also made me think to myself "what would I do?" Over all I enjoyed the story and the messages of The Scarlet Letter, but I wish I could have stayed on track a little better.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, there were several quotes that had me pause and think about them before continuing to read. One of my favorites was "He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart." Sin causes even the best of people to become tainted. This quote reveals that once filled with temptation to do the devils work, it is hard to stop and be themselves again. I really enjoyed this novel despite its continuous exposition. AR
I enjoyed the story as a whole, but I will be quite honest, the verbose language weighted the novel down from my loving it. I learned a great deal about history and the Puritans from the novel, and I think the message and symbolism was very clever on Hawthorne's part. I favored the quote “she could no longer borrow from the future to ease her present grief" because I think that is how many people get by with their problems instead of facing them head on. All in all, the book is pretty great and I enjoyed learning it's many symbols and messages.
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