The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne | Teen Ink

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

April 7, 2008
By Bapalapa2 ELITE, Brooklyn, New York
Bapalapa2 ELITE, Brooklyn, New York
1044 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Have you ever imagined standing in front of a huge crowd with the people in it staring at you?
Half of the crowd is sorry for you but, the other half is angry that you aren't going to be put to death. Well
that's what Hester Prynne had to go through in the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her
story takes place in America in the late 1700's. The story showed me what you had to go through if you
had committed adultery in that period. Although, that wasn't the usual punishment. The punishment given
to a crime like that was usually death. She was very lucky. The book is interesting and is a book I have
recommended to about ten people, who have also found it interesting.

In the book, Hester's husband (who she never loved) went oversees for study. He never came
back and long after (about two years) she becomes pregnant and has a daughter, Pearl. Soon she is
condemned of committing adultery because she couldn't have become pregnant with her husband after
two years of not seeing him. Now she has to put on and A, for Adultery, for the rest of her life. Then her
husband comes back (but now he so shabby that no one recognizes him) to find and haunt down the man
who did such a bad thing with Hester.

The book is interesting and once you start reading, you will not want to stop. The book tells what
a person had to go though if he or she committed adultery during the 1700's. People were very strict,
then. I will recommend the book to whoever reads this article because (to me) it is one of the best books
in the series. It is also short and shouldn't take more than 2-3 days to read. Nathaniel Hawthorne's story
is brilliant and very dramatic.


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