The book Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is one full of shame, sin, societal pressures. Hester is shunned throughout her town as she cheated on her husband, Chillingworth, with someone else, Dimmesdale the minister, but refused to state who the father was at the trial. She is forced to wear the letter A, the symbol for Adultery. She has also given birth to a baby named Pearl from this scandal. Throughout the book, Hester goes through some big changes within her personality while dealing with the societal pressures and hate throughout the town. Dimmesdale, while not shamed in public, deals with his own guilt of not coming out as the father and having Hester face it all herself. Chillingworth finds out about the affair between them and vows to get revenge on both of them, altering him into a satan of some sort. Pearl while innocent, has a wild spirit and Hester fears its the evil from her own sins within her which adds to the change in Hester's outlook in life. In the end, after deciding to run away together, Dimmesdale confesses his sins and shame about Hester and Pearl in front of his congregation, and dies afterwards. Chillingworth wastes away from hate and dies. and after Hester returns back to town, is buried next to Dimmesdale with the letter A in their headstone. The story of Hester also becomes a legend and the symbol of A becomes invalid at this point.
While reading this book through the psychoanalytic lens, it gave me a lot more clarity as to why the characters made the choices they made. Either their actions came from outside pressures, or it came from within themselves. Reading the Scarlet Letter was hard for me as it had long complicated words and some old english in there as well. The wording and flow of the story made it hard to follow along and there were multiple instances in which I had to stop reading and google a word or have someone else explain to me what that passage was about. I did learn however, that if I wanted to understand and get into more depth on figuring out why the characters did what they did and get to know them better, that the psychoanalytic lens is the route to take. I would have definitely missed the fact that Hester’s new thoughts and approach towards life would have had anything to do with the town, as well as understand her concern for her daughter, Pearl and her wild spirit. I do not think I would ever read the Scarlet Letter again, just because of its language and on a topic I do not normally read about. This entire story would have been different if this wasn't so realistic and based on the times in which it was written. Overall, I learned that while the posts are easy to complete, turning them in on time is difficult if you haven't read to where its necessary -- so if I was going to do this again, I would have read some and blogged some, read some and blogged some, etc..
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