The Scarlett Letter

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28 July 2010

The Scarlett Letter

Introduction

Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlett Letter has always been among the most interesting objects of literary analysis . The themes of adultery and revenge in the puritan society attract critics and readers and turn The Scarlett Letter into a wonderful source of knowledge about puritan norms and standards of living . Hawthorne 's novel is both aesthetic and complex . It exemplifies a mixture of numerous themes and underlying meanings , which reveal the ugliest traits of human

society and turn people into the victims of their own lifestyles . It would be fair to say that Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlett Letter is a story of how people who have violated the basic rules of the social contract struggle to break their socially created identities and seek to re-assert themselves with their society

The Scarlett Letter is a story of love , adultery , endurance and revenge . The story of a young Puritan woman punished for adultery and destined to forever carry the scarlet letter A ' on her breast , The Scarlett Letter is an excellent representation of the puritan ideas and their effects on the lives of the people . The protagonist of the story Hester comprises numerous roles and identities : those of the biological female , the faithful mate and the obedient daughter , the believing Christian and the responsible mother (Egan 27 . These identities must live in harmony with the puritan ideals and with one another (Egan 27 However , unhappy marriage brings these...