Firstly, the scarlet letter which was supposed to be a punishment is actually beautiful as it is the place where now Pearl rests. Upon reading this passage for the first time, as a reader, I was able to empathize with Hester. God, as a direct consequence of the sin which man thus punished, had given her a lovely child, whose place was on that same dishonored bosom, to connect her parent for ever with the race and descent of mortals, and to be finally a blessed soul in Heaven!” (Hawthorne 84) “Man had marked this woman’s sin by a scarlet letter, which had such potent and disastrous efficacy that no human sympathy could reach her, save it was sinful like herself.
Her husband who was thought to be dead begins to live under a new name in order to find Hester’s lover. Considering his position as a priest, he is guilt-stricken because he has committed a sin in the eyes of God. Her cowardly lover, who is a clergyman doesn’t confess to his crime for 7 years. As a punishment, she is forced to wear the scarlet letter “A” which makes her an adulteress. She gives birth to a baby girl and refuses to reveal the baby’s father. The book tells the story of Hester Prynne, who has committed the crime of adultery. Even though the book is historically accurate, other elements of the writing make it fictional. It is set in 17th century Boston, where the people believed in the Devil, witches, and a vengeful God. The main genre of this book is historical fiction. An affair was considered a crime in the time period the book is set in.
Even though gothic is not the main genre of Scarlet Letter, it is a Gothic novel because of the forbidden love that the main character has outside of her marriage. Something that is common between the two books is that they both have elements of Gothic and fiction. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by his other famous book, “The House of Seven Gables” which was published in 1851. The author of my book is Nathaniel Hawthorne.
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