the scarlet letter

nathaniel hawthorne

the scarlet letter

TAYLOR: Mom, we're going up to the treehouse. Okay?

DIANA: Good idea. While you're there, talk about the book. And Taylor? Make sure Zac reads the last chapter first. Oh, almost forgot. Talk about "The Custom House" too.

TAYLOR: Alright, Mom! Enough!

(The three brothers grab their copies of The Scarlet Letter and make their way up to their treehouse.)

ZAC: (leafing through the book) Can you guys just tell me what happens in the final chapter?

ISAAC: No, Zac. You know what Mom said. Now, read. (turns to Taylor) So, what did you think of that part at the beginning?

TAYLOR: You mean "The Custom House?"

ISAAC: Yeah.

TAYLOR: (thoughtful for a moment) It seemed like Hawthorne's psychological autobiography. It's very ambiguous though.

ZAC: Ooo... SAT word.

ISAAC: Read, Zac.

ZAC: Okay... okay.

ISAAC: The whole thing has this ironic tone...

TAYLOR: Yeah.. it does.

ISAAC: What did you mean about it being ambiguous?

TAYLOR: Well, lots of things. For one, it gives the impression that Hawthorne was both proud of and disgusted by many of his ancestors. Like William Hathorne.

ISAAC: He was the guy who beat that woman just because she was a Quaker.

TAYLOR: Yeah. Plus there was his grandfather or someone who was the dude who presided over the Salem witch trials.

ZAC: Another SAT word. I'm impressed.

ISAAC: Read.

ZAC: Chill, Ike. I'm done!

ISAAC: When did you start reading so fast?

ZAC: It's not like the chapter was very long. So, what are we discussing?

ISAAC: "The Custom House."

ZAC: Ah, okay. That! It was meant to be an introduction to The Scarlet Letter and some other works of Hawthorne's as well. Hey, did you guys notice the similarities between the characters in that and The Scarlet Letter?

TAYLOR: What do you mean?

ZAC: Well, let's see... It's the Inspector, the Collector and the Customs Officer, right? Well, if you look at it:.. The Inspector... He's like Hester. He's got three dead wives and twenty dead kids and he has to live off his instincts, but he doesn't complain. Hester was sort of animalistic like that.

ISAAC: (jumping in) And the Collector is sort of like Dimmsdale, the preacher. He's got the spiritual harmony.

TAYLOR: And the Customs Officer is an intellectual like Chillingsworth.

ZAC: Not only that, but the three personalities together sort of make up Hawthorne. Also, in "The Customs House," the qualities of the three guys are good things, but then it's distorted so that those same qualities are bad things in the book's characters.

ISAAC: Wow, Zac. I guess you really got into this one.

ZAC: In a way, I had to. I read most of it while I was sitting up here. It was sort of like being up on that platform with or instead of Hester. I had to think a lot. Having to read that last chapter up here was sort of like Hester seeing her husband for the first time in two years as she's standing up there as a punishment for her sin. So, now I'm embracing this wonderful book chat like Hester—or rather, Mistress Prynne—clutched Pearl to her chest. Only, I don't think the book chat is going to cry.

ISAAC: Only you would think that, Zac.

TAYLOR: Maybe not. Pearl, herself, was sort of like that. She pointed out the things that no one else realized... even if it wasn't always in such a nice way. In some ways, Pearl wasn't even a child. More like some spiritual menace. A leprechaun maybe?

ISAAC: Well, what Pearl is saying is actually what Hawthorne is thinking, so Zac might be the next Nathaniel Hawthorne. Why do you think he added the "W" to his name?

TAYLOR: I think it was to distance himself from his Puritan ancestors. Hawthorne was a Romantic. Not many people know that he was born on the fourth of July.

ISAAC: Taylor, we're your brothers. Stupid trivia will not impress us unless you can give me Pamela Anderson's newest measurements. Anyway...

ZAC: Anyway, Hawthorne was sort of like a Puritan himself for all he said against them. He didn't believe everything they did, but he was, like, obsessed with sin or something. Everything he ever wrote revolves around guilt, hypocrisy and vengeance.

TAYLOR: Now who's using SAT words?

ISAAC: Those three things you mentioned can sort of be applied to each of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter.

ZAC: Well, duh. (smacks Isaac's head)

ISAAC: (smacks Zac's head) I mean, like guilt can be mainly applied to Hester because she is the one considered most guilty to the townspeople and she feels it a lot herself. At the same time, Dimmsdale felt it the most because he didn't tell anyone until the end that he was responsible for Hester's "A." He wanted to be free and to believe he wasn't wrong, even though he knew he was. He was a hypocrite. Then there's Chillingsworth who only wanted to get revenge on whoever knocked up his wife when she wouldn't tell him.

TAYLOR: Way to put things, Mr. I-don't-give-a-rip.

ISAAC: (smacks Taylor's head) Context Taylor! When I said "I don't give a rip," I was talking about people who don't like our music. Of course those people are lying . . . nobody could ever hate MMMBop!! I mean, it's just so deep . . .have you ever really listened to the lyrics? (He gets a glassy look in his eyes, then Zac and Taylor simultaneously smack Ike's head.) Hey!

TAYLOR: Ike . . . could we?

ZAC: Yes, could we? I don't want to be up here for three hours like what Hester had to do.

TAYLOR: Yeah, okay. Want to talk a little more about Hawthorne?

ISAAC: (rubs head) Sure.

ZAC: What was that try-to-be-perfect place that he lived in?

ISAAC: You mean Brookfarm, of course.

TAYLOR: Of course. He met Ralph Waldo Emerson there.

ZAC: Yeah; and completely disagreed with him. Emerson was a transcendentalist. He thought that nothing was determinable. But Hawthorne, a pessimist, believed that evil existed more than good and that perfection could not exist, even clouded by infatuation with the subject.

ISAAC: Show off, but you're right. That shows up a lot in his work. Alright, enough Hawthorne, back to the book.

TAYLOR: Alright, suit yourself. Just ... not like a Puritan. You wear enough earth tones already.

ISAAC: (glares at Taylor) I wonder what colors people wear to their brother's funeral . . .

ZAC: (looking through his book) Hey, guys. This last line of the book, "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules." What's it mean, especially on a tombstone?

TAYLOR: It's describing the scarlet letter. Y'know, 'cause sable is the color black, although black isn't really a color, and I guess "gules" could be scarlet. And, it's above the graves of Dimmsdale and Hester who both had a scarlet letter. Hers was of fabric and gold thread while his was carved into his chest by his own hand.

ZAC: Nice deduction, bro.

ISAAC: Does it look like the sun stopped shining on us? I know it's not late enough for the sun to go down, but with what we're talking about, I don't want to believe we're the only ones the sun is avoiding.

TAYLOR: Why's that?

ISAAC: Y'know that in the book the sun never shone on anyone guilty, something Pearl pointed out. But, there was that one point where the sunshine cut through the forest and illuminated Hester because she had taken off the Scarlet Letter. She didn't feel guilty anymore because Dimmsdale was there with her and she loved him. But, then Pearl made her put it back on because it was part of her mother. When Hester pinned it back on, the sunshine went away.

TAYLOR: Yeah and talking about the forest, that was yet another thing that Hawthorne made ambiguous. The forest was Hester's place to feel better about herself because there was no one there gaping at her or ridiculing her. However, it was also where the Witches were said to worship Satan even though Witches don't even believe in Satan. The Puritans thought that anyone who went into the forest during the night was evil and could be the Devil and lots of people thought Hester was.

ZAC: Seems sort of like "The Blair Witch Project." Well, the part about the forest being a place for the bewitched and for evil things. And the setting of the movie and of the book aren't that far apart.

ISAAC: Yeah...

TAYLOR: Yeah... Oh, do you remember the roses in the beginning?

ZAC: The ones outside the jail...

ISAAC: ...in the footsteps of Anne Hutchinson.

TAYLOR: Hester followed that path herself and even continued on. Anne was hanged as a witch because she followed her own beliefs. Hester lived on even because of it.

ISAAC: You know, you're right.

TAYLOR: Of course I am. I'm always...

ZAC: Delusional.

TAYLOR: Hardy har-har and the Har-har-ettes; not to mention the all-girl Haha's. That was soooo funny I forgot to laugh.

ZAC: Anyway, a lot of The Scarlet Letter is symbolic. No one's ever read the book for its strong characters or because it was an easy read; they read it because of the symbolism and psychological aspects.

ISAAC: Because people always want to read about that, the book has never been out of print. This year it's been one hundred and fifty years since Hawthorne started writing it. In 2000, it will have been in constant publication for 150 years.

TAYLOR: Well then, let's go celebrate. Does everyone agree that we understand the book to its fullest extent?

ZAC: Not to its fullest extent, but to our fullest extent.

ISAAC: You don't think Mom is going to make us learn how to embroider now, do you?

TAYLOR: I don't even want to think about that. Last time she tried to teach me how to sew, I got a needle stuck under my fingernail. (All three are silent and still for a moment.)

ZAC: (suddenly) Last one there gets the strawberry ice cream! (Zac and Ike race from the treehouse but Taylor stays behind.)

TAYLOR: I wonder just how many things that "A" stands for. Hmm.. wait! Strawberry? I'm there! (Runs from the treehouse. The sun shines.)

This story was written by Kimberly. She is a very talented musician in her own right. Her thoughtful letters have raised a lot of good questions and I always enjoy discussing more than just books with her. Thank you, my dear, for making this contribution!

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