mercoledì, dicembre 29, 2004
:: Review of 'The Scarlet Letter' (author: Nathaniel Hawthorne) ::It's been ages since I've read a classic. Did this one last week, and I re-discovered the beauty of the English language.
'... rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.'
Synopsis:
Ann Hutchison, a married woman living in a Puritan village, while awaiting the arrival of her husband, commits adultery and bears a child. She refuses to reveal who the father of her child is, and because of that, was condemned to spend an entire 9 months in the dungeon, and to wear the scarlet letter 'A' upon her chest for the rest of her life if she chose to remain in the village. She and her daughter, Pearl, are scorned every minute of their life, as she represents all that a virtuous, chaste woman is not.
For 7 long years she lived in the village, quietly accepting her fate and teaching her daughter as best as she could, and through the 7 long years, the villagers gradually forgot her 'sin' and stopped wondering who the child's father was... and they started to respect her and see the scarlet letter as a representation of her kindness,quiet resilience and recognised her other virtues.
Meanwhile, while she did her penance, the father of her child (as was later revealed to us to be the pastor), suffered from guilt, eating away at his conscience, leaving him a wretched old man. In addition, her rightful husband had actually returned but made her promise not to reveal his real identity, and for 7 long years, he masqueraded as the town's physician. Fast forward... eventually, the pastor told the truth and stood with Ann and Pearl at the scaffold where the mother was made to stand every day for 3 hours as punishment, and he died at peace with himself and his people. But for her rightful husband, he was so eaten away by his quest for revenge, and when that was thwarted by the pastor's public confession, he was left lost and empty, dying as a man who did not know what he had lived for.
Comments: This intricately woven classic tells us of three important principles in life, as portrayed by the three characters. It emphasises the importance of being at peace with our conscience. No matter how much good we might do, and no matter how 'angelic' others see us, we will forever be tortured by our own demons. We have to first recognise our 'demons', laying them down clearly before us, and then can we start to fix the wrongs we have done. Revenge, might be sweet, but only in the quest and the action of it, what remains after we have achieved 'sweet revenge' is nothing, but a recognition of the vast amount of time and effort we have spent in procuring it; time that would be wiser spent doing other things.
An interesting note to point out would be that the scarlet letter, an original symbol of shame eventually evolved to become a symbol of respect, of virtue and of resilience. I believe that a symbol is only a meaningless picture, something that we should not place too much emphasis on. Ultimately, it's what we do that afixes a symbolism to the picture. Thus, it might be a warning not to place such emphasis on the symbols in life - the condominium, the credit cards, an Oscar, a title... ultimately, it's what we do that people respect us for, not what we have that draws the respect, at least, from the people that matter.
Current read: 'The Fountainhead' by Ayn Rand
Rate: ***** (of 5 stars) aka I'm HOOKED!
Length: 800 pages
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1 Comments:
nice blog lady! :)
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