After finishing the novel, I can honestly it wasn't AS bad as I had initially thought it would be. Once I got past Hawthorne's style of writing, I could easily understand what he was saying, and the general plot of the book. However, once I realized what was going on in the story, I automatically wished I didn't. Many of the characters frustrated me. (So much to the point where I really wished they were real just so I could dramatically, it IS a Romantic novel, slap them.) Roger Chillingworth really irritated the crap out of me, Dimmesdale angered me because of his lack of "manliness", and Pearl really, REALLY, creeped me out (to the point of nightmares [not to be taken literally]). The only person I believe that can and SHOULD be tolerated in The Scarlet Letter, is Hester Prynne. I actually admired her for what she did, as well as what she had to go through, might I add ALONE, throughout the story. First of all, she was shunned upon by all of her peers, and had to take all of the blame for a crime/sin that took two people to commit. She was cut off, socially, from her own society. Wouldn't most people give up right then and there, thinking, "My whole reputation!"? Not Hester. Instead she carried on with her life, as normally as she possibly could. I admire her for having the strength in the first place to do so, but not only for that, but also for the fact she did it solely to raise her daughter, Pearl. Not having a fatherly figure in her life, due to Dimmesdale's "wimpyness", her mother was the only one to raise her, (which is arguably quite difficult, since Pearl is in fact an intelligent demon child). Should she not deserve at least SOME credit for accomplishing that? The Puritan society and Pearl aside, Hester also had to deal with Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. This is where I actually feel sympathy for the Hester character. Let's face it, Chillingworth was/is a BIG pain in the butt. No matter what, he wouldn't leave poor Hester alone. He LEFT Hester for two years, just to come back into her her life to make things complicated in her life, by torturing her loved one(s), and right when you think she actually has a chance of FINALLY escaping him, BAM there he is again. (I'm surprised she hadn't already killed, or gotten rid of, him. [He IS old, shriveled up, and walked with a limp, it's not like he was gonna get very far anyway.]) Then there's Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale kinda bothered me due to his cowardice. He didn't step up and say he was the father when he SHOULD have. Isn't it unfair for one person to take blame for two people? I admire Hester for putting up with Dimmesdale's cowardice, and STILL loving him in the end. Hester may have been labeled by her society with the scarlet letter "A" on her chest, but there was more to her than that. She was a very strong indiviudal for putting up with the Puritan society, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale, AND all the meanwhile raising Pearl by herself. Even when it seemed like everyone was against her, she survived through it all.
~Raelin Tamargo
Image retrieved from: http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/editorial/?attachment_id=29413
~Raelin Tamargo
Image retrieved from: http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/editorial/?attachment_id=29413