Why I Like Hawethorne Why Other's Don't (Scarlet Letter)

6 Pages 1485 Words

Why I like Hawethorne; why Others Don’t
By Jonathan Milgrom


My beliefs supplemented my enjoyment of The Scarlet Letter. I have been brought up Lutheran, I believe in God, but at present I frequently question some of the ideals presented by my religion. I subscribe to the dogma that Love is the recompense to the sullen life given to us from original sin, and believe that even if sin is committed we must make the best of the situation. Being Lutheran, I also believe in the forgiveness of sin; although I do not heed to the teaching that penance must be attained publicly, I do believe that you must truly feel remorse in order to receive penance. Another moral I have accepted as true is the corruption of the naturally pure child by society. I think that in the beginning, everyone is innocent and that, historically, society has corrupted children into molding the confining world in which we live. Hawethorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter was enjoyable to me because of the parallels between Hawethorne’s morals and my morals.


“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

From Isaiah, Hawthorne borrows the image of a scarlet letter to symbolize sin and also the concept that sin may be followed by redemption provided that the sinner amends his ways and acts in good conscience. The promise of redemption is offered by the wild rose-bush growing outside the prison in “a grass-plot, much overgrown with ... unsightly vegetation, ... [which] might be imagined to offer [its] fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he [goes] in, and to the condemned criminal as he [comes] forth to his doom. [It is used] to symbolize some sweet moral blossom” (46). Hawthorne opens his book with this metaphor; he uses the “Conclusion” to bring together his themes and to make c...