Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

by Harold Bloom (Editor)

An allegorical tale of passion, adultery, guilt, and social repression, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter introduces readers to Hester Prynne, America's first fictional heroine. Hawthorne's story is a masterpiece of American fiction, and this updated volume from the Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations series explores how the author powerfully conveys its theme of the puritanical influence on societal attitudes.

Genres: Classics, Literature

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Harold Bloom was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world." After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995.
Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the "school of resentment" (multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, and others). He was educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University.

Reviews

[m · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of essays by prominent critics on The Scarlet Letter is very good. The essay by Henry James is excellent, as are the musings of Austin Warren, Mark Van Doren, and even Harold Bloom. The riffs of Harry Levin, of whom I'm a big fan, compare unfavorably to his peers'.

The book is available here: https://archive.org/details/nathaniel...

1. Introduction 7
2. Biographical Sketch 11
3. The Story Behind the Story 15
4. List of Characters 18
5. Summary and Analysis 21
6. Critical Views 50
7. Henry James on the Puritan Moral Presence in Hawthorne's Masterpiece 50
8. William Bysshe Stein on Chillingworth's Faustian Qualities 58
9. Harry Levin on the Darkness of Hawthorne's Theme 63
10. Darrel Abel on Dimmesdale and God's Wrath 68
11. Mark Van Doren on Pearl 74
12. Austin Warren on Dimmesdale's Ambivalence 76
13. Terence Martin on Hawthorne's Scaffold Scenes 89
14. Gordon Hutner on Hawthorne's Rhetoric of Secrecy 99
15. Charles Swann on the Role of the Custom House 104
16. Works by Nathaniel Hawthorne 112
17. Annotated Bibliography 114
18. Contributors 117
19. Acknowledgments 119
20. Index 121

[Norma · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Scarlet Letter, in keeping with transcendentalism, endorses intuition as a form of reason. Pearl, the child of the woods and of freedom, has the ability to use intuition in order to judge who is good and who is bad. She is also aware of her father, Reverend Dimmesdale, when, for example, as Dimmesdale is urging Hester to confess her lover's name, the child “directed its hitherto vacant gaze towards Mr. Dimmesdale, and held up its little arms, with a half pleased, half plaintive murmur” (Hawthorn 67). Roger Chillingworth is another character who displays intuitive knowledge, as when he comes to realize that Reverend Dimmesdale is Pearl's father. Further, it appears that Chillingworth is aware, at the end of the novel, of Hester's plans to leave on a ship with Dimmesdale, and directly moves to counteract the plans of the two lovers. Chillingworth displays a constant intuitive ability to create evil and manipulate the people about him.
The Scarlet Letter remains a deeply romantic, transcendental novel. It sympathizes greatly with the main character, who symbolizes many great qualities of the individual human being including free will, self-determination, self-reliance, great love, generosity and charity. Although the towns people believe they have the moral high ground, it is obvious that Hawthorn uses his rebellious character Hester to critique their cold and hypocritical lives, lives which are fostered by groupthink, hatred and intolerance, all of which serves to make their religious lives appear shallow and philosophically backward. Hawthorn uses his transcendental conception of morality, free will and religion to dissect and repudiate the Puritan world-view, a world-view which does violence to the innocent, beautiful and strong.

[Alli · Rating 2 out of 5]

I lost interest about 1/2 way through. The language is difficult and it must be a book you really WANT to read. I switched to Austen instead. I did read it in school, but wanted to refresh my memory. I guess half of it was all the refreshing I needed.