Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel explores the theme of social stigma.
The Classic - The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
In Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, Hester Prynne finds herself in the middle of a scandal. She has given birth to a daughter long after she lost her husband at sea. As punishment for her immoral act, she is forced to wear a red A on her clothing and suffers public shaming and exclusion from her local society. Hester and her mysterious lover’s lives are driven to extremes because they have no support from the community.
Read a preview of The Scarlet Letter.
The Scarlet Letter
by Hawthorne, Nathaniel
"A perfect work of the American imagination."-D.H Lawrence
"The Scarlet Letter is so terrible in its pictures of diseased human nature as to produce most questionable delights. The reader's interest never flags for a moment...Hawthorne, when you have studied him, will be very precious to you. He will have plunged you into melancholy, he will have overshadowed you with black forebodings, he will almost have crushed you with imaginary sorrows; but he will have enabled you to feel yourself an inch taller during the process."-Anthony Trollope
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a razor-sharp novel set in a seventeen-century puritan community. The book examines the contradictions of good and evil, what is apparent and what is hidden, and the power of redemption.
After Hester Prynne, the protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, has a child out of wedlock, she is branded with the scarlet letter "A" on her dress. Shunned in her community as she refused to identify the father of her child, Hester lives with in a small cottage with her daughter, Pearl. Roger Chillingworth, an elderly physician, joins the community, and unbeknownst to all except for Hester, he is her long-departed husband, who was presumed to be dead. In his absence, Hester had an affair and subsequently gave birth to a child. Covertly aiming for revenge on the father of the child, Chillingworth descends on Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the young minister who he suspects in the illicit affair.
Within the remarkable character of Hester, Hawthorne examines female independence and the complexities of sin. With a surprising emotional pitch and powerful insights into the human condition, this is one of America's greatest novels.
Our Modern Companion - Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
A regular feature on banned book lists, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, explores the themes of shame and social stigma in a modern context. In the summer before her freshman year of high school, Melinda attends a party with her friends. She is raped and calls the police in response. However, when the other students find out what she did, they shun her, shame her, and terrorize her to the point she completely isolates herself.
While The Scarlet Letter is considered required reading in some schools, Speak is regularly challenged and asked to be removed from libraries. Both offer essential commentary on society, public humiliation, and the damage of stigmas.
Speak
by Anderson, Laurie Halse
From 2023 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award laureate Laurie Halse Anderson, the groundbreaking modern classic Speak is a bestselling National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature with more than 3.5 million copies sold.
"Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication.
In Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.
Discover more classics and their modern companion each week.