Annotated Bibliography

Throughout my reading experience of the Scarlet Letter I found the text to be very difficult to understand. I tried rereading the sections that I found confusing, read them slowly, highlighted, and thought about the possible meanings of them that Hawthorn was trying to get across. However, I still caught myself dosing off and losing focus of the novel several times

 In XIV. Hester and the Physician I was confused by the conversation of Hester and Roger Chillingsworth regarding Dimmesdale. Chillingsworth says, “Thou hadst great elements. Preadventure, hadst thou met earlier with a better love than mine, this evil had not been. I pity thee, for the good that has been wasted in thy nature!” (113). Hester responds by saying, “And I thee, for the hatred that has transformed a wise and just man to a fiend! Wilt thou yet purge it out of thee, and be once more human? If not for his sake, then doubly for thine own! Forgive, and leave his further retribution to the Power that claims it! I said, but now, that there could be no good event for him, or thee, or me, who are here wandering together in this gloomy maze of evil, and stumbling, at every step, over the guilt wherewith we have strewn our path” (113). It seems to me that Chillingsworth is trying to tell Hester that she has made a mistake falling in love with another man, which is Dimmesdale and that he hopes that she becomes miserable with him and goes to hell. I believe Hester is saying that Chillingsworth used to be a great husband and a great man, but has changed ever since he left her and went to Europe. Now that Hester has moved on and found Dimmesdale, she does not want Chillingsworth to cause harm to him because it would affect all three of their lives. I thought that this was a weird conversation for both Hester and Chillingsworth to have in the first place. I also cannot understand Chillingsworth’s character throughout this novel and why he says and does some of the things he does. I want to know why he does not want anyone to know who he is and why he does not want Dimmesdale to know who he is. Since it seems like Chillingsworth and Dimmesdale have been around eachother a lot because Chillingsworth plans on killing him because he wants to kill the father of Pearl. Why doesn’t Chillingsworth just kill him right away if he knows that he is the father of Pearl?

I could be way off on interpreting this passage because I have found it very difficult to understand. All of the fancy language has really thrown me off and caused me to lose focus and engagement in this reading. Not only is this book difficult to read it is also very boring. Unlike The Flowers by Dagoberto Gilb, The Scarlet Letter does not contain the typical modern everyday language the we are accustomed to, or the slang and bathroom humor that a lot of kids like to read.