Alright, I'll admit that when I began The Scarlet Letter, I hated it. The language is a bit old and it's a lot to take in at once. It is a hard book to read, especially since Hawthorne thought it was perfectly acceptable to have paragraphs that were over 2 pages long (because it is very, very far from acceptable!).
On the surface, the novel explores the concept of sin in Puritan society, but it does so much more than that. Hawthorne wrote the novel to explore the concepts of love, hate, sin, pain, regret, redemption and revenge (to name a few) and he does it very well. Don't get me wrong, Hawthorne was a psychiatric genius, but the psychiatry in the novel feels extremely overdone, which takes away from the (very little*) plot that does take place.
However, Hawthorne does redeem himself in the final chapter when it is revealed what his biggest purpose for writing The Scarlet Letter was. [Read the spoiler at the bottom of the page if you wish.] All in all, the novel wasn't really something I enjoyed as a story, but I did somewhat enjoy the points Hawthorne was trying to examine and how he did so.
*I say very little because, to me, it felt like most of the novel was repeated descriptions.
<Begin Spoiler>Hawthorne's real purpose was to examine the concept that love and hate are in essence the same. Both require another person, either the object of love or the object of hate, and when that person dies there is no longer a reason for love or hate.</End Spoiler>(Original Post on December 30, 2011 at http://dft.ba/-BSMeyers105 )
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