Annotated bibliography

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings. Norton Critical Edition. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. Print. 


In this novel Hawthorne tells the story of Hester Prynne and how her husband "left" her. And while e was gone Hester committed adultery and had a baby from it. The husband was the towns own famous Minister Auther Dimmesdale. Hester refuses to say who the husband is, so instead of being burned or killed she must wear the letter "A" on her chest for life to show the crime she had done. Hester is a renegade and a social outcast yet she sort of embraces it to show early signs of feminism. Her daughter Pearl is also a little trouble maker child compared to the puritan community and the ways of the normal children. She as well wears an "A" and sticks up for her own mother. The husband who "left" her comes back and sees hester on the stage and every one criticizes her and he goes undercover to try and find out what man would not be next to her on that stage. So he takes up a new name and becomes the towns doctor. He ends up becoming crazy and tries to kill Dimmsdale with poison when he finds that He had branded an "A" on his chest. It is a very complex and detailed character description and social interaction novel. So many social norms every one must abide to, and to have a first social outcast that was not a witch but a criminal per say in the eyes of a puritan. Hawthorne has created a piece of literary art work.