The Scarlet Letter (American Library)

With an introduction bu Nina Baym
Set in the harsh Piritan community of seventeenth century Boston, The Scarlet Letter is a dramatic, moving depiction of social defiance and social deference, ment of passion and human frailty. The adulterous entanglement is Hester Pry e and Athur Dimmesdale, the birth of the child, Pearl, and the reaction of the community to the "scandal" reveal Nathaniel Hawthorne's concern with the contrast between the private and public self. Hester Prynne, forced to wear a symbol of her disgrace, depends o inner strength with dignity and courage. She emerges as the first true heroine of American fiction, a figure of majestic resonance and scope. Dimmesdale, trapped by rules of society, suppresses his passion, and in disavowing Hester and Pearl, denies his private self. As Nina Baum point out in her Introdiction, The Scarlet Letter was not written as realistic, historical fiction. Rather, it is a "rokance" a creation of the imagination that discloses "the truth of the human heart".

Drama / Literatura Estrangeira