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Title: Characterization in The Scarlet Letter
Review: The Scarlet Letter is overloaded with many superfluous words that requires the reader to sift through them all to get to the actual story. However, the strong characters are revealed through their actions more than through Hawthorne's descriptions. The story takes place in 17th Century Boston and Puritanical Law is heavily enforced. A young woman, Hester, has been imprisoned for getting pregnant while committing adultery. Now that the baby is 3 months old, they have her stand in the center of town with so she can be shamed by the whole town. Her husband just happens to come to town as she stands on the scaffold and thus the story continues in a dark spiral of hidden friendships, revenge, immense guilt, and sin. This story is a historical fiction told 200 years later and is full of symbolism and the ironies of human nature and society. The ending was rather abrupt as if Hawthorne was on a writing deadline and got tired of his own story.
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