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The Original Work
TheScarlet Letter: ARomance is an 1850 work of fiction in a historical setting, written byAmerican author Nathaniel Hawthorne. The book is considered tobe his “masterwork”. Set in 17th-century Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony, during the years1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne,who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new lifeof repentance and dignity.Throughout the book, Hawthorneexplores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.
It was long thought that Hawthorne originallyplanned The Scarlet Letter tobe a shorter novelette which was part of a collection to benamed Old Time Legends andthat his publisher, James Thomas Fields, convinced him to expandthe work to a full-length novel. This is not true: Fields persuaded Hawthorne topublish The Scarlet Letter alone (along with the earlier-completed“Custom House” essay) but he had nothing to do with the length of thestory. Hawthorne’swife Sophia later challenged Fields’ claims alittle inexactly: “he has made the absurd boast that he was the solecause of the Scarlet Letter being published!” She noted that her husband'sfriend Edwin Percy Whipple, a critic, approachedFields to consider its publication. The manuscript was written at thePeter Edgerley House in Salem, Massachusetts, still standing as aprivate residence at 14 Mall Street. It was the last Salemhome where the Hawthornefamily lived.
TheScarlet Letter wasfirst published in the spring of 1850 by Ticknor & Fields, beginning Hawthorne’s mostlucrative period. When he delivered the final pages to Fields in February1850, Hawthornesaid that “some portions of the book are powerfully written” but doubted itwould be popular. In fact, the book was an instant best-seller, though,over fourteen years, it brought its author only $1,500. Its initialpublication brought wide protest from natives of Salem,who did not approve of how Hawthornehad depicted them in his introduction “The Custom-House”. A 2,500-copy secondedition included a preface by Hawthornedated March 30, 1850, that stated he had decided to reprint his Introduction “withoutthe change of a word... The only remarkable features of the sketch are itsfrank and genuine good-humor ... As to enmity, or ill-feeling of any kind,personal or political, he utterly disclaims such motives”.
TheScarlet Letter wasalso one of the first mass-produced books in
The Film Adaptation
TheScarlet Lette , 1995period film was directed by Roland Joffe, based on classic novel by NathanielHawthorne. The script by Douglas Day Stewart gives new meaning to the phrase"free adaptation". Plot, that strikes very little resemblance to Hawthorne's text, starts in Boston 1666. Hester Prynne (played by DemiMoore), free-thinking English woman comes there in order to prepare home forhusband Roger (played by Robert Duvall), who should accompany her later. Free-spirited and strong-willed Hester soon comes at odds with her Puritanneighbours and joins group of colony's outcasts led by cynical Harriet Hibbons(played by Joan Plowright). In the meantime she becomes attracted to ArthurDimmesdale (played by Gary Oldman), charismatic young priest who preachespeaceful coexistence with Indians. After hearing news about Roger's capture andsubsequent death at the hands of Indians two of them start a love affair. WhenHester bears child, she is punished by Puritan community and forced to weardress with letter "A" in public, thus being branded as adulteress.When her apparently alive husband returns from captivity, he takes differentidentity and begins to plot the revenge against lovers.
Complexity and richness of the originalnovel is here replaced with cheap melodrama and black-and-whitecharacterisation that has little to do with Hawthorne's text. Hester becomesultra-radical feminist. Dimmersdale is noble idealist, while cuckolded Mr.Prynne turns into sadistic killer that could fit better into horror movies.1990s "politically correct" makeover wasn't enough for filmmakers sothey made few more additions, including skinny-dipping, female masturbation,witch hunts and deus ex machina ending in the form of spectacular Indian attackon evil white men. Even if people aren't familiar with the novel, all thislooks false, mostly due to Demi Moore's tragic lack of ability to realisticallyportray character of Hester Prynne. Gary Oldman is somewhat better his effortsare vain, just great care about period details and spectacular reconstructionof 17th Century New England. The movie is simply too Hollywoodised version ofhistory that never allows viewers to suspend their disbelief (and John Barryusing Catholic-sounding motives in musical score set in Protestant town don'thelp either).
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