Scarlet Letters

Today's word-of-the-day from wordsmith.org is eldritch, and, as I just posted on Facebook, I learned that word while reading The Scarlet Letter; it appears in the last sentence of chapter 7:

Pearl, in utter scorn of her mother's attempt to quiet her, gave an eldritch scream, and then became silent; not from any notion of obedience, but because the quick and mobile curiosity of her disposition was excited by the appearance of these new personages.

It was a word, by the way, that I put on my English III vocab list when I was teaching juniors at Western Reserve Academy (2001-2011). I'm positive that they all remember it! As I'm sure they remember every syllable of The Scarlet Letter, a required text for English III.

I don't recall reading that novel when I was in high school or college--but I must have. Okay, let's be more accurate: Some teacher or professor must have assigned it, but as for my actually reading it? Don't think so--as least not too assiduously. Like many other readers, I could not hack my way through the "Custom House" sequence at the beginning. (In my last couple of years of teaching we read this section aloud in class--as certain a soporific as one could find!) Below is a pic of the actual text we used.

And here are a couple of things I noticed, teaching this book for a decade:

• I remember being shocked when I discovered, reading the book (well, I must have read some of it early on ... right?) that Rev. Dimmesdale was the man who'd impregnated Hester. My grandfather was a minister; my uncle was a minister; my father was a minister. Surely, they would never ... ?!!?
• The more I taught the book, the more I found myself weeping when Hester urges Dimmesdale to run away--to leave Boston. But the Wimp just whines ... and here's the passage that sent tears into my old-man eyes:

“O Hester!” cried Arthur Dimmesdale, in whose eyes a fitful light, kindled by her enthusiasm, flashed up and died away, “thou tellest of running a race to a man whose knees are tottering beneath him! I must die here! There is not the strength or courage left me to venture into the wide, strange, difficult world, alone!”

It was the last expression of the despondency of a broken spirit. He lacked energy to grasp the better fortune that seemed within his reach.

He repeated the word.

“Alone, Hester!”

“Thou shalt not go alone!” answered she, in a deep whisper.

Then, all was spoken!

Thou shalt not go alone. Oh ... love and devotion in so few words ... Then, all was spoken!

There are more things--but, hey, read (re-read) the book yourself; hack your way through the Custom House section; lose yourself in the story. It's hard to believe, I know, but an 1850 novel about New England Puritans can move you.

And let's end all of this with a smile--with some newspaper cartoons that play on The Scarlet Letter--and the first one plays on an allusion to Gone with the Wind!