The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Published 1850 · 401 pages · 83,005 words · about 9 hours at an average pace · Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Romance

How hard is The Scarlet Letter to read?

The Scarlet Letter scores 72 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it very challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 70 out of 100
Hawthorne employs a rich, formal vocabulary featuring numerous archaic words (e.g., 'ere,' 'thitherward,' 'hath,' 'forsooth,' 'lucubrations') and sophisticated literary terms. While not as dense with specialized jargon as 'Moby-Dick' (72), the frequent use of less common words and elevated diction places it significantly above 'The Great Gatsby' (45) in terms of lexical challenge.
Sentence structure: 75 out of 100
The text is characterized by exceptionally long, multi-clause sentences, often employing extensive subordination and parenthetical remarks that demand sustained reader attention. These complex grammatical structures, while not reaching the extreme experimentalism of 'Ulysses' (98) or the sheer length of 'Absalom, Absalom!' (85), are more intricate than '2666' (70) and require careful parsing.
Abstraction: 70 out of 100
Beyond the concrete narrative of Puritan society, the novel delves deeply into abstract concepts of sin, guilt, redemption, and human nature, often through extended philosophical digressions. The narrator frequently analyzes the psychological states and moral dilemmas of characters, elevating the content beyond mere social observation, placing it closer to 'Brothers Karamazov' (75) than 'The Great Gatsby' (58).
Information density: 68 out of 100
Hawthorne's prose is highly descriptive and analytical, packing each paragraph with detailed observations, psychological insights, and moral reflections. While not as encyclopedic or multi-layered as 'Ulysses' (90) or 'War and Peace' (80), the narrative requires close attention to absorb the nuanced characterizations and thematic explorations, making it denser than 'Lolita' (65) or 'The Great Gatsby' (48).
Narrative indirection: 60 out of 100
The 'Custom-House' introduction explicitly discusses the author's 'license' in shaping the narrative from historical fragments, creating a meta-fictional layer that requires readers to infer the boundary between fact and imagination. Within the main story, Hawthorne often describes characters' internal states and societal interpretations, but also frequently poses rhetorical questions or leaves symbolic meanings for the reader to fully unpack, such as Pearl's 'elf-child' nature or the meteor's ambiguous message. This is more indirect than direct exposition (like '1984'), but not entirely opaque.
Symbolic density: 85 out of 100
The novel is saturated with overt and subtle symbolism, from the literal scarlet 'A' itself, which constantly shifts in meaning (Adultery, Able, Angel), to Pearl, who is explicitly called 'a symbol' and 'the connecting link.' The prison door, the wild rose bush, the scaffold, the forest, and even characters like Chillingworth (the 'leech') carry heavy symbolic weight, often with the narrator directly pointing out their significance. This pervasive and multi-layered symbolism places it higher than 'The Great Gatsby' (75) and closer to 'Moby-Dick' (90).
Ironic distance: 80 out of 100
The novel employs significant ironic distance, particularly in the 'Custom-House' introduction, where the narrator's self-deprecating humor and critique of government bureaucracy contrast sharply with his profound reflections on his Puritan ancestors. Within the main narrative, the pervasive hypocrisy of the Puritan community, especially regarding Dimmesdale's public sanctity versus his private torment, creates a deep ironic tension between appearance and reality. The narrator often highlights this gap, such as when the townspeople interpret Dimmesdale's self-condemnation as a sign of his extreme holiness, placing it above 'The Great Gatsby' (70).
Resolution withholding: 70 out of 100
The excerpt demonstrates a strong tendency towards withholding, particularly regarding the identity of Pearl's father, which is a central mystery for the characters and initially for the reader. While the narrator implies Dimmesdale's guilt, explicit confirmation is delayed. The meteor in Chapter 12 is presented with multiple, conflicting interpretations by different characters, leaving its 'true' meaning ambiguous. The excerpt ends with many character fates and thematic questions unresolved, setting up further narrative tension, similar to 'The Crying of Lot 49' (75) in its immediate ambiguity.
Structural complexity: 70 out of 100
The most prominent structural complexity is the extensive 'Custom-House' frame narrative, which shifts the perspective from the historical tale to a contemporary (19th-century) first-person narrator reflecting on his creative process and the authenticity of the story. This meta-fictional device, along with flashbacks (Hester's memories on the scaffold) and the narrator's explicit discussion of his 'license' in shaping the narrative, creates a multi-layered structure. While the main story is largely chronological, this framing device adds significant formal experimentation beyond a simple linear narrative like 'The Great Gatsby' (55).

How The Scarlet Letter is regarded

The Scarlet Letter holds a literary regard score of 89 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Where The Scarlet Letter sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (178 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, The Scarlet Letter scores 58 out of 100. A second mythos, romance, pulls at it with a weight of 0.2. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic
the floor of our familiar room has become a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet
Symbol: Mythical (Archetypal)
A letter—the letter A—but freshly green instead of scarlet. The child bent her chin upon her breast, and contemplated this device with strange interest
Mythos: Tragedy iv (tragedy iv)
I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood, here, with this woman
Genre: Romance + Confession
This, in fact—a desire to put myself in my true position as editor, or very little more, of the most prolix among the tales that make up my volume

Where the story of The Scarlet Letter takes place

  • Puritan Boston, 1640s (1642 to 1649), the main setting
  • Puritan Boston, c. 1642-1649 (1642 to 1649)
  • Puritan Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1640s (1642 to 1649)
  • Salem Custom-House, 1846-1849 (1846 to 1849)

5 things that are true of The Scarlet Letter, with the passage for each

  1. The preface says the story's source is a scarlet embroidered letter A found in the Custom-House with the old Surveyor Pue's papers.

    It was the capital letter A. By an accurate measurement, each limb proved to be precisely three inches and a quarter in length.

  2. Chillingworth tells Hester he will not reveal himself and makes her swear to keep his identity secret.

    "Swear it!" rejoined he. And she took the oath.

  3. Hester names her daughter Pearl, saying the child was bought at the price of everything she had.

    she named the infant "Pearl," as being of great price—purchased with all she had—her mother's only treasure!

  4. On the midnight scaffold the minister sees a letter A in the sky, while the sexton later reads it as 'Angel' for Governor Winthrop's death.

    a great red letter in the sky—the letter A, which we interpret to stand for Angel.

  5. In the forest Hester throws the scarlet letter away and lets down her hair, and the sun bursts out.

    she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves.

Scenes in The Scarlet Letter that Frye would name

23 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Point of epiphany, untitled
Mr. Dimmesdale reached the spot where, now so long since, Hester Prynne had lived through her first hours of public ignominy. The scaffold is the book's recurring high place where public and private worlds touch.
Anagnorisis, untitled
That old man!—the physician!—he whom they call Roger Chillingworth!—he was my husband! Hester's revelation to Dimmesdale pivots the plot and recasts his suffering.
Pathos, untitled
That final word came forth with the minister's expiring breath. Dimmesdale's sacrificial death on the scaffold is the climax of the tragic action.
Pharmakos, untitled
Hester Prynne set forth towards the place appointed for her punishment. Hester is made the community's scapegoat, exhibited so its guilt can be displaced onto her.
Demonic imagery, untitled
old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil Chillingworth is rendered with demonic imagery of fire, blackness and fiendishness.
Confession, untitled
an autobiographical impulse should twice in my life have taken possession of me, in addressing the public Sustained introverted authorial self-disclosure opens the book.

Books that share these scenes with The Scarlet Letter

About the author

Nathaniel Hawthorne