The Scarlet Letter- Fisher

Ever since a few students in my eighth grade social studies class were punished for plagiarizing off of SparkNotes, I have managed to avoid using the resource throughout my high school years. It was not until recently that I discovered SparkNotes is far more than simply a place to cheat, but rather a valuable resource for many types of academic work. Throughout my reading of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I often found myself questioning what the author meant, what certain things symbolized, and if my interpretation and analysis of the plot and characters was correct. Therefore, I found that SparkNotes worked nicely with my own thoughts to allow me to truly understand the book as the author intended.

My analysis of this classic novel begins to contrast with SparkNotes even in the first few chapters. In the introductory scene, the focus of the story Hester Prynne is paraded before a crowd of judgmental onlookers, while displaying a scarlet A sewn onto her clothing and an illegitimate child in her arms, in order to be publically shamed for adultery. The people’s reaction to this display is terribly cruel and heartless, so much show that I assumed the author intentionally made their comments overly dramatic, in order to prove a point, that Puritans were horribly rude and judgemental. This is supported by one lady's comment about the severity of Hester’s punishment, where she says “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead. Madam Hester would have winced at that, I warrant me” (Hawthorne. 60). I noticed that this Puritan women seemed to revel in Hester’s suffering, and thus assumed her reaction was heavily exaggerated by the author, almost giving it a satirical effect. It seemed to me that this theme occurred throughout the book, as people continued to treat Hester with cruelty. However, much to my dismay, SparkNotes had absolutely no comment on the matter, which suggests that the Puritans’ reactions were intended to be genuine. This realization drastically changed my interpretation of the book, as I then began to think of all it’s elements as literal, rather than unrealistically exaggerated. Therefore, this was a major way SparkNotes altered my understanding of the book.

One area in which SparkNotes falls woefully short is in their analysis of one of the main characters, Arthur Dimmesdale. One aspect of Dimmesdale that fascinated me was how his relationship with God was hurt by his sin, and how that weighed on his conscience. Throughout the novel, it seemed to me that the hypocrisy represented by Dimmesdale’s position as a religious leader, despite the fact that he committed a terrible sin, was a major factor which contributed to his mental, emotional, and physical distress. This idea is reinforced by Dimmesdale’s final monologue, where he refers to his ministers band as a “burning torture to bear upon my breast” (Hawthorne, 307). This line shows that Dimmesdale is aware of God’s anger with him. However, SparkNotes simply never addresses this issue at all, and instead focuses on his guilt from a moral aspect rather than religious. SparkNotes argues that the guilt Dimmesdale feels from letting Madame Hester take all the blame for their sin is the sole cause of his personal deterioration, and the religious component is a non-factor. This is evidenced when SparkNotes says “The fact that Hester takes all of the blame for their shared sins goads his conscience” (SparkNotes). Unfortunately, this is the only comment SparkNotes makes on the issue, so I am unable to know if my theory about Dimmesdale is correct.

My final comment on SparkNotes comes from their analysis of Hester’s daughter Pearl, where she is classified  a little more than a symbol, who is only there to question the relationships and people in the world around her. I wholeheartedly reject this conclusion, because Pearl’s role in the novel is much more than only a symbol. It seems to me that Pearl served as the catalyst for some of the book's major events, most noticeably Dimmesdale’s eventual confession. Were it not for her constant criticism and judgement, many characters in the novel would have doubtless acted differently. While Pearl is a powerful symbol throughout the book, just as SparkNotes says, when a character has a drastic impact on the plot as Pearl does, it is safe to say that her role expands far beyond that.

Therefore, one of my first ever experiences with SparkNotes was very disappointing. I found their analysis of two of the main characters of the book, Dimmesdale and Pearl, to be very poor, because it did not examine all the possibilities. However, the one area where the use of SparkNotes did aide my understanding was in my understanding of the author's overall tone, because if not for SparkNotes I would have incorrectly interpreted the book as exaggerated and satirical, rather than literal.