In Arther Cleveland Coxe’s review of The Scarlet Letter, he attacks the great American classic by claiming it is offensive towards morality and marriage. Coxe is baffled at how Hawthorne, the author of the book, wrote a story that he believes to be degrading to other pieces of ‘actual’ literature. He even insinuated he thinks the book was written to solely sell copies and to gain riches. Coxe believes the novel to be corrupting to young Christian women of present-day and uses the term “Christian maidens imagination,” to get his point across (Coxe).
In The Scarlet Letter, Hester, the main character, commits adultery while being married to another man. Although it was admitted that the narrative was written nicely and in good style, Coxe claims Hawthorne was implying that adultery is moral, due to Hester and her misters’ true love. He also suggested the author used Hesters’ own personal emotions to his advantage, to sway the readers to sympathize with her - in order to make his outrageous statements come across smoothly. I personally feel as if I took a completely different approach than Coxe did, therefore I could not disagree more with the majority of the statements he made regarding The Scarlet Letter’s morality and the novels alleged ‘corruption.’
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I believe that Hawthorne was not actually attempting to create a story about morality as Coxe stated. From my perspective, it seems more so that Hawthorne was trying to put a spotlight on how sometimes religious groups can be extremely unfair to those who have made mistakes, especially women. Throughout the novel, Hester was constantly public shamed and had to wear a physical scarlet letter A on her chest, for the sole purpose of dishonoring her for committing the sin that she did. It also focused more on her viewpoint, to show the trials she had to face to make the readers sympathize. Mid-novel, Hester decided to re-decorate the scarlet letter as a way of expressing that it did not define her. “... elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread,” (Hawthorne). I thought this was a brave act of not only feminism but also overcoming the struggles shes had to face, but the book would not let her get rid of this sin no matter how she tried, for the majority of the novel. “Ah, but let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will always be in her heart,” (Hawthorne). I believe this is proof that Hawthorne’s intentions were to portray the condemnation of religious groups on those who had done wrong, as opposed to whether or not adultery is moral or immoral.
Concerning the supposed corruption of the book, I disagree with the idea The Scarlet Letter is corrupting young Christian women and those who are easily influenced. Even though Coxe holds the viewpoint the novel is claiming morality for an immoral act, we get to see what happens when sin of this nature is committed. I feel as if the novel is clear on the harshness and cruelty Hester received, which should be enough in and of itself to deter those who might be thinking of doing something similar, instead of encouraging their thoughts of doing so.
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