The Scarlett Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, so far, has talked about a woman, Hester Prynne, who has been convicted adultery. This is the actual story, however the introduction of the story was confusing to me. If I understood some of it right, I think it says that Hawthorne, or whoever is the narrator, finds a book or some pages and then he begins to read them. I think at first they describe the world, that the person who wrote them, is living in. I think he finds the Scarlett letter A, which we later find out is Prynne’s. I’m not really sure if the other stuff said are the narrator’s words or if it’s still part of the pages that he is reading. Is the actual story being written by the narrator or is it being read from the pages found? Also, I don’t know if my reasoning and summary are correct so I would appreciate if someone could correct the summary and answer my question.
You didn't have to read that section(I.e. The Custom House), you were supposed to skip to the part were The Scarlet Letter chapter begins. I read the first part of the book and believe the narrator is Hawthorne himself. He is just talking about where he grew up,and all the people he grew up with and how he found the Scarlet letter. He starts talking really badly about everyone in his town, and I think he gets in trouble in real life for depicting everyone in a negative light. He also says something about being compelled to read and publish the contents of the Scarlet Letter after reading it. I think the actual book is about his interpretation/summary/made-up story of what it said in the Scarlet Letter, however I don't think the Scarlet Letter every actually existed. The beginning of the book confused me too. I should read it again, if I have time after reading the book. Though, I don't think we were suppose to read it in the first place.
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