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1* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
2** Hawthorne plays with just how much Hester's motivation to stay near a town that shuns her is due to her attachment to her lover Dimmesdale, due to imagined obligations stemming from guilt, or a human need to atone due to her conditioning by her old religious society. Nonetheless, he portrays her as nurturing as she could be, to both her child and the Puritan folks she assists.
3** Later, it's said in the end Hester imagined herself as some kind of savior but her mind quashes the notion. But the text makes it clear that this is in Hester's mind and leaves the reader to decide whether this is low self-esteem or just an admission of humility.
4** Chillingworth, Dimmsdale and Pearl have all received different interpretation that decrease or increase the level of sympathy the readers have towards them. See below.
5* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Hawthorne ''himself'' never expected the book to be popular; ''boy'' was he wrong.
6* {{Anvilicious}}: Basically all the symbolism. Also, making Chillingworth ugly to show he was the bad guy.
7* BrokenBase:
8** The so-called introduction. Is it a fictional FramingDevice or Hawthorne's real life behind the scenes essay (if this case it's also BasedOnAGreatBigLie)? You'll find plenty of editions, including academic ones, that omit it as deeming it to be the latter.
9** While this rarely goes into disliking of the book itself you will find some fans of Hawthorne who consider how the book is used in modern English lit have hurt Hawthorne's reputation. These people generally feel ''The Scarlet Letter'' is a poor choice to be your "first" or "only" Hawthorne exposure. Mainly just reading ''The Scarlet Letter'' may turn some off from reading more Hawthorne, but reading more Hawthorne will make you appreciate ''The Scarlet Letter'' more. This averted by those who legitimately think this was the man's greatest novel and/or the only one worth making the cut.
10* DesignatedHero: Despite choosing not to confess that he was Hester’s lover and thus letting her take all the blame for their adultery, Dimmesdale is supposed to be a good guy. He does redeem himself, but only at the very literal end, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath when he has nothing left to lose.]]
11* FairForItsDay: Hester Prynne can be considered a "proto-feminist" figure, being a single mother who earned her keep despite being ''somewhat'' attached to her stigma even after she's freed. It's notable too that unlike other literary DefiledForever female protagonists, Hester got to live a full life, see to it that her child received a good life, and die of old age. It helps that the text encourages us not to judge Hester for her actions and doesn't take a standpoint on how she should handle her situation.
12* IronWoobie: Hester has been scapegoated and shamed by almost everyone, but she struggles to atone and redeems herself.
13* ItWasHisSled: Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl.
14* JerkassWoobie: Dimmesdale, who suffers greatly but also left Hester to be publicly ostracized, [[DirtyCoward while he stands on the sidelines saying nothing]] almost the entire novel.
15* SlowPacedBeginning: "The Custom-House" chapter is very long and has nothing to do with the story.
16* TooBleakStoppedCaring: InUniverse, the author/narrator notes in ''The Custom House'' that his story is too dark to be popular for this reason.
17* UnintentionallySympathetic:
18** Roger Chillingworth. He is portrayed as wickedly and disturbingly obsessed, though Hester does note that she shouldn't have wronged him in the first place. He does little or nothing objectively bad (somewhat depending on interpretation). He has done a lot of good things though: at great personal risk he has learned medicine from the Indians and uses it for the benefit of the community. He forgives Hester, even saying that her infidelity was mostly his fault, and medicates Pearl. He also lets her go, despite the fact that apparently he still loves her. He helps the man he suspects is the man who cuckolded him-even Dimmesdale admits that Chillingworth saved his life. Chillingworth correctly insists that Dimmesdale needs to fess up to whatever is on his conscience to truly regain his health. Yet everyone, including the narrator, Dimmesdale, Hester and Chillingworth himself assumes he does all of these things for the worst reasons.
19** Pearl. The public, and even Hester at times, in the book sees her as a product of sin. The fact that she is a child of a single mother, shunned by the community as well as mentioning that she could have had a better life if Hester would just leave the village, make her more sympathetic than she was probably intended to be. Many readers also think that she is a girl misunderstood by the whole community (who take every little "bad" thing she does and connects it to her being an illegitimate child) and brought up by a mother too distracted by her guilt to discipline her.
20* ValuesDissonance: Suffice it to say that most modern students who read the book in high school today (in a day and age where societal norms have changed) cannot see what the big deal is or why ''anyone'' would be so willing to accept a punishment the way Hester did (comparing English Lit and History is rarely suggested.)
21* {{Wangst}}:
22** [[spoiler: Dimmesdale, would you just confess already?! You're wasting away.]]
23** Nicely averted with Hester. Although Hester is grieved and despondent at her place as an outcast, she gathers dignity to live and redeems herself gradually to her townsfolk -- she is forced to take responsibility, and so she does so. Dimmesdale, her obvious foil, wastes himself away.
24* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic:
25** Pearl. Then again, this ''is'' a classic...
26** It is commonly taught in English classes the country over that the chapter "A Flood of Sunshine" is, in fact, one long literary metaphor for sex. Considering lines like, "All at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the obscure forest..." - well, is it any wonder?

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