And it's Over

After three weeks of reading through The Scarlet Letter, we are finally done! And just as quickly as our journey into the book has ended, so was the ending of the books itself.  In all honesty, I was a little disappointed in the very anti-climatic ending of The Scarlet Letter.  After battling daily and weekly to finish reading the chapters for homework, the ending of the book left a bitter feeling of disappointment with me.  Every night, when trying to read the book, I found myself falling asleep.  It really was like a battle, struggling to get through the chapters assigned before I would be too tired and to sleepy to read on.  Hawthorne's long, descriptive sentences also often left me wondering what he was even saying when I finally did reach the end of it!  Now, the book itself was very good.  The story of Hester's struggle to deal with her sin and raise her child while being shunned to the bottom of society was very interesting.  Also, Hester's strength throughout her struggle also was inspiring and left something for the readers to learn from.  Dimmesdale's struggle with his internal guilt and his battle with Chillingworth was very intense and intriguing   After such well written build up to this moment of climax, I was a little disappoint by how Dimmesdale finally dies.  After giving his speech at the Election Day sermon, he decides to finally face his guilt and suddenly, within 5 pages, he confesses his sin and dies.  In his final moments he says, "By bringing me hither, to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people! Had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost forever! Praised be his name! His will be done! Farewell!" (Hawthorne 252).  To me, it felt as though Dimmesdale's death was very sudden and random.  In fact, after reading the chapter, I wondered to myself, "Couldn't have this happened about 100 pages back?"  Now although my disapproval of the ending is quite evident, I would like to end by saying I did enjoy the rest of the book very much.  Although it was a bit tiring and sometimes hard to read, the story line was very interesting and it left lessons for all readers to take away.