Her husband is old, past it, missing for years, thought dead, and a hunchback.
And a vengeful bastard and a truly poor loser, at that.
Was Hawthorne afraid we'd otherwise have little sympathy for his inwardly defiant, scornful, and remorseless "heroine"?
Was this the first "enlightened" book in America written in defense of adultery?
Yes, yes.
A defense of the sinner is not a defense of the sin.
Sure.
Divorce. Adultery. Fornication. Homosexuality.
In enlightened literature, the sinner is only a stalking horse for the sin.
The Scarlet Letter, 1850.
She's a better man than Dimmesdale, that's for sure.
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