Perhaps because some readers of

failed to see the novel's connection with

, the third and final novel in John Updike's “

Trilogy”,

, opens with two quotations taken from

. The first quotation refers to Hester's physical description – “she had dark and abundant hair, … how her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped.” This is a physical description with a spiritual component – she has a halo, almost as if she were a saint. The following quotation (“much of the marble coldness of Hester's impression was to be attributed to the circumstance that her life had turned, in great measure, from passion and feeling, to thought. … The world's law was no law…

1726 words

Citation: Gomez-Galisteo, M. Carmen. "S". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 October 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12963, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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