No longer "Not Committed"

And I have finally found a book that holds my attention: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

While reading the chapter called "The Custom-House" of The Scarlet Letter, I was utterly confused and bored. This chapter is evidently an introduction after the previous introduction. The main parts about the intros that are actually useful are that Hester Prynne committed adultery and is being punished by her Puritan community, Hester's husband randomly shows up from Europe after years of absence and wants to remain unknown to everyone other than Hester, and Hester's lover is Mr. Dimmesdale. Even if you do not read the 40 page intro, you could still pick up on the context clues that will tell you this information.

The book actually became interesting once the story began. I like the descriptive words that paint pictures. For example, Hawthorne described the platform that Hester must stand on for three hours as punishment. The entire description of the scaffold takes up nearly the whole page!

Hawthorne also does not repeat phrases very often, such as repeating the description of the scarlet letter A on Hester's clothing. (She must wear the letter A on all of her clothing for the rest of her earthly life as punishment for committing adultery, this punishment is the compromise from death.) Sometimes Hawthorne refers to it as the "red letter" or "the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom" or "mark of shame." There are many other examples but this is the simplest.

The title is obviously uttered in this book, but what makes it interesting is that the editor capitalized the phrase  when it was first mentioned in the story.

"Her attire, which indeed, she had wrought for the occasion in prison, and had modeled much after her own fancy, seemed to express the attitude of her spirit, the desperate recklessness of her mood, by its wild and picturesque peculiarity. But the point which drew all eyes, and, as it were, transfigured the wearer--so that both men and women who had been familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time--was that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.
'She hath good skill at her needle, that's certain," remarked one of her female spectators; "but did ever a woman, before this brazen hussy, contrive such a way of showing it? Why, gossips, what is it but to laugh in the faces of our godly magistrates, and make a pride out of what they, worthy gentlemen, meant for a punishment?'" -page 49 of Scarlet Letter

Most of the time, authors seem to enjoy "hiding" the title of the book in their story. This time, the author, or editor, decided to make the title very noticeable.