Lifelong Learning Institute at Waubonsee Community College

The Scarlet Letter (published in 1850) features these vivid lines: “They were, doubtless, good men, just and sage. But out of the whole human family, it would not have been easy to select the same number of wise and virtuous persons, who should be less capable of sitting in judgement of an erring woman’s heart, and disentangling its mesh of good and evil, than the sages, of ridged aspect, towards whom Hester Pyrnne her face.” How could a book almost 175 years old speak so presciently about modern events? Participants will read and discuss The Scarlet Letter in the context of its own time and discover what insights it might offer about the relationship of modern society and its own “scarlet women.”

Required Book: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne