Albert is deliberately cruel and vindictive for all those years and now he is punishing both Celie and Nettie's letters from Celie. Why do you think albert is punishing them? What did they do?

Mr. Albert ______ is often described as a very handsome man. He appears to want a conventional home with upright standards--a mother for his children and a wife to look after the house--but he is never really happy with the conventional standards of others. He is in love with Shug Avery and has been for many years before we meet him, but he never marries her because of the public's (especially his father’s) opinion of her. Caring only for Shug (he cries once in the novel because he is upset that nobody fights for Shug), he stubbornly sticks to old-fashioned views of women and of male authority without taking the time to understand how this is affecting his family. He is a coward for choosing the life he leads and is unhappy because of it, taking it out on his family. He hides the letters Nettie sends to Celie and prevents communication between them for years. When he finally hands the letters over, he begins his life afresh and starts to listen to people and to forge relationships with people he has never taken the time to get to know.