“The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers - stern and wild ones - and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss”

Hawthorne originally intended The Scarlet Letter to be a short story but expanded it at the suggestion of his publisher. The Scarlet Letter Original Cover

The novel was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in The story starts off with the Custom House narrated by a clerk who introduces the legend of The Scarlet Letter by finding an embroidered piece of cloth with the letter “A” on it.

The Scarlet Letter is peopled with characters who are meant to be the embodiments of moral traits, rather than realistic, living figures.

The Scarlet Letter displays Hawthorne lifelong preoccupation with the themes of secrecy and guilt, the conflict between intellectual and moral pride, and the lingering effects of Puritanism. The Scarlet Letter Original title page

The Scarlet Letter The year is The place is Boston, a small Puritan settlement. Before the town jail, a group of somber people wait with stern expressions.

You will not know it yet. But even this early, Hawthorne has marked the thematic boundaries of his novel: –law and nature –repression and freedom

The Scarlet Letter This is Puritan Boston, where private wrongdoing is public knowledge.

1.Hester is turned into a living sermon by the Puritan society. 2.Who is introduced to portray evil? 3.Why does Chillingworth want his identity kept a secret?

Sin, Knowledge, and the Human Condition The Nature of Evil Identity and Society Civilization versus the Wilderness Night versus Day Names

Credits Much of the text was taken from Barron’s Notes on the Scarlet Letter. The graphics were scanned from an Illustrated Comic of the Scarlet Letter, screen shots from School Discovery.com, and the Hawthorne pages. Garnet Mayo & Katie Hillesheim