1. Answer the following questions on your own paper
1. Is it natural for humans to condemn each other for mistakes and flaws? What are the effects of this? 2. What does sin do to a person? 3. Can we and should we be forgiven from the sins of our past? 4. What are the effects of being exiled or shunned from a society? Do we always want to get back in?

3. Nathaniel Hawthorne Born July 4, 1804 in Salem, MA
Education- Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine
Married Sophia Peabody in 1842
4,000 copies of The Scarlet Letter sold in the first 10 days
Died in 1864

4. Hawthorne is buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Massachusetts.
Hawthorne’s Grave
Hawthorne is buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Massachusetts.

5. Hawthorne’s Background
John Hathorne presided over and played a key role in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692
Major William Hathorne ( ) persecuted Quakers
Inherited Guilt – born in Salem, Massachusetts and was descended from a prominent Puritan family.
He believed that evil was a dominant force in the world, so his fiction expressed a gloomy version of human affairs.

6. Inspiration for The Scarlet Letter
The author tells about his life working at the Custom House in Salem, Massachusetts.
During his time there, he discovers some records in the attic and begins to piece together the story of Hester Prynne, an adulterous woman in Puritan Salem.
The Scarlet Letter is his account of the story gathered from the documents he found.

7. What happens when a private sin
The Story
What happens when a private sin
becomes a public crime?

8. The Scarlet Letter Introduction
In Puritan New England a young woman named Hester Prynne gives birth to a baby girl.

9. Sounds good and all, but there’s just one problem…
Who’s the Father??

10. She becomes the talk of the town!
Say What?!
Hester’s husband has been MIA for some time now.
So when Hester becomes pregnant, everyone knows it can’t be his!
She becomes the talk of the town!

11. Crime and Punishment
The town punishes Hester harshly for her sin of adultery and for not confessing the identity of the father.
First, she is imprisoned. Second, she is condemned to wear the scarlet A. Third, she is publicly shamed.

12. Crime and Punishment
Hester is treated as an outcast in the Puritan society.

13. That Ain’t Right!!
It seems as though the father of Hester’s baby gets to live his life without punishment…
Or does he???

14. Historical Overview Romantic work of fiction in a historical setting
Set in 17th century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649
Hawthorne explores themes of sin and guilt

15. Historical Context Cont…
Puritan Religious Beliefs:
- Humans exist for the glory of God
- The Bible is the sole expression of God’s will
- Each individual is depraved because of original
sin
- Good is accomplished ONLY through continual
hard work and self discipline
- Predestination: God had already chosen who
would be in Heaven or Hell; each believer had no
way of knowing which group they were in

16. Historical Context Puritan Beliefs of Women:
- considered to be “the weaker vessel in both mind and body”
- manipulated their born roles in order to fulfill their aspirations and goals
- legal rights were limited
- most important role was that of being a mother
- culturally inferior to men
- were viewed as instruments of Satan
- were expected to marry; those who did not were not accepted by society

17. Puritan Crime and Punishment
Any crime that was against the church (or God) was considered a crime against the state.
It was illegal to miss church on Sabbath days or to sleep during sermons, which could last up to 3 hours or longer.

18. Puritan Crime and Punishment
Basically, any offense could land people in the stocks.
The entire purpose of the stocks was public display of your crime and public punishment.
Stocks were built on scaffolds in the middle of the village where other villagers could mock the “criminal” and throw things at them such as rotten vegetables or stones.
Besides having their hands immobilized, the “criminal’s” ears would frequently be nailed to the board behind his or her head as well.

19. Crime and Punishment

20. Puritan Crime and Punishment
After serving time in jail and then on the pillory, a convicted criminal would often be required to wear some outward sign of his or her offense.
In 1637, as punishment for writing an essay that criticized the archbishop, William Prynne (no relation to the central character in The Scarlet Letter) – after being put in the stocks – had the letters “SL” (for “seditious libeler”) branded onto his cheeks.

21. Historical Context
SUBDIVISION OF ROMANTICISM: GOTHIC LITERATURE, the “dark romantics”( )
-use of supernatural
-motif of double (both good and evil in
characters; sin and evil does exist)
-depression, dark forests
-Poe, Hawthorne, Melville
-emphasis on symbolism

22. Characters in The Scarlet Letter
Hester Prynne – protagonist, condemned in society for adultery
Arthur Dimmesdale - pastor, intense suffering, tragic figure
Roger Chillingworth- physician, old, evil, deformed
Pearl- beautiful daughter, sometimes imp-like, rebellious, inquisitive

23. Characters in The Scarlet Letter
Gov. Bellingham- based on actual governor of Boston
John Wilson- eldest clergyman, based on actual English minister
Mistress Hibbins- based on figure executed for witchcraft, appears to know a great deal about the adultery

24. Main Themes SIN and its affect on the individual
- Hawthorne explores this by tracing the consequences of different kinds of sin on 3 different characters: Hester, Arthur, and Roger.
- The consequence of sin is alienation, and as their sins differ, so do the kinds of alienation that result from them.

25. Main Themes
REVENGE
- Revenge is a dish best served cold.

26. Main Themes WOMEN AND FEMININITY
- In The Scarlet Letter, we see all kinds of women, from the bitter witch-like Mistress Hibbins to the gentle piety of the one of two wives who actually feels sorry for Hester.

27. Main Themes COMPASSION AND FORGIVENESS
- Will Hester be forgiven for her BIG sin?

28. Main Themes
HYPOCRISY
- In The Scarlett Letter, hypocrisy is one of the worst sins that man can commit.

29. Main Themes GUILT AND BLAME
- Will guilt rule in the end? Will the blame be put on the right person?

30. Main Themes JUSTICE AND JUDGMENT
- In Puritan America, there was no difference between God’s law and man’s law.
- To them, breaking man’s law is the same as breaking God’s law.
- Will true justice be served in the end?

31. Main Themes
Isolation
- Puritan society in The Scarlet Letter is judgmental and cruel.
- Because of her sin, Hester hides out in a cottage on the edge of town.

32. Main Themes THE SUPERNATURAL
- There are several instances of the supernatural in The Scarlet Letter, such as eyes glowing red, meteors in the shape of an A, and witches who hang out with the Black Man in the woods.

33. Main Themes FATE AND FREE WILL
- The Puritans believed that their entire lives were governed by God.
- The characters in The Scarlet Letter struggle with either letting fate run its course or choosing their own paths.

34. Main Themes MAN AND NATURE
- In The Scarlet Letter, nature is personified.
- It is where all of the good stuff goes down.

35. Let the madness begin…