1. Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter

2. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE July 4, 1804: Born in Salem, MA
Education - Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine
Married Sophia Peabody
3 Children
Job at Custom House , 46-49
1850 – Scarlet Letter published
Moved to England, France, and Rome after Salem
Died

4. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
“The Scarlet Letter is powerfully written but my writings do not, nor ever will, appeal to the broadest class of sympathies, and therefore will not obtain a very wide popularity.”
-Hawthorne, after finishing the novel

5. HISTORICAL CONTEXT

6. HISTORICAL CONTEXT
: Early Colonial period- Puritan writings, no distinctive American literature
: Later Colonial period- Age of Reason/Enlightenment (Neoclassicism, Rationalism)

7. HISTORICAL CONTEXT
: American Renaissance/ Romanticism- slave narratives, inner feelings, the burden of a Puritan past, the rejection of Neoclassicism
Transcendentalism was a part of this…

8. HISTORICAL CONTEXT TRANSCENDENTALISM
Boston-centered movement, led by Emerson, was an important force in New England circles
Human existence transcends the sensory realm
Formalism in favor of individual responsibility
Belief in individual choice and consequence
Focus on the positive

9. HISTORICAL CONTEXT -use of supernatural
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

10. LITERARY ELEMENTS
Characters
Mood
Setting
Plot
Symbolism
Themes

11. LITERARY ELEMENTS:CHARACTERS
Hester Prynne- protagonist, married to Chillingworth, adultery with Dimmesdale

12. LITERARY ELEMENTS:CHARACTERS
Arthur Dimmesdale- pastor, intense suffering, tragic figure
Roger Chillingworth- physician, old, evil, deformed, diabolical vengeance on Dimmesdale
Pearl- beautiful daughter, sometimes imp-like, rebellious, inquisitive

13. LITERARY ELEMENTS:CHARACTERS
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

14. LITERARY ELEMENTS: MOOD
SOMBER and DARK
well-defined from the beginning
“sad-colored garments” of spectators, the prison door which is “heavily timbered and studded with iron spikes”

15. LITERARY ELEMENTS: SETTING
17th century Puritanical New England (Mass.)
What was America like then?

16. LITERARY ELEMENTS: SETTING
1630: Massachusetts Colony founded by Puritans
John Winthrop: first governor
governed based on religious and civic ideals
People were hardworking and devoted
PURITANISM involved belief that the church of England was too much influenced by the Catholic church
Strict moral code on which people were expected to act and be judged upon
Rejected belief that divine authority is channeled through any one single person (i.e. the pope)
THEOCRACY- state governed by the church

17. LITERARY ELEMENTS: SETTING
What aspects of this type of religious society can be seen in The Scarlet Letter?
What evidence from the text points to that?
How does Hawthorne view this type of society?

18. The Custom House

19. THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE READ…..
Literary Element: Plot

20. Chapters 1-8
How does Hawthorne want the reader to feel about happens to Hester Prynne in the opening chapters?
What evidence from the text points to that?

21. “One the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A.”
The Punishment

22. Chapters 1-8
“He was small in stature, with a furrowed visage which, as yet, could hardly be termed aged. There was a remarkable intelligence in his features, as of a person who had so cultivated his mental part that it could not fail to mould the physical to itself…one of this man’s shoulders rose higher than the other.”
Whom does Hester recognize in the crowd?
How does she feel about it?

23. Chapters 9-15
How does Dimmesdale really feel about his role in the community?
What evidence from the text supports your response?
What are the differences between Hester and Dimmesdale at the end, with her outward punishment and his inward punishment?

24. Chapters 9-15

25. Chapters 9-15
Wood engraving by Barry Moser for the Pennyroyal Press from the January 1991 edition of the Essex Institute Historical Collection.
Moser's image shows Arthur Dimmesdale with his eyes downcast and the scar of an "A" clearly visible on his chest.”

26. “..Though he were to step down from a high place, and stand beside thee on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life.”
To which character does this quote refer?

27. Chapters 9-15
How does Chillingworth’s appearance change over the course of time?
What evidence from the text can you find to support your answer?
“The Eyes of the Wrinkled Scholar Glowed” from 1878 edition of the novel
(Chillingworth called to prison cell as a healer and aid to Hester and Pearl)

28. Chapters 16-24 When does the climax of the novel occur? Include:
Who – characters involved
Where – place/s involved
When – time frame or frequency
What – the things that occur
Why – a reason for the previous four W’s

29. Chapters 16-24
The wearing of the scarlet letter was intended to isolate Hester from society.
Given the way in which her life ends, did it accomplish what the magistrates intended?
What evidence from the text supports your response?

30. For Homework
Which character deserves the most sympathy from readers?
Why?
What evidence from the text supports your response?
Include:
Who – characters involved
Where – place/s involved
When – time frame or frequency
What – the things that occur
Why – a reason for the previous four W’s
Be prepared to defend your response with the class.

31. SYMBOLISM
Discuss the symbolism in the following objects in The Scarlet Letter.
What implications are made through the use of these symbols?

32. The Prison Gate and the Rose
SYMBOLISM
The Prison Gate and the Rose
“But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems…This rosebush…has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness…It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow.”

33. Hester’s and Pearl’s Clothing
SYMBOLISM
Hester’s and Pearl’s Clothing
“Her own dress was of the coarsest materials and the most sombre hue; with only that one ornament—the scarlet letter—which it was her doom to wear.”
“The child’s attire, on the other hand, was distinguished by a fanciful, or, we might rather say, a fantastic ingenuity, which served, indeed, to heighten the airy charm that early began to develop itself in the little girl…”

34. SYMBOLISM PEARL (the name)
“Her Pearl!—For so had Hester called her; not as a name expressive of her aspect, which had nothing of the calm, white, unimpassioned lustre that would be indicated by the comparison. But she named the infant “Pearl,” as being of great price—purchased with all she had—her mother’s only treasure!”

35. SYMBOLISM
The A!
“It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony.”
“Not a stitch in that embroidered letter, but she has felt it in her heart.”

36. SYMBOLISM
The Leech
“He gathered herbs here and there”

37. MAJOR THEMES
Below is a list of ideas that Hawthorne explores in The Scarlet Letter. Throughout the novel, he develops specific themes based on them.
Society vs. individuality
Morality
Sin and Guilt
Isolation
The belief in fate vs. free will

38. MAJOR THEMES
Your Job:
Choose the idea that you think you can write about the best.
State the theme that Hawthorne develops based on that idea.
Find three pieces of evidence from the text of the novel (beginning-middle-end, with pages) that show the development of the theme.
Explain the development of the theme through your examples.
Draw a conclusion about Hawthorne’s development of this theme.

39. Your textual evidence must include:
Who – characters involved
Where – place/s involved
When – time frame or frequency
What – the things that occur
Why – a reason for the previous four W’s

40. THE END