1. The Scarlet Letter A

2. About the Author Nathaniel Hawthorne
Born July 4, 1804 in Salem, Mass.
What do we know about Salem??
Reclusive at times
Worked in the Salem Custom House
Wrote Twice-Told Tales, The House of Seven Gables, The Scarlet Letter, etc.
Married Sophia Peabody and their daughter, Una became the model for the character, Pearl.

3. About the Author Served as the United States consul to Liverpool
Died in 1864
Buried in Concord, Massachusetts
Great-great-great-great grandfather, John Hathorne, was judge at Salem witch trials

4. Before Reading the Novel
Answer the following questions:
Have you ever heard someone talk about being branded with a scarlet letter or call someone a scarlet woman? What might this mean?
What is adultery? Is there more than one kind of adultery? Should adultery be considered a crime?

5. Historical Context: Setting of the novel
Boston Colony founded 1630
John Winthrop (governor)
Puritans wanted to “purify” the Church of England of all traces of Catholicism in liturgy, theology, and church organization
Recognized the Bible as the sole source of religious authority

6. Historical Context Maintained a theocracy
Believed in predestination or Doctrine of the Elect
Inflicted public punishments to deter others from straying from righteousness (hanging, whipping, humiliation, etc,)

7. Private Wrongdoing IS
Public Knowledge.

8. Literary Context
Hawthorne didn’t write the novel during the Colonial Period.
He wrote during the Romantic Period.
This mean description, figurative language, symbols, imagination, etc…are of utmost importance.

9. Literary Context Hawthorne was a Dark Romantic… Feeling over reason
Looked at both positive and negative of humanity
Looked to the past
Looked to nature
Uncover “masks” of society

10. The Plot The novel is set in the mid 1600s in Boston, Massachusetts.
The plot encompasses a seven year period.
The plot involves the love triangle of wife-lover-husband.
The major theme of the novel is developed in the context of good vs. evil.

11. Point of View Third-Person Omniscient
Hawthorne reveals the inner and outer workings of the characters and provides social criticism, history, and psychology.

12. Characters Hester Prynne- wearer of the scarlet letter
Pearl- child of Hester; living symbol of Hester’s sin
Roger Chillingworth- learned scholar; doctor
Arthur Dimmesdale- admired young minister
Governor Bellingham- governor and magistrate of Massachusetts Bay Colony
Rev. John Wilson- senior minister of colony
Mistress Hibbins- a suspected witch

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

14. Hester Prynne Hester: Prynne:
Hestia in Greek mythology, Zeus’s sister, a woman of beauty
hestier (hasty)
Prynne:
Prurient: interest in sex
prune: purify or cut back/restore to original state
pry: probe into the interior of one’s heart

15. Pearl (Hester’s daughter)
What do you think Pearl’s name means?
Think of what color pearls are…
White…
Pure, good…
Okay, and what about their worth?
Priceless
Precious

16. And the others… Be thinking about Roger Chillingworth
What words do you see in his name?
What does Roger mean?
Arthur Dimmesdale
What could his name mean?
What words do you see in it?

17. The Scarlet Letter
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.
Original title page

18. Major Symbol The scarlet letter itself is the central symbol.
It changes meaning for the characters in the novel as Hester’s character changes.
The A becomes a pathway to redemption for some characters as well.
Watch the many ways Hawthorne uses a symbol

19. The Symbolic Letter “A”
The scarlet fire, passion, and life
They averred, that the symbol was not mere scarlet cloth, tinged in an earthly dye-pot, but was red-hot with infernal fire, and could be seen glowing all right, whenever Hester Prynne walked abroad in the night-time. (Hawthorne, 1984: 95)
Warmth: the acts of charity she performs to those in trouble
Sin: in the Bile, the Jezebel wears scarlet
Torture: fire in the hell
Sacrifice: to devote all their life and passion to religion

20. Themes
Many ideas Hawthorne explores in The Scarlet Letter are still important today and frequently recur in other literary works.
Alienation
Appearance vs. Reality
Breaking society’s rules

21. The Custom House
Hawthorne claims to have gotten the idea for this novel from the papers of Jonathan Pue. Among the papers, Hawthorne allegedly found an embroidered scarlet A and information on a Hester Prynne.

22. The Custom House Describes the interior/exterior of the Custom House
Describes Hawthorne’s feelings about his native town of Salem
Makes critical comments about the Whig party/ reveals Hawthorne’s involvement as a Democrat
Describes his early attempts to write Hester’s story.

23. The Prison-Door
Hawthorne opens The Scarlet Letter just outside the prison of what, in the early 1640s, was the village of Boston.

24. The Prison-Door
Ask yourself what you know about a novel that begins in a prison?

25. The Prison-Door
You probably suspect you are reading the story of a crime already committed...

26. The Prison-Door
One note of color relieves the gloom. A wild rose bush blossoms by the prison door.
The rose bush suggests a world beyond the narrow confines of the Puritan community….

27. The Prison-Door
…a world where beauty and vibrant color flourish and crime finds tolerance and pity….

28. What to do…
Now turn to Chapter 1 of the book. What do you learn from the title of this chapter about the setting?
You will be doing a visualization activity. Close your eyes and listen to what you are hearing as I read Chapter One out loud. You don’t need to write anything down.
Open your eyes, take out your notebooks, and listen again as I read chapter one again. Only this time write DESCRIPTIVE WORDS (adjectives) as you listen, still visualizing.

29. You will now transform paragraph 1 of Chapter 1 into a visual image.
Artistic skill is not the point of this activity. The point is to include as much detail as possible.

30. Why would the image of a prison door be ironic for a utopian world?
Now look at the two images of the black flower and wild rose bush. What might they represent? Think about the color of a rose.

31. Reflection
Did you get a clear image in your mind of the opening scene for the story? Did you become more comfortable with the language and thick imagery? By the end of this lesson, your minds should be brimming with The Scarlet Letter images!!

32. About the Romance It is about adultery, but not about sex.
It is about punishment, but not about crime.

33. The Scarlet Letter
The image Hawthorne gives us is that of a young woman taken in adultery, and standing on a scaffold in the midst of a hostile crowd.