1. Time, Place, and Mood. Hannah Gonzalez, Fred Fonseca, Jahilia Dickson Period.8 AP English Mr. Gonzalez

2.  The Scarlet Letter is set in the 17 th century.  In the first half of this century, much of the time period is recognized by the constant conflict between the Catholics and Protestants. The goal was to have a universal church and empire. Every city and kingdom was divided by religion.  The Scarlet Letter more specifically, takes place in 1642. The first half of the 17 th century.  This fresh new colony deriving their origin from England were Puritans, who had fled from England to resist conforming to Anglican rituals. The Puritans wanted to abandon traditions not in scripture and simplify their religious practice.  Because they emphasized redemptive piety, they were very strict about their actions and to maintain order they were strongly disciplined. Their ethic was that hard work was an honor to God, which would be rewarded.

3.  The Scarlet Letter takes place in what is known as New England. Which to these Puritan settlers was known as the “New World”. This “New World” is currently located in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, new Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.  The Forest and Hester: Much of this area when first settled in was surrounded by forests. Which is where Hester is able to speak to Dimmesdale secretly. The forest is a good visual representation of the gloomy and dark mood of the book. It is also curious that this is where Hester’s mind can be free, since her mind is so out of order much like the wild. “ She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness, as vast, as intricate, and as shadowy as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of which they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate.” page 134.

4.  Weather: the weather chosen for the scenes in The Scarlet Letter often are symbolic of one another. Whenever Pearl is the focus of the scene, for example, the weather always consists of brightness. Because Pearl represents Hester’s only ounce of purity. “ She made the somber crowd cheerful by her erratic and glistening ray...” page. 166.  When Hawthorne wants to foreshadow, the weather is dim and tense. “ Life had never brought them a gloomier hour…the forest was obscure around them, and creaked with a blast that was passing through it…while one solemn old tree groaned dolefully to another, as if telling the sad story of the pair that sat beneath, or constrained to forbode evil to come.” page.131.  However, when there is a positive advance in Hester’s life whether it be with Pearl or Dimmesdale, the weather becomes vivid and content. “ All at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the obscure forest, gladdening each green leaf, transmuting the yellow fallen ones into gold, and gleaming adown the gray trunks of the solemn trees…such was that the sympathy of nature..” page. 136.

5.  Nothing Else Matters by Nirvana