The Scarlet Letter

							The Scarlet Letter


 By Nathaniel Hawthorne
 “Ibelieve that The Scarlet Letter,
 like all great novels, enriches our
 sense of human experience and
 complicates and humanizes our
 approach to it.”

    from Solitude, Love, and Anguish:
 The Tragic Design of the Scarlet
 Letter by Seymour L. Gross
         Historical Context
   Boston Colony founded 1630
   John Winthrop (leader)
   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
   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,)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
              Hawthorne once
               said: “I do not want
               to be a doctor and
               live by man’s
               diseases, nor a
               minister to live by
               their sins, nor a
               lawyer and live by
               their quarrels. So, I
               don’t see that there
               is anything left for
               me but to be an
               author.”
        About the Author
   Born July 4, 1804 in      Married Sophia
    Salem, Mass.               Peabody and
   Reclusive at times         fathered Una (who
                               became the model for
   Served as a magazine       Pearl)
    editor
                              Served as the United
   Worked in the Salem        States Consul to
    Custom House               Liverpool
   Lived at Brook Farm       Died in 1864
   Wrote Twice-Told          Buried in Concord,
    Tales, The House of        Massachusetts
    Seven Gables, The
    Scarlet Letter, etc.      Great-great-great-
                               great grandfather,
                               John Hathorne, was
                               judge at Salem witch
                               trials
            Plot/Setting
 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.
          Point of View
 Third-Person
 Omniscient…Hawthorne reveals the
 inner and outer workings of the
 characters and provides social
 criticism, history, and psychology.
                  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- Gov. Bellingham’s sister
             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 the scarlet A as
    a symbol…
      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
    Hester Prynne.
       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.
The Scarlet Letter
The Prison-Door

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

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

      You probably suspect
       you are reading the
       story of a crime
       already committed,
       of characters whose
       lives are already
       darkened by guilt
       and disgrace….
The Prison-Door

        And, in the case of
         The Scarlet
         Letter…
          ... you are
          quite right.
The Prison-Door

        Look carefully at the
          details of the
          opening scene: “The
          sad-colored
          garments” of the
          spectators; the
          prison-door itself,
          “Heavily timbered
          with and studded
          with iron spikes.
The Prison-Door

           These details create
            a somber mood;
            they paint a
            cheerless picture.
            And they hint, as
            well, at a society
            that places
            punishment far
            above forgiveness
            on its scale of
            values.
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.
           The Prison-Door
A world where beauty
  and vibrant color
  flourish and crime
  finds tolerance and
  pity.
The Scarlet Letter
           Upon finishing
           The Scarlet Letter
           in 1850, Nathaniel
           Hawthorne read
           the manuscript to
           his wife, Sophia.
The Scarlet Letter
          “It broke her heart,”
          Hawthorne wrote,
          “and “sent her to
          bed with a grievous
          headache, which I
          look upon as a
          triumphant success.”
       The Scarlet Letter
                  Hawthorne
                  originally intended
                  The Scarlet Letter
                  to be a short story
                  but expanded it at
                  the suggestion of
                  his publisher.

Original Cover
The Scarlet Letter
           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
                      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
Original title page   Puritanism.
            The Scarlet Letter
   The year is 1642.
   The place is Boston,
  a small Puritan
  settlement. Before the
  town jail, a group of
  somber people wait
  with stern
  expressions.
                  The Plot
     They are
    expecting Hester
    Prynne, a woman
    convicted of
    adultery.
              The Scarlet Letter
      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
“The Market Place”
is some curtain-
raiser. In one vivid
image, you have the
whole story. The
lines of conflict are
drawn, the issues
defined, the
characters placed in
relation to one
another.
         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.
           The Scarlet Letter
    This is Puritan
  Boston, where
  private wrongdoing
  is
    public knowledge.
                     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.