The Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter

• Nathaniel Hawthorne

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(No Transcript)
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On Hawthornes career choicein his own words

• I do not want to be a doctor and live by mens
  diseases, nor a minister to live by their sins,
  nor a lawyer to live by their quarrels. So, I
  dont see that there is anything left for me but
  to be an author.

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Writing didnt provide financial security for his
family, so he took a job as a surveyor for the
port of Salem.

• Lost this position when the Whigs won in 1848
  election
• This job loss gave him the time to write The
  Scarlet Letter (1850)

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• Became acquainted with Henry David Thoreau and
  Ralph Waldo Emerson (transcendentalists)
• They influenced his thinking about the importance
  of intuition rather than intellect in uncovering
  the truths of nature and human beings.

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Hawthorne disagreed with them though

• If left to their own devices, humans would not
  act good as transcend. thought
• Humans are flawed and primal urges would prevail

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Evidence of this

• The Civil War
• Slavery
• Hawthorne had grown up with some Puritan
  influencesgrandfather actually participated in
  Salem Witch Trials (Hathorne)he was a judge
• Added the w to dissociate from relatives

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Works part of Romantic Movement

• Themes are inherent evil and sin of humanity

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The Scarlet Letter

• Can be considered a love story
• Themes about the subjects of Puritans, sin,
  guilt, and the human conflict between emotions
  and intellect
• Allegorical

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Allegory

• A story where characters, objects, and events
  have a hidden meaning and are used to present
  some universal lesson

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The Custom House

• Outlines biographical info. about the author
• worked at a Custom House b/c needed job security
• this job stifles his creativity and imagination
• provides discussion of his ancestors calling
  them gravebitter persecutors whose better
  deeds will be diminished by their bad ones.

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• Defines the romance novel, particularly the
  psychological romance novel
• Psychological romance---techniques of romance
  (use of light and setting), but add deep, probing
  portraits of human beings in conflict with
  themselves

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• Authenticates the basis of the novel by
  explaining the discovery of a scarlet A in
  parchment paper in the Custom House
• Gives the story an air of historical truth
• no real evidence this is true.

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• Highlights conflicting values/ideology of past
  and present
• Puritanism consumed by commercialism and
  financial interests of 1700s
• the Old General contrasted sharply to the new
  workers in the Custom House

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