Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter

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Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter
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NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

• July 4, 1804 Born in Salem, MA
• Education - Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine
• 1842 - Married Sophia Peabody
• 3 Children
• Job at Custom House 1839-40, 46-49
• 1850 Scarlet Letter published
• Moved to England, France, and Rome after Salem
• 1864 - Died

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(No Transcript)
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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

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT
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HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• 1570-1650 Early Colonial period- Puritan
  writings, no distinctive American literature
• 1750-1800 Later Colonial period- Age of
  Reason/Enlightenment (Neoclassicism, Rationalism)

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• 1800-1850 American Renaissance/ Romanticism-
  slave narratives, inner feelings, the burden of a
  Puritan past, the rejection of Neoclassicism
• Transcendentalism was a part of this

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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

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• SUBDIVISION OF ROMANTICISM GOTHIC LITERATURE,
  the dark romantics(1800-1850)
• -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

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LITERARY ELEMENTS

• Characters
• Mood
• Setting
• Plot
• Symbolism
• Themes

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LITERARY ELEMENTSCHARACTERS

• Hester Prynne- protagonist, married to
  Chillingworth, adultery with Dimmesdale

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LITERARY ELEMENTSCHARACTERS

• 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

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LITERARY ELEMENTSCHARACTERS

• 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

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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

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LITERARY ELEMENTS SETTING

• 17th century Puritanical New England (Mass.)
• What was America like then?

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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

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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?
• What evidence from the text points to that?

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The Custom House
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THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOUVE READ..

• Literary Element Plot

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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?

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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

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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
  itselfone of this mans shoulders rose higher
  than the other.
• Whom does Hester recognize in the crowd?
• How does she feel about it?

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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?
• What evidence from the text supports your
  response?

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Chapters 9-15
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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.

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• ..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?

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Chapters 9-15

• How does Chillingworths 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)
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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 Ws

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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?

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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 Ws
• Be prepared to defend your response with the
  class.

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SYMBOLISM

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

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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
  gemsThis rosebushhas been kept alive in
  history but whether it had merely survived out
  of the stern old wildernessIt 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.

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SYMBOLISM

• Hesters and Pearls Clothing
• Her own dress was of the coarsest materials and
  the most sombre hue with only that one
  ornamentthe scarlet letterwhich it was her doom
  to wear.
• The childs 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

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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
  pricepurchased with all she hadher mothers
  only treasure!

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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.

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SYMBOLISM

• The Leech

He gathered herbs here and there
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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

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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 Hawthornes development
  of this theme.

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• 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 Ws

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THE END