Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

• The Scarlet Letter– Author

– Born

– Inspiration for Work

– Nathaniel Hawthorne

– Salem, Massachusetts, 1804

– Related to John Hawthorne, a judge for the 1692 Salem Witch Trials

– Hawthorne was enamored with his relative’s involvement in the trial and with Puritan culture as a whole

• The Scarlet Letter– Transcendentalist

Influence– Became a part of a

highly intellectual group that included Ralph Waldo Emerson

– Transcendentalists tried to become one with nature and abandon the evils of society

– True happiness and feeling of self could only come through embracing their own individual thoughts and feelings

• Background Information: The Scarlet Letter– Puritan Culture – A majority of

Hawthorne’s works focused on America’s Puritan forefathers

– The Puritans were a group of religious zealots who came to America in the 1630s to practice their religious beliefs freely

• Background Information: The Scarlet Letter– Puritan Culture – Puritans were supposed to

be solely focused on their relationship with the Lord

– Their people has little tolerance for ideas or any behavior that differed from what they considered the norm

– Any behaviors that were not done with God in mind were considered amoral.

Overview: The Scarlet Letter

• The Scarlet Letter: Overview

• Hester Prynne is a member of a Puritan community

• Her husband is thought to be lost at sea and in his absence she has an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale, a young minister

• The Scarlet Letter: Overview • The result of the affair is two-fold: Hester has a child named Pearl, and she is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her bosom that brands her as an adulterer.

• Despite intense pressure from the community Hester refuses to reveal the identify the father of her child

• Although an outcast, Hester proves herself to a generous, giving person capable of great charity

• The Scarlet Letter: Overview

• In secrecy her husband, now going by the named of Roger Chillingworth, plots revenge against her wife for her unfaithfulness

• Suspecting Dimmesdale, Chillingworth hatches a plot to undo the Minister and Hester

Literary Focus: The Scarlet Letter

• Literary Focus: The Scarlet Letter– Date of Publication

– Setting (time)

– Setting (place)

– 1850

– Mid-Seventeenth Century

– Boston, Massachusetts

• The town is situated between the sea and the rest of unsettled America. What lies outside the town is a "black forest," strongly symbolic of moral absence and evil. 

• Literary Focus: The Scarlet Letter– Point of View

– Protagonist

– Antagonist

– 1st person narrative• The narration is unique

because it is told from an omniscient customhouse surveyor who is writing about these events two hundred years after they have taken place

– Hester Prynne

– The judgmental, harsh nature of Puritan society

• Literary Focus– Themes and Conflicts – The Burden of Sin

– Feelings of Guilt

– Lust and Desire

– Individual vs. Society

– Psychological Anguish

– Change and Transformation

– Strength in Identity

– Nature’s Civilization vs. Society’s Civilization

• Literary Focus– Irony

• Puritan society, supposedly a moral beacon, is judgmental and cruel, whereas Hester and Minister Dimmesdale, humbled by guilt and shame, act in charitable and empathetic ways that are very moralistic

• Hester’s punishment was supposed to weaken her resolve and make her apologetic, but it has instead allowed her to see the hypocrisy of society around her

• Literary Focus– Central Symbol

• The Scarlet Letter • One of the most powerful symbols in all of literature

• Multiple possible meanings depending on how the novel is read; different possible meanings even as the novel progresses

• Possible meanings: – Representative of Hester’s shame– Representative of Hester’s new,

independent, humble identity– Representative of her “Abilities”—

she is thought to be a leader by outsiders like Native Americans

– Representative of her affair with Dimmesdale

– Representative of ambiguity; by the end of the novel is it more of a symbol of her transgressions or her inner strength?

• Literary Focus– Other Symbols

• Pearl

• Minister Dimmesdale

• The name itself is representative of beauty—the character has value and beauty just like the piece jewelry has value

• Representative of a living version of Hester’s letter as well as a constant reminder of his sexual sin

• Representative of the Puritan ideal of self-suffering, but also representative of man’s inability to escape its sinful nature

Characters: The Scarlet Letter

• The Scarlet Letter: Characters– Hester Prynne – Passionate, intelligent

and strong

– Endures shame and scorn from her Puritan community

– She is an outcast from society, but this alienation gives her unique perspective on the actions of others

• The Scarlet Letter: Characters– Reverend Arthur

Dimmesdale – Hester’s lover

– Famed in England for his elegant and powerful sermons

– Feels tremendous guilt and inner-conflict between his commitment to the church and his love for Hester

• The Scarlet Letter: Characters– Roger Chillingworth

– Hester’s husband; remains in disguise throughout the novel

– Seeks revenge against Hester and makes it his personal mission to discover and torture her lover

– Indulgent and presented as both physically and mentally twisted