Universidad de Navarra

04.10.2013

CLASSIC CHARACTERS IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN

LITERATURE

Public discourse and victimization in

Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, died 1864.

Descendant of Puritan immigrants.

Well read, well educated, devoted to be a writer.

Friend of Emerson, Pierce, Longfellow.

Worked in the Boston Custom House (1839-1840, 1846-1849)

1850- The Scarlet Letter published

Nathaniel Hawthorne

1. “with the new energy of the moment, all the dread of public exposure, that had so long been the anguish of his life, had returned upon him.”

2. “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”

3. “Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl!” whispered her mother. “We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest”

4. “Had they followed their hereditary taste, the New England settlers would have illustrated all events of public importance by bonfire, banquets, pageantries, and processions”

Public, friend or foe? Quotes

Is it a protofeminist novel?The description of Hester Prynne as she

walks with pride wearing the mark of shame.Men can argue but obey. As Frederick II of

Prussia says, "Argue as much as you will, and about what you will, but obey!“. Women cannot!

Women and knitting - «Women derive a pleasure, incomprehensible to the other sex, from the delicate toil of the needle.»

Hawthorne’s present, xix century – women related to educational reforms, anti-slave rights, anti-war, equality for all.

Women in the novel and beyond

“The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.”

Hester Prynne

“Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. . . . It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!” “Nor ever will, my child, I hope,” said Hester. “And why not, mother?” asked Pearl, stopping short. . . . “Will it not come of its own accord, when I am a woman grown?”

Pearl

Arthur Dimmesdale

Roger Chillingworth

Human nature, good, bad, natural? Are we sinners to look for knowledge? Ignominy / Alienation / outcast. Social and individual identity. Public exposure / conduct. Anti Puritanism views. Fathers have eaten sour fruits (grapes) and the children's

teeth will rotten. Sin versus hypocrisy . Guilt / remorse. Secret vs acceptable in society, in public. Education or control: obstructive systems of Education. cultural discourse as a reason for culpability and search

for a victim.

Main themes:

The letter “A” as an identity – Adulteress transforms to Able

The Forest – the Wilderness, Dimmesdale’s sermon – especially the Election

Sermon.Pearl – The physical symbol, the

anthropomorphic.Objectification of the main charactersArt – needlework/embroidery/sermonsMeteorColors – Red and BlackBrowThe book’s ending:

"On a field, sable, the letter A, gules,"

symbols / imagery / metaphors

Constant dichotomy:Wilderness vs. civilization Hate vs. loveTown vs. forest - embodiment of both ordersLight vs. dark - day vs. night - socially

acceptable or prohibited

Motifs:

Can The Scarlet Letter be considered in today’s term as gender violence?

Can we interpret Hester’s doing as a political statement? Can we claim that sexuality is a sphere related to politics?

The narraoor writes about the past using the custom house as a framing story, why did he choose 200 years to the past?

What about our present? Who are we outcasting today?

Present-day thought:

Next week

Benito Cereno by Herman MelvilleAdditional reading:Yadon, On Shaving, barbershop violence

(pages 1-14)Sundquist, Eric J., “Benito Cereno” and New

World Slavery