The Sc a rlet Letter

1. The Scarlet Letter Survey of American Literature

2. Nathaniel Hawthorne • About the Man • 1804-1864 • Salem, Massachusetts • Puritan • Solid accomplishment • Great guilt • Ancestor: William Hathorne • Married Sophia Peabody • Strength and nobility • Reflected in Hester Prynne

3. Nathaniel Hawthorne • About the Author • Great American Author • First psychological novel • Redemption, sin • Romanticism • Intellectual curiosity • Optimism • Dark Romanticism • Works • Novels • Short Stories

4. The Scarlet Letter • Written in 1855 • Setting • Boston • Mid-1600s • Seven-year period • Framework • Rigid social mores • Traditional customs • Moral attitudes • Religious beliefs

5. The Scarlet Letter • Plot • Love triangle: wife-lover-husband • Struggle: good versus evil • Characters’ souls at stake • Suspense • Will identities of lover and husband be revealed? • How will identities be revealed? • Psychological movement: husband’s quest for revenge

6. The Scarlet Letter • Structure • Innovative form • Instead of ongoing chronicle of events • Series of separate, fully-realized chapters • Interspersed with expository chapters • Novel begins in media res • Action already occurred • Characters facing consequences

7. The Scarlet Letter • Point of View (POV) • Omniscient • Author reveals inner and outer characters • Asides • Social criticism • History • Psychology • All characters in constant state of change • Theocracy • Act of adultery not important • Consequences of adultery more important

8. Major Characters Hester Prynne Novel’s heroine Adulterer Name: prim and proper First strong female character in American literature

9. Major Characters Pearl • Hester’s daughter • Illegitimate child • Product of adultery • Precious to her mother • Intelligent, imaginative

10. Major Characters Arthur Dimmesdale Reverend Guilt-ridden Tortured

11. Major Characters Roger Chillingworth Scholar Vengeful Hides true identity

12. Themes • Effects of Sin and Possibility of Redemption • Psychological and social consequences of sin • Characters’ processes of redemption • Does every attain redemption? • Applies to: • Hester • Dimmesdale • Chillingworth • Secondary Effect: Insight into the Hearts of Others

13. Themes • Hypocrisy • Conflict between outer appearance and inner reality • Depicted in Hester’s relationship with community • Illustrated in portrayals of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth • Other Noticeable Themes • Guilt • Revenge • Human frailty and Sin

14. Conflicts • Man versus Society • Man versus Man • Man versus Self

15. Symbols • The Scarlet Letter • Central symbol of novel • Meaning changes as characters change • The Scaffold • Public exposure of private since • Redemption through confession • Elements of Nature • Good and evil • Forest is changeable symbol for both

16. Irony • Dramatic Irony • Controls novel • Readers know something about a character the other characters do not • If characters knew what readers know, plot would be ruined • Situational Irony • Central to novel’s action • Contrast between intention of an action and its result • Expectations aroused by situation are reversed • Verbal Irony • Throughout novel

17. What happens when a private sin becomes a public crime?