The Scarlet Letter Chapters 1 & 2

1. The Scarlet Letter Chapters 1 & 2 By: Brittany Baggett

2. Summary • Ch. 1 is where you are introduced to the prison and the rose bush that is by it has a tie into Hester later on in the book. And Ch. 2 transfers into the scene where all these people are waiting for something to happen and all the women are bickering, most are talking about one woman that committed adultery and is in prison. They are mad because she got in trouble and not killed, she has a letter put on her chest and it’s the scarlet letter an A and a woman outside the prison says “ even if she covers it up, it will still burn in her heart.” They are all waiting on Hester to come out and its described as her being let out by a prison guard but right before she steps out in the sunlight she breaks away from him as if she is stepping outside the prison on her own will. When she does this she is saying I’m independent I will be seen which made the women even angrier , after she steps out part of her punishment is she has to stand in the middle of town on a scaffold to be stared at with the scarlet letter. Children fear her cause the see her as a symbol of sin , what helps her get through it is her being lost in her thoughts. (Childhood, family, husband) she had gotten married but not for love, she married him for money and knowledge. She gets to America after marrying him and is there for 2 years. She was suppose to go first and get settled in and then he was going to come and they live happily ever after but he never showed up and she lived alone for 2 years and everyone knows she’s pregnant but people start to notice that she is pregnant.

3. Themes • Human nature is a sin. • Prisons are man-made, and that’s where you go when you sin; sin results in suffering. When man breaks the rules, he also sins. • All humans are sinful by nature; therefore, no perfection can be attained in society.

4. Romantic & Puritan Ideas • The romantic idea is there is freedom, or no prisons or punishment, but Hawthorne still wrote the book about punishment and the puritans’ prison. • Romantics concern themselves with the soul.

5. Character Analysis • Women: follow all rules, bickering, angry, upset, righteous • Hester: Main protagonist, strong independent women, and that was against rules in her time period.

6. Irony • The romantic period glorified nature. (rosebush and weeds on cemetary) • The puritan period relished punishment (the prison). • The prison and the rosebush were competing for space. • In the first chapter, the prison is one of the first things the Puritans build when they settle in a new place. (only thing they were worried about)

7. Narrative voice • Hawthorne is descriptive as he describes the rose bush in full depth and capturing its beauty and describing the prison and the prison doors. • Sympathetic to Hester • Critical of the women who are mean to Hester.

8. Symbolism & Color • Sunshine exposes everyone’s activities and makes them vulnerable for any punishment whereas darkness is actions that are not tolerated during the day time. • Red rosebush and A on Hester. • Nature as sinful (human nature).

9. Connotation & Denotation Connotation • Scaffold : Platform in the middle of something • Adultery : Cheating outside of marriage Denotation • Scaffold : a raised platform used formerly for the public execution of criminals. • Adultery : voluntary sexual intercourse between a married couple and a person who’s not his or her spouse.

10. Activity • Draw or write about if you owned you own island how would prisons be compared to our prisons these days. (Drugs,murders,molesters)