Exploring 'The Scarlet Letter' by Nathaniel Hawthorne

1. Webquest AP English Language

2. INTRODUCTION

3. BASIC INFORMATION   The narrator is an unnamed customhouse surveyor who writes some two hundred years after the events he describes took place. He has much in common with Hawthorne but should not be taken as a direct mouthpiece for the author’s opinions. The story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” on her breast. A man in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester’s husband, a scholar much older than she is, sent her ahead to America, but he never arrived in Boston. The consensus is that he has been lost at sea. Her husband having inexplicably failed to join her in Boston following their emigration from Europe, Hester Prynne engages in an extramarital affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. When she gives birth to a child, Hester invokes the condemnation of her community—a condemnation they manifest by forcing her to wear a letter “A” for “adulterer”—as well as the vengeful wrath of her husband, who has appeared just in time to witness her public shaming. She will not reveal her lover’s identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her public shaming, is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy.

4. MAIN CHARACTERS Hester Prynne Pearl Arthur Dimmesdale Roger Chillingworth Sin, Knowledge, and the Human Condition and - Sin and knowledge are linked in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge—specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be human. The Nature of Evil - The characters in the novel frequently debate the identity of the “Black Man,” the embodiment of evil. Over the course of the novel, the “Black Man” is associated with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Mistress Hibbins, and little Pearl is thought by some to be the Devil’s child. Identity and Society - Hester’s behavior is premised on her desire to determine her own identity rather than to allow others to determine it for her. To her, running away or removing the letter would be an acknowledgment of society’s power over her: she would be admitting that the letter is a mark of shame and something from which she desires to escape.

5. The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne • -Born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804, the fifth generation of his family to be born in New England.  His great-grandfather, one of the judges at the Salem witchcraft trials; his father a ship’s captain, who died of yellow fever on a voyage when Hawthorne was four. -Grew up in a large extended family of siblings, grandparents, and aunts and uncles, in which environment his life-long habits of solitude, reading, and introspection were nurtured. -Entered Bowdoin College in 1821; graduated in 1825 and returned to Salem, where he lived in semi-seclusion in his family home and wrote. -Took a job in the Boston customhouse (1839-41); also experimented with communal living for six or seven months at Brook Farm near Boston, but found it neither suited his temperament nor allowed him time for writing.

6. Married Sophia Amelia Peabody of Salem in 1842 and settled in Concord, Massachusetts at a house called Old Manse, where they remained until 1845. • Returned to government service in 1846 as surveyor of the Salem customhouse; lost that job through a change in political administrations in 1849. Lived briefly in the Berkshires near his friend and admirer, Herman Melville. • Wrote the campaign biography of his college friend, Franklin Pierce (1852) and was appointment consul to Liverpool, England, after Pierce's election to the presidency. Served as consul until 1857, when he moved to Italy where he spent two years collecting materials for The Marble Faun (1860). • Returned to Concord (1860); died in Plymouth, New Hampshire, while traveling with Franklin Pierce.

7. Nathaniel Hawthorne called himself a writer of romances, allegorical tales of times long past with supernatural overtones. Yet many of the stories he wrote came right out of the pages of his own family history in Salem, Massachusetts. Hawthorne was still struggling to relieve himself of the heavy psychic burden of his family's past. Puritanism had shaped his first full-length romance written in 1850, The Scarlet Letter, with its emphasis on secret sin, pride, vengefulness and shame. The House of the Seven Gables, in 1851, continued to deal with this burden in its opening lines that described a witch's curse on a Puritan magistrate who choked to death on his own blood. While Hawthorne said he felt guilty for sharing the blood of not only witchcraft judge John Hathorne but also of sadistic Puritan magistrate William Hathorne—Nathaniel restored the Elizabethan 'w' to the name when he was in his twenties—he felt even more shame for not measuring up to their concept of success. These two ghosts of his Calvinist Protestant ancestors haunted Hawthorne with their creed that God rewarded His chosen people with prosperity.

8. TASKS

9. JOB--Pretend you are an anthropologist traveling to the days of Puritanism. You must complete the following tasks in your travelogue:

10. A. As you examine the torture methods of the Puritans and the way sin is dealt with, you come across Hester Prynne and Dimmsdale. From your research and conversation with the two, you have gathered that both jointly engaged in the sinful act of adultery, although only one has been publicly ostracized. Which do you feel is the greater burden, public sin or private sin, taking into account Puritan culture? Back up your stance with textual evidence. Write your response in your travelogue.

11. B. As an anthropologist part of your job requires separating fact from fiction. Prior to your journey, you had many preconceived notions about Puritan life that were proven false through your interactions. Create a list in your travelogue identifying truth versus fiction about everyday Puritan life, including their attitudes towards sex, religion, and non-conformists.

12. C. Your travels to Massachusetts lead you to Salem, where you uncover documents regarding the infamous witch trials. The conversations you had with and research you previously did on Hester Prynne and her public humiliation draw many parallels to the Salem Witch trials. At the same time, there are major differences. Identify the similarities and differences through paragraph form in your travelogue.

13. D. After studying Puritan society, you become interested in the Romantic period. Your research leads you to writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. After a discussion with him about his literary goals and style, you accurately identify him as a Romantic novelist. In you travelogue, discuss his relation to Romanticism and how his writing is a reflection of this period.

14. E. As your journey comes to an end, you realize you have discovered things about yourself through introspection. Identify a little-known flaw about yourself and create your own scarlet letter to share with your fellow anthropologists. [ex: You have too much pride – your letter would be “P.” ]

15. INFORMATION SOURCES

16. Books: -The Salem witch trials : a primary source history of the witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts / - MacBain, Jenny - 2003 The Salem witch trials / - Wilson, Lori Lee - 1997 The Salem witch trials / - Dolan, Edward F., 1924- - 2001 The Salem witch trials / - Currie, Stephen, 1960- 2002 .Hawthorne : a life / - Wineapple, Brenda- 2003 -Salem is my dwelling place : a life of Nathaniel Hawthorne / - Miller, Edwin Haviland.- 1991 -Life among the Puritans of New England / - Slavicek, Louise Chipley, 1956 - 2001 -Puritanism : opposing viewpoints / - Dudley, William, 1964- - 1994 -Puritans at play : leisure and recreation in colonial New England / - Daniels, Bruce Colin. - 1995 Websites: -http://www.uwm.edu/Library/special/exhibits/clastext/clspg143.htm (The Scarlet Letter) -http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/puritan/purmain.html (Puritans) -http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/puritans.html(Puritans) -http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/romantic/welcome.htm (Romanticism) -http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html (Romanticism)

17. PROCESS • Read The Scarlet Letter • Visit given websites, read given sources to aid in tasks • Relate tasks to your understanding of the novel • Accomplish tasks using given guidelines

18. GUIDANCE

19. -Think about the following questions: [Imbedded typed questions broken up by chapters] -Timeline of period: -Outline of major events within novel:

20. CONCLUSION

21. Your travels as an anthropologist have come to an end. Throughout your journey, you made many discoveries about Puritan life and the Romantic period. You identified common misconceptions about Puritan society, had encounters with historical figures to aid in your research, and even uncovered personal realizations. Hopefully, you will take what you have learned and use it to understand the past in relation to the present.