The Scarlet Letter

1. A The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

2. What is this novel about? • This story is about… • GUILT! • SIN! • & A STRICT MORAL CODE!!!

3. Do you ever complain about… • Having a curfew? • Getting your cell phone taken away when you get into trouble? • Getting grounded or put on punishment? • Corny rules your parents or guardians make you follow? • Having to follow “rules” that society says you must follow? • Then you will appreciate this novel!

4. Take a moment… • In your islands, come up with 10 important rules/laws of society. (Written or understood) • What 10 rules, if we followed them, will keep us out of trouble? • As an entire class, vote on the 10 MOST IMPORTANT rules!

5. Imagine… You live in a Puritan settlement in seventeenth century Boston, Massachusetts. (1600s)

6. What in the world is a PURITAN? • Someone who adheres (holds or sticks) to strict religious principles • Someone opposed to sensual (physical; bodily) pleasures • A prude • A person excessively concerned about propriety (politeness) and decorum (respectability & good manners) • Pilgrims who came over from England & wanted more “purity” and stricter rules! • Believed in God’s supreme ruling over human affairs. • Didn’t agree with the Church of England, so they came to North America and started new colonies with stricter laws. • Extreme Protestants who had very strong religious beliefs. • They were OBSESSED with religion!

7. Puritans believed… • ORIGINAL SIN - Every person is born sinful. (Because of Adam & Eve’s fall) • PREDESTINATION - God “saves” only those he wishes. Only a few are selected for salvation. • Those elected by God have full power to interpret the God’s laws and to live uprightly. • You could only get to Heaven if you led a very simple life, in which you worked hard and went to church regularly.

8. Puritans believed… It was their belief that if you did not live like this, and you involved yourself in gambling or entertainment for example, you were committing a crime because you would end up in Hell rather than Heaven. Therefore Puritan courts were very strict with those people who broke Puritan laws.

9. Puritan Punishment Some crimes were punishable by death, including witchcraft, murder and treason, while other crimes were usually punished by whipping, prison, fines, or time in the stocks, where your arms and hands were pinned down (sometimes people threw old fruit at you).

10. Puritan Punishment Puritans believed the punishment should be humiliating.

11. A Puritan governor, interrupting the Christmas sports…

12. Examples of Puritan Laws & Punishment CRIME: Failure to attend church twice each day (Someone was always checking attendance.) PUNISHMENT: 1st Offense: Loss of one day’s food 2nd Offense: Whipping 3rd Offense: Six months of rowing in the colony’s galleys

14. Rowing the Galleys

15. Examples of Puritan Laws & Punishment CRIME: Sleeping on the Lord’s Day (Sunday) PUNISHMENT: Severe whipping

16. Corporal Punishment

17. Examples of Puritan Laws & Punishment CRIME: Not going to church on Sundays…orderly & soberly PUNISHMENT: Fine of 50 lbs. of tobacco (the colony’s currency)

18. Examples of Puritan Laws & Punishment • CRIME: Stealing • PUNISHMENT: A “T” was branded on the inside of the thief’s hand

19. BRANDING of a THIEF

20. Law & Order: SPU (Special Puritan Unit) • CRIME: Publicly kissing your wife on a Sunday after you haven’t seen her in three years • PUNISHMENT: Several hours of public humiliation in the stocks.

21. The Stocks were used for minor offenses… Bystanders would yell and swear at the offenders and throw garbage at them.

22. Ducking Stool A seat that could be swung out from the bank of a pond or river and then dunked into the water. Used to punish slanderers, quarreling married couples, fighters, brewers of bad beer, bakers of bad bread, and unruly people. Some who were dunked…died! If there wasn’t a ducking stool, the offender would be tied to the back of a boat and dragged from shore to shore. This was usually reserved for women who scolded their husbands.

23. Pillory Fifteen feet high, this pillory and post held the offender by the neck and hands. This was used to punish treason, arson, witchcraft, perjury, wife beating, cheating, forgery, begging, slandering, fortune-telling, and drunkenness.

24. Gossip’s Bridle Effectively silenced an offender. This was used for slanderers (people who spread false rumors), nags, and gossips. When simple gagging wasn’t enough, this heavy iron cage, that covered the head, was used. A flat tongue of iron, sometimes spiked, was thrust into the mouth to cover the criminal’s tongue.

25. Bilboes This is what bilboes did to the legs of the lawbreakers. It conveniently combined physical discomfort and social humiliation.

26. Ear Nailing Crowds loved a good ear nailing or whipping or, best of all, a hanging. (Sometimes ears were even cut off!)

27. Letter Sometimes the criminal was forced to wear a large letter on their clothing. The letters would stand for the crime committed. A person with a “T” was a thief, with a “D” was charged with public drunkenness, and so on. Occasionally, instead of just wearing a letter, the letter was branded onto their forehead or other body parts!

28. Hanging Entertainment for the Puritans…

29. Hanging A hanging required a gallows, a rope, a hangman, and a guest of honor… Such events could bring as many as 50,000 spectators.