Sc A rlet Letter

1. Custom-house Introduction ScArlet Letter

2. The Customs-house • “Customs” are taxes paid on foreign imports into a country; a “custom-house” is the building where the taxes are paid. • Nameless narrator shares similar traits with author: both surveyors • Narrator is bored and tries to find ways to amuse himself because few ships come to Salem. • Finds an old manuscript with that is bundled with a scarlet, gold-embroidered cloth in the shape of a letter “A.” • The manuscript he found in the attic was written by Jonathan Pue, a customs surveyor a hundred years earlier. • Upon holding it to his chest the narrator says it burned him.

3. Continue… • The narrator wants to have a writing career, but knows the Puritans will frown upon anything that does glorify God or serve his fellow man. • The narrator decides to write a fictional account of Hester Prynne’s experiences. • The narrator surrounded by uninspiring men finds it hard to write. • When he loses his job because a new president is elected, he begins to write what becomes the body of the Scarlet Letter.

4. Hawthorne & the narrator • Autobiographical elements: • (1) NARRATOR AND NATHANIEL, both were surveyors, both loved to write, both lost jobs because of political reasons, both affected by Puritan beliefs. • (2) NARRATOR AND HESTER, both surrounded by people who alienate them, both are youthful which sets them apart from the others, both seek out those who understand them, both are not liked.