The Scarlet Letter Project

1. McKenzie Gould Period A-B The Scarlet Letter By: Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Project

2. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Nathaniel lived with his mother and father on 27 Hardy Street, that is now a museum. He was the son of Elizabeth Clarke Manning and Nathaniel Hawthorne, a Captain in the U. S. Navy who died when Nathaniel was four years old. After his father died Nathaniel and his mother moved to his mothers parents house. After high school, Nathaniel went to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. He was very good at writing and also wrote short stories. A few of his stories got published in magazines. After he graduated, he continued writing and improved. On July 9, 1842, Nathaniel married Sophia Peabody. Sophia painted and she was a transcendentalist. Nathaniel and Sophia had three children. They had two daughters named Una and Rose, and one son named Julian. Nathaniel continued writing stories and novels. Nathaniel was inspired to write “The Scarlet Letter” when he found a worn letter “A" in the attic of his old home. The Scarlet letter became his most famous novel. Hawthorne inspired many people, including Herman Melville who wrote "There is no man, in whom humor and love, like mountain peaks, soar to such a rapt height, as to receive the irradiations of the upper skies; there is no man in whom humor and love are developed in that high form called genius." Nathaniel died on May 18-19 while traveling to New Hampshire with Franklin Pierce. Hawthorne went to sleep and never woke up. Nathaniel is now buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/ http://www.egs.edu/library/nathaniel-hawthorne/biography/ http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Life&Times/BiographicalInfo/Adultlife/Introduction.html http://www.shmoop.com/nathaniel-hawthorne/biography.html Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864

3. Character Profile Roger Chillingworth Roger Chillingworth is Hester Prynne’s husband in disguise. He sent Hester to America while he stayed in Europe to finish things. Roger came back to Boston to find a woman and a little girl on the scaffold. After realizing that the woman was Hester, he then asked someone in the crowd why she was standing on the scaffold. The person in the audience told him that Hester committed adultery and the little girl was Pearl, her daughter. They also explained that her punishment was 3 years in prison, and wearing a scarlet letter “A” for adultery. After Hester spotted Roger in the audience, she realized that he was in disguise. Hester knew it was him because of his deformed shoulders. On page 57 it states “When he found the eyes of Hester Prynne fastened on his own, and saw that she appeared to recognize him, he slowly and calmly raised his finger, made a gesture with it in the air, and laid it on his lips. “Roger needed to stay in disguise to try and find out who Hester committed adultery with. To stay in Boston he pretended to be a physician. While Roger was in Europe, Native Americans captured him. He caught on to the way they did things and used what he learned to convince the people that he knew what he was talking about. Roger was asked to help Dimmesdale, the reverend. So, he took the opportunity and attempted to use herbs and medicines to heal him. Roger started to become obsessed with Dimmesdale as it claims on page 158 “I have already told thee what I am! Fiend! Who made me so? It was myself!” Roger felt this way until the day he found the letter “A” on his chest, and then realized that his sickness was caused by the mental stress of hiding his sin. Roger then knew that it was Dimmesdale who was the father of Pearl. Roger did not let Dimmesdale find out that he knew the secret. Roger then wanted to seek revenge on Dimmesdale. Roger admitted later that he understood why Hester committed adultery. He explained how he was much older than her and Dimmesdale was not. He also admitted that he did not treat her the right way. After Dimmesdale died, all of Roger’s energy seems to disappear. Roger’s one goal in life was to get his revenge on Dimmesdale. Now that Dimmesdale died, Roger feels that he has no reason to live. His one purpose for life was gone.

4. Conflict AnalysisHester Prynne In the story, The Scarlet Letter, there is a conflict between Hester Prynne and society. Hester committing the sin of adultery caused society to look down on her and stop seeing her the same way as they did before. They turn Hester into an outcast as she has to wear the scarlet letter “A” on her blossom wherever she goes. Everyone tried to put her down and talk negatively and harshly about her but it does not effect her actions. After Hester received the Scarlet letter people in Boston looked at her a lot differently than before. Hester made the scarlet letter “A” on her chest fancy, because her way of thinking was shown on page 50, when the book states “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter “A”. It was so artistically done, and was so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel that she wore; in which was a splendor and accordance with the taste of age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony.” Against society, Hester makes her emblem stand out. She does this because society wanted her to wear it shamefully but instead she went against it and showed it off. As Hester would see others around the town they would give her ridicule looks as a women states on pages 45, “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead”. Although Hester had to go through many tough times she would not let the fact that wearing the letter on her blossom would change the was who she is.

5. Conflict AnalysisHester Prynne Hester controls herself to stand out and be bold, for she knows that if she has a lack of behavior there is a chance she could lose Pearl. Hester also has a lot of respect with the society as she gives the poor food and clothing so others will have a more positive look on her. Hester also has a problem with Chillingworth as Roger wants to find out and seek revenge on the person Hester has had a child with. Hester keeps it’s a secret until Chillingworth finds out it was Dimmsdale. Then which Chillingworth hurts Dimmsdale in many ways physically and mentally. With all this suffrage that is being put on Dimmsdale he truly never gets to live peacefully and dies on his own. This means Hester loses a very important man in her life and also the father of Pearl. Although Hester had to face many issues she stuck with her true inner-being and did what was best for her child, Pearl. She did live a life of embarrassment but as time went on in the future the scarlet letter worn off as she could finally live her life in freedom without worries.

6. Theme Hiding things and lying can only turn bad things into worse. Letting people know the truth instead of trying to cover something up that will eventually be revealed only makes it harder on yourself. In the book, A Scarlet Letter, the theme is “Deception and secrecy can be destructive”. Hester Prynne tried to hide the father of her daughter, Pearl. Everyone judged her because of her sin but had no idea that it was the minister, Dimmesdale that also sinned to the result of Pearl. Dimmesdale started driving himself crazy from hiding what he did. It bothered him so much that he started making himself sick. If he would’ve have just told society and dealt with the consequences, everyone would eventually forgive him and he wouldn’t have had to go through everything that he did. Dimmesdale explains to Hester that admitting it was him that also sinned would be better than feeling guilty on page 63, he says "Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life.“ Dimmesdale and Hester would have been able to live there life together with no guilt if they would’ve just told everyone from the beginning. Dimmesdale never would have made himself sick, and would have been able to be with Hester without any secrets. He would have had to face the consequences but it would pay off later. Dimmesdale tortured himself because he chose to hide that he was the father of Pearl, and let guilt get the best of him. Their secret was destructive, towards Dimmesdale and Hester’s life together. Deception and secrecy can only cause situations to get worse, and only made Hester and Dimmesdale look like froads.

7. Personal Reflection I liked the book The Scarlet Letter. I thought it was very interesting, and detailed. I liked that the book was involved with many different feelings. There was romance, revenge, guilt, and hatred mixed into one. I also liked that there was suspicion, it was hard to tell what was going to happen between the characters. I didn’t like the way the author wrote the book. The words he used made it really hard to understand. I also didn’t like that he didn’t explain the mark on Dimmesdale’s chest, I would have liked to been able to make a visual picture. I learned that it is much easier to tell the truth about a situation and take the consequences, rather then hiding something and making it harder on yourself. Guilt can be destructive. The longer you hide something, the more its going to bother you. I can relate to Hester, I know that if I had to do something, such as wear the Scarlet “A” I would think the way that she did. I would be honest about my sin and show the “A” off to let people know I wasn’t ashamed and accepted the consequences. I would recommend this book to my grandma because she loves reading books involving suspicion. She also would be able to understand the way the author wrote the book, and the words he used much better than I understood.