Title: The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
1The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Introduction Background Discussion Starters
2The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
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3The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
4The Scarlet Letter Introduction
What happens when a private sin
becomes a public crime?
5The Scarlet Letter Introduction
In Puritan New England a young woman named Hester
Prynne gives birth to a baby girl.
6The Scarlet Letter Introduction
Hesters elderly husband has been missing for
years.
Everyone knows he cant be the father.
7The Scarlet Letter Introduction
The town punishes Hester harshly for her
adultery.
First, they imprison her.
Then, they condemn her to wear a scarlet letter A
for the rest of her life.
8The Scarlet Letter Introduction
The townspeople treat Hester as an outcast.
9The Scarlet Letter Introduction
What her neighbors dont know is the identity of
the babys father.
Hester refuses to tell.
10The Scarlet Letter Introduction
Her lover, whoever he is, seems to escape
punishment.
Or does he?
11The Scarlet Letter Introduction
Perhaps hidden suffering
is even worse than public shame.
12The Scarlet Letter Background
Persecuted in England, the Puritans came to North
America to form their own communities.
13The Scarlet Letter Background
Life in the Colonies was harsh,
but it gave the Puritans the opportunity to form
a society based on their religious ideals.
14The Scarlet Letter Background
The setting of The Scarlet Letter is Boston in
the 1640s.
Boston had recently been founded by about one
thousand English Puritans, led by John Winthrop.
15The Scarlet Letter Background
Puritans sought the freedom to live by their
beliefs.
However, the Puritan leaders did not tolerate
religious beliefs that differed from their own.
16The Scarlet Letter Background
As for personal freedom
every member of the community was held to strict
standards of behavior.
17The Scarlet Letter Background
In a Puritan community such as Hesters, no
aspect of life was truly private.
People kept a close watch on their neighbors.
18The Scarlet Letter Background
Those considered sinners were publiclyand
harshlypunished, as an example to others.
19The Scarlet Letter Background
The Puritans believed that all things are
controlled beforehand by the will of God. This
doctrine is called predestination.
- No one could know for certain if they were
destined to receive salvation.
- However, a good Puritan still had to live as pure
and righteous a life as possibleand to watch for
signs of sinfulness in others.
20The Scarlet Letter Discussion Starters
- Discuss (1)
- Hester goes to jail for an action that, in our
society, usually would remain private.
- What kinds of wrongdoing do you think should be
punished publicly? - What kinds should remain private for the people
involved?
21The Scarlet Letter Discussion Starters
- Discuss (2)
- Motivated by love and loyalty, Hester keeps a
painful secret.
- What kinds of secrets should you keep?
- When might it be better to reveal a friends
secret, even though that person will be angry
with you?