The Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter
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Nathaniel Hawthorne
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I. Background on Nathaniel Hawthorne

• A. Born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts
• B. His father died of yellow fever when he was
  four years old
• C. Hawthorne, his mother, and his sisters lived
  with his mothers relatives after his fathers
  death
• D. He graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine in
  1825

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• E. He returned to Salem where he struggled as a
  short story writer for 12 years
• F. In 1842, he married Sophia Peabody
• G. He published The Scarlet Letter in 1850,
  which finally brought him recognition as an
  author
• H. He died on May 16, 1864 in Plymouth, New
  Hampshire

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II. Hawthornes Literary Times

• A. Wrote during the Romantic Period
• 1. return to nature
• 2. belief in goodness of humanity
• 3. rediscovery of artist as a supremely
  individual creator
• 4. exaltation of the senses and emotions over
  reason and intellect

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Example of art from the Romantic Period
The Lady of Shallot (1888)
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• B. The Romantic Period lasted from 1830-1865
• C. Literary contemporaries Emerson, Thoreau,
  Melville, Stowe, Poe, Whitman
• D. The Scarlet Letter is considered a piece of
  American Romantic literature because it is set in
  a remote past (the Puritan era 200 years prior to
  Hawthornes time) and because it deals with the
  interior psychology of individual characters
• E. Revolt against rationalism/logic

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III. Historical Commentary

• Puritans
• 1. A religious group that migrated from England
  to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England in
  the early 1600s
• 2. Believed in a pure interpretation of the
  Bible which did not include some of the
  traditional practices of the Church of England

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(No Transcript)
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• 3. Religion and government were closely
  intertwined
• 4. Ministers counseled the magistrates in all
  affairs concerning the settlement and its
  citizens
• 5. The Puritans had strict rules against
  theatre, religious music, sensuous poetry, and
  frivolous dress

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• 6. Remember The Puritans did not seek
  religious freedom for ALL they still persecuted
  and banished individuals whose beliefs were
  different from their own

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• 7. People were completely INTOLERANT of sin.
  They believed that any sin committed in the
  community would cause Gods wrath to be visited
  on them. An illness or misfortune would show
  Gods disapproval.

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• 8. Puritans looked for sins that had been
  committed in the community so that the sin could
  be brought out in the open and the members of the
  community could express their scorn for that sin.
• 9. Puritan theology valued hard work. Idleness
  was an invitation to sin.

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IV. Themes

• A. Alienation
• B. Appearance versus reality
• C. Breaking societys rules
• D. Private versus public life
• E. Effects of revenge

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V. Religious Terms

• repentance deep sorrow for a sin
• preternatural out of the ordinary supernatural
• contrition sorrow for a sin, with a sincere
  desire to atone for it

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(religious terms, contd.)

• penance punishment for a sin
• atonement to make amends for a sin
• penitence the state of being regretful for
  sinning

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VI. Symbols

• A. the color black
• B. the forest
• C. the brook
• D. the rosebush
• E. Indians

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• F. Hesters clothing
• G. Pearls clothing
• H. Pearls name
• I. the meteor
• J. golden embroidery on the A

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VII. Style (paraphrase!)

• Hawthorne focuses his attention on the problem
  of evil and the NATURE OF SIN. He is not a
  moralist, but like a psychologist, he analyzes
  the inner world of the human mind and heart. In
  TSL, he analyzes the effects of ONE sin on the
  four main characters who are closely intertwined
  because of that sin.

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Essential Question

• What is a sin? Is a crime against civil law
  necessarily a crime against moral law? (Remember
  Antigones dilemma?)