Ms. Tinker
Honors English 10
Notes: 3.1
NAME: _______________________________
The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne
A
To explore early American values, we will be reading the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial
Hawthorne over the course of the next few weeks. The book will be broken into four sections
and the following assignments must be completed for each assigned segment:

Quotation Analysis of a passage (see backside)

Answer any 3 questions from the review
(note pg and Q #’s)

Choose 4 vocabulary words for each section
 Define each word
 Write it out in the sentence from the novel (include the page
number)

Found Poem Character Words (see attached)
 Choose a character to track
EVERY Wednesday you will be meeting in discussion groups to share your findings; all four requirements will be
due at the end of class on Wednesdays. Come prepared!
Section One: “The Custom House” through Chapter 4 (pg 73)
~ Due Weds 9/28, at the end of class
Section Two: Chapter 5-10 (pgs 74-130)
~ Due Weds 10/5, at the end of class
Section Three: Chapters 11-18 (pgs 131-196)
~ Due Weds 10/12, at the end of class
Section Four: Chapters 19-end (pgs 197-249)
~ Due Weds 10/19, at the end of class
Quotation Analysis
HN English 10
Your quotation analysis will be based on the following three questions:
What is the author doing?
Why is s/he doing it?
What is the effect?
Included in the analysis should be:
- Context of the quotation
-
Identification of diction, figurative language, imagery, point of view, organization,
syntax, elements of the Romantic Movement, as well as elements of pathos, logos,
and ethos
-
Commentary will focus on HOW the above contribute to character development,
symbolism, plot, setting, tone etc. (i.e. Explain WHY this quote is significant to the
novel as a whole.
Your quotation analysis can follow the “reader’s response” format; just keep in mind that you
will be translating your quotation analysis into a SEEE* paragraph.
Example:
“…image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have
vied with one another to represent; something which should remind
him, indeed, but only contrast, of that sacred image of sinless
motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world” (Hawthorne 50).
Hester Pryne is walking from the prison door to the public market-place
in Boston. She has been charged with adultery and must stand at the scaffold
which is “at the western extremity of the market-place… beneath the eaves of
Boston’s earliest church” to bear her public humiliation (49). The public
humiliation is a common practice by Puritans – as Hawthorne points out, the
scaffold has been in use since the beginning of Boston and is fully supported
by the church. In this quotation, Hawthorne builds pathos by explaining how
beautiful Hester is, and uses alliteration in “sacred image of sinless
motherhood” (50). Hawthorne makes an allusion to Mother Mary who had
Jesus out of wedlock through Immaculate Conception . This comparison does
two things: on one hand, it draws the reader’s attention to the opposing
portrayal that artists (perhaps even artists of the Romantic Movement who
focused on folklore) would give Mother Mary and Hester Pryne ; at the same
time, Hawthorne references how a community may not accept someone at
first, yet may revere them later. This quote is important because it effectively
shows how judgmental the Puritans were of Hester Pryn and may foreshadow
how they may come to feel about her later.