by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Hawthorne once said:
“I do not want to be
a doctor and live by
man’s diseases, nor a
minister to live by
their sins, nor a
lawyer and live by
their quarrels. So, I
don’t see that there
is anything left for
me but to be an
author.”
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Born July 4, 1804 in
Salem, Mass.
Reclusive at times
Served as a
magazine editor
Worked in the Salem
Custom House
Lived at Brook Farm
Wrote Twice-Told
Tales, The House of
Seven Gables, The
Scarlet Letter, etc.
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Married Sophia Peabody
and fathered Una (who
became the model for
Pearl)
Served as the United
States Consul to Liverpool
Died in 1864
Buried in Concord,
Massachusetts
Great-great-great-great
grandfather, John
Hathorne, was judge at
Salem witch trials
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Boston Colony founded 1630
John Winthrop (leader)
Puritans wanted to “purify” the
Church of England of all traces of
Catholicism in liturgy, theology, and
church organization
Recognized the Bible as the sole
source of religious authority
Maintained a theocracy
Believed in predestination or
Doctrine of the Elect
Inflicted public punishments to
deter others from straying from
righteousness (hanging, whipping,
humiliation, etc.)
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Hawthorne claims to have
gotten the idea for this
novel from the papers of
Jonathan Pue.
Among the papers,
Hawthorne allegedly
found an embroidered
scarlet “A” and
information on Hester
Prynne.
Frame Story:
Nathaniel Hawthorne  author
Unnamed Narrator
(from Hawthorne’s time)
Narrator finds manuscript in
Customs House written by
Jonathan Pue from 100 years
before narrator works there.
Pue’s manuscript tells the story
of Hester Prynne of 100 years
before Pue’s time.
Created by Mrs. W. Warren
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Describes the interior/exterior of the
Custom House
Describes Hawthorne’s feelings about his
native town of Salem
Makes critical comments about the Whig
party/ reveals Hawthorne’s involvement as a
Democrat
Describes his early attempts to write
Hester’s story.
Defining “Scarlet:”
Function: adjective
1 of the color scarlet
2 a : grossly and glaringly offensive <sinning in flagrant and
scarlet fashion -- characterized by, or associated with
sexual immorality <a scarlet woman>
Function: noun
Middle English scarlat, scarlet, from Anglo-French escarlet,
from Medieval Latin scarlata, from Persian saqalAt, a kind
of rich cloth
1 : scarlet cloth or clothes
2 : any of various bright reds
Main Entry: scarlet letter
Function: noun
: a scarlet A worn as a punitive mark of adultery
Defining “Puritan:”
Main Entry: 1pu·ri·tan
Function: noun
Etymology: probably from Late Latin puritas purity
1 capitalized : a member of a 16th and 17th century
Protestant group in England and New England
opposing as unscriptural the ceremonial worship and
the prelacy of the Church of England
2 one who practices or preaches a more rigorous or
professedly purer moral code than that which
prevails
See Endicott and the Red Cross Chapter at the end
of the book.
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The novel is set in the mid 1600s in Boston,
Massachusetts.
The plot encompasses a seven year period.
The plot involves the love triangle of wifelover-husband.
The major theme of the novel is developed in
the context of good vs. evil.
 Third-Person
Omniscient…
Hawthorne
reveals the inner and outer workings of the
characters and provides social criticism,
history, and psychology.
1)It is a cultural allegory and
structurally compact.
twenty-four chapters
are knitted together
scaffold scenes
in the beginning, the middle, and the end
All the four major characters are at the scene.
2)Hawthorne's ambiguity—
People offer different views concerning
the sign of the letter “A” on the dead
minister's chest. The author doesn't
give his views. So, people come up with
different interpretations.
3)It is a kind of romance:
Two lovers come together, finally
united in death.
4)Hawthorne's use of the supernatural:
The appearance of the symbol “A”
in
the sky is: in twilight
atmosphere, all
things, natural or otherwise, may become
probable.
5) His use of symbols—
the central symbol
the scarlet letter
Adultery
a token of shame
“A”
Able
Angel
“A” appears in the sky
Hester Prynne
Pearl
The main
characters
Arthur Dimmesdale
Roger Chillingworth
Roger
Chillingworth
Arthur
Dimmesdale
Hester Prynne
daughter
Pearl
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The protagonist of the novel who is an English
woman and the wife of Roger Chillingworth.
She is tried and condemned for her sin of
adultery with Dimmesdale and charged to wear
the scarlet letter, "A", an indication of adultery,
on the bosom of her gown forever.
Even though she has a daughter out of wedlock,
she refuses to reveal who the father is.
As a young woman, her youthful beauty, luxuriant
hair, and excellent features are diminished by her
self-effacing puritanical way of dressing.
As an older lady, she returns to Boston where she
is finally accepted for her kindness and service.
attractive, appealing, intelligent, capable
Passionate
— has
a love affair with Dimmesdale
Hester
strong and stoic —she endures years of
shame and scorn
contemplative— speculates on human nature,
social organization, and larger moral questions.
maternal—moderates her tendency to be rash;
cares for the poor and brings them food and
clothing
a protofeminist mother
figure to the women of
the community
Major characters in The Scarlet Letter
Attractive, appealing, intelligent, capable
Passionate—has a love affair with Dimmesdale
Hester
Strong and stoic—she endures years of
shame and scorn
Contemplative—speculates on human nature,
social organization, and larger moral questions.
Maternal—moderates her tendency to be rash;
cares for the poor and brings them food and
clothing
—a protofeminist mother
figure to the women of
the community
A“her passport into regions where other
women dared not tread”
her behavior
She desires to
determine her
own identity
rather than to
allow others to
determine it for
her
She is determined
to transform its
meaning through
her actions and
her own selfperception
She is
unwilling to
erase her past
deed and her
past decisions
She is not the example of sin that she was once
intended to be. Rather, she is an example of
redemption and self-empowerment.
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The young, handsome, and unmarried pastor
of Hester's church.
Apart from committing adultery with
Hester, he is guilty of hiding his sin.
His intense suffering and remorse, however,
are reflected in his rundown physical
appearance.
He emerges as the tragic figure of the
novel around whom revolves the plot's
suspense and on whom the reader's
attention is centered. Thus, he is also
considered a protagonist, like Hester.
1.That Hester takes all of the blame for
their shared sin goads his conscience, and is
the cause of his resultant mental anguish.
2.The townspeople do not believe
Dimmesdale’s protestations of sinfulness.
This drives Dimmesdale to further
internalize his guilt and self-punishment and
leads to still more deterioration in his
physical and spiritual condition.
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A scholarly physician who has sent his wife
ahead of him to America.
He fails to join her quickly, for he is
captured by Indians from whom he gathers
a knowledge of herbal medicine.
He is an old, evil, vicious, ugly, and
deformed man.
His diabolical vengeance on Dimmesdale,
while pretending to treat him, makes him
the personification of evil.
true evil
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His name a man deficient in human warmth
His appearance twisted, stooped, deformed
shoulders his distorted soul
His identity of a “leech”  he feeds on the
vitality of others as a way of energizing his
own projects.
He is interested in revenge after
Dimmesdale dies, Chillingworth no longer has
a victim. Having lost the objects of his
revenge, the leech has no choice but to die.
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The beautiful daughter of Hester and
Dimmesdale.
She is the living symbol of the scarlet
letter and has peculiar traits that make
her sometimes appear as a demon.
Her love for nature and freedom, her
vivacious spirit, her alienation, her
rebelliousness, her inquisitiveness, and her
innocent but symbolic comments reveal her
distinct personality.
She is, however, a product of the difficult
situation into which she is born.
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Themes are universal ideas that an author
wants to express through his/her writings.
A theme is not the “topic”, but rather an
idea about the topic that an author wants to
put forth.
EXAMPLE: The topic of a love story is, of
course, love. The theme, however, may be that
real love goes beyond outer beauty and focuses on
the person within.
 Forgiveness
and Revenge
 Guilt and Innocence
 Truth and Lies
 Hypocrisy
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Chillingworth seeks his revenge for Hester's
adultery, but it poisons his soul and destroys
any happiness he might have found.
His only vindication comes when he leaves his
inheritance to little Pearl.
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Hester accepts her guilt and her punishment
without complaint.
Arthur Dimmesdale hides his guilt, and it
destroys him from within. He cannot bear
what he has done, but has not the courage to
face his sins.
Pearl is the innocent product of her parent's
guilt and sin, but she is innocent and
beautiful. She grows up to live a life of
luxury.
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Arthur Dimmesdale cannot face his sin. He does
not have the courage to face his punishment. He
secretly carves the “A” into his chest in a vain
attempt to punish himself. The real punishment is
that which his own guilt and lies do to his soul.
They destroy him from within.
Hester accepts her punishment. She does not hide
from it, and she is , at the end, vindicated
because no one remembers her sin.
Roger Chillingworth hides his true identity. In so
doing, he becomes filled with bitterness, hatred,
and evil. It is only when he leaves an inheritance
to little Pearl that the reader feels any sympathy
toward him.
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Because both Chillingworth and Dimmesdale
live a lie, they suffer more than Hester,
whose sin is known.
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The townspeople shun Hester and the
children are forbidden to play with little
Pearl. Yet they seek Hester's skills as a
seamstress, and they secretly envy the
beauty of the embellished "A" that adorns
her clothing....adornment that they, as
Puritans of plain and simple lifestyle are
forbidden to wear.
Arthur Dimmesdale enjoys the prestige of
being a well-respected minister, a man of
God. Yet, he is the father of Hester's
child, the sinful adulterer the townspeople
want Hester to name.
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It is Hester’s pride that helps her survive .
It is Arthur Dimmesdale’s pride that leads to
his destruction.
It is Roger Chillingworth’s pride that leads
him to be a bitter, evil person obsessed with
vindictiveness.
Hawthorne
•Focuses his attention on the
moral, emotional, and
psychological effects of the sin
on the people
Everybody is potentially a sinner, and
great moral courage is indispensable
for the improvement of human nature.
The book is an examination of the forces
that shape Hester and the transformations
those forces effect; it is a hymn on the
moral growth of the woman when sinned
against.
Sinners:
Hester
confesses her
guilt, faces the
future
optimistically，
helps others
Dimmesdale
Chillingworth
hides his guilt
first
Undergoes
physical and
spiritual
torments
is able to
construct her
life, wins a
moral success, moral growth,
morally
degrades
others by
his pursuit
of revenge
die
angel
Symbolism:
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The Scarlet Letter is
filled with symbolism.
Symbolism is when one
thing is used to
represent something
else.
EXAMPLE: A Skull and
Crossbones is a symbol
of poisonous substances
or something dangerous.
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Sunshine seldom shines on Hester, but often
on Pearl. Sunshine represents goodness while
the darkness represents evil and hidden sins.
The forest is a dark and forbidding place
that the Puritans felt was full of evil. This
is the place where Hester and Arthur meet
years after Pearl is born, and it is only there
that they can feel free enough to express
their long repressed feelings for one another,
for it is here that the rules of society
cannot penetrate.
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“Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine
does not love you. It runs away and hides
itself, because it is afraid of something on
your bosom. . . . It will not flee from me,
for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!”
“Nor ever will, my child, I hope,” said
Hester.
“And why not, mother?” asked Pearl,
stopping short. . . . “Will it not come of
its own accord, when I am a woman
grown?”
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It is only in the dark of night that Arthur
Dimmesdale can allow himself to come out
and "reveal" his sin as he does in the dark
of night on the scaffold where Hester’s sin
was revealed in the light of day.
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Pearls are formed in oysters when a grain
of sand slips inside and irritates the
oyster. The oyster covers the irritant and
it becomes a thing of rare beauty.
Just like a real pearl, Pearl in The Scarlet
Letter is born of her mother's shame and
suffering, but has become a precious, rare,
and beautiful child.
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The prison is a place of despair and doom,
but the rose growing by the door represents
the beauty and forgiveness of nature.
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The scaffold is a place of punishment.
It is a place where Hester is sentenced to
stand for hours with little Pearl in her arms.
It is this same scaffold that Arthur
Dimmesdale sneaks out to in the dark of night
to punish himself as he should have been
punished years earlier with Hester and Pearl.
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The "A" represents adultery in the beginning of
the book. It is Hester's punishment for committing
sin. She wears it with stoic endurance and
embellishes it with gold threads until it becomes a
thing of beauty.
Later in the novel, the town has forgotten
Hester's original sin. The "A" is thought to
represent "able" or "angel.” When the meteor
makes a phenomenal "A" in the night sky, the town
is in awe of its wonder. They think it must be
"Angel" .
We may also associate the letter with “Alone” or
“Alienation.”
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For
For
For
For
For
Puritan society, it just means punishment.
Hester, it means unjust humiliation.
Dimmesdale, it’s a reminder of his own sin.
Chillingworth, it’s a request for revenge.
Pearl, it’s nothing but a beautiful cloth.
It is a guide for Hester to go to heaven,
and Dimmesdale hell.
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Irony of situation : When we expect one
thing to happen, but the opposite happens
instead.
Verbal Irony: When someone says one
thing, but actually means the opposite.
Dramatic Irony: When the reader knows
something that the characters in a story do
not know.
 The
reader knows that Arthur
Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father. The
townspeople do not know this.
 The reader knows that Roger
Chillingworth is Hester’s husband.
The townspeople do not know
this.
 The
symbol of Hester’s sin (the
“A”) that could have destroyed
Hester has made her stronger
and envied by those who shunned
her.
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The "A" that Hester is forced to wear, and
which she hates in the beginning, becomes a
valued part of her identity. She even
refuses to remove it when she no longer is
required to wear it. She panics when the
town considers allowing her to remove it.
 The
sin that Arthur Dimmesdale
hides because he is afraid it will
destroy his reputation as the
revered minister ends up
destroying his very life.
 Pearl,
who is shunned along with
her mother, grows up to have all
the luxuries that those who
shunned her will never have.
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PowerPoint by Rebecca Jones
English III- Accelerated American Literature Grade 11
Advanced American Lit. Mr. Mays