Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Scarlet Letter
– Author
– Nathaniel Hawthorne
– Born
– Salem, Massachusetts,
1804
– Inspiration for Work
– Related to John
Hawthorne, a judge for the
1692 Salem Witch Trials
– Hawthorne was enamored
with his relative’s
involvement in the trial and
with Puritan culture as a
whole
• The Scarlet Letter
– Transcendentalist
Influence
– Became a part of a
highly intellectual
group that included
Ralph Waldo Emerson
– Transcendentalists
tried to become one
with nature and
abandon the evils of
society
– True happiness and
feeling of self could
only come through
embracing their own
individual thoughts
and feelings
• Background Information:
The Scarlet Letter
– Puritan Culture
– A majority of
Hawthorne’s works
focused on America’s
Puritan forefathers
– The Puritans were a
group of religious
zealots who came to
America in the 1630s
to practice their
religious beliefs freely
• Background Information:
The Scarlet Letter
– Puritan Culture
– Puritans were supposed to
be solely focused on their
relationship with the Lord
– Their people has little
tolerance for ideas or any
behavior that differed from
what they considered the
norm
– Any behaviors that were
not done with God in mind
were considered amoral.
Overview: The Scarlet Letter
• The Scarlet Letter:
Overview
• Hester Prynne is a
member of a Puritan
community
• Her husband is
thought to be lost at
sea and in his
absence she has an
affair with Arthur
Dimmesdale, a young
minister
• The Scarlet Letter: Overview
• The result of the affair is
two-fold: Hester has a
child named Pearl, and
she is forced to wear a
scarlet letter “A” on her
bosom that brands her as
an adulterer.
• Despite intense pressure
from the community
Hester refuses to reveal
the identify the father of
her child
• Although an outcast,
Hester proves herself to a
generous, giving person
capable of great charity
• The Scarlet Letter:
Overview
• In secrecy her
husband, now going
by the named of
Roger Chillingworth,
plots revenge against
her wife for her
unfaithfulness
• Suspecting
Dimmesdale,
Chillingworth hatches
a plot to undo the
Minister and Hester
Literary Focus: The Scarlet Letter
• Literary Focus: The
Scarlet Letter
– Date of Publication
– 1850
– Setting (time)
– Mid-Seventeenth
Century
– Setting (place)
– Boston,
Massachusetts
• The town is situated
between the sea and
the rest of unsettled
America. What lies
outside the town is a
"black forest," strongly
symbolic of moral
absence and evil.
• Literary Focus: The
Scarlet Letter
– Point of View
– 1st person narrative
• The narration is unique
because it is told from an
omniscient customhouse
surveyor who is writing
about these events two
hundred years after they
have taken place
– Protagonist
– Hester Prynne
– Antagonist
– The judgmental, harsh
nature of Puritan society
• Literary Focus
– Themes and Conflicts
– The Burden of Sin
– Feelings of Guilt
– Lust and Desire
– Individual vs. Society
– Psychological Anguish
– Change and
Transformation
– Strength in Identity
– Nature’s Civilization vs.
Society’s Civilization
• Literary Focus
– Irony
• Puritan society,
supposedly a moral
beacon, is judgmental
and cruel, whereas
Hester and Minister
Dimmesdale, humbled by
guilt and shame, act in
charitable and empathetic
ways that are very
moralistic
• Hester’s punishment was
supposed to weaken her
resolve and make her
apologetic, but it has
instead allowed her to
see the hypocrisy of
society around her
•
Literary Focus
– Central Symbol
• The Scarlet Letter
•
One of the most powerful symbols in
all of literature
•
Multiple possible meanings depending
on how the novel is read; different
possible meanings even as the novel
progresses
•
Possible meanings:
– Representative of Hester’s shame
– Representative of Hester’s new,
independent, humble identity
– Representative of her “Abilities”—
she is thought to be a leader by
outsiders like Native Americans
– Representative of her affair with
Dimmesdale
– Representative of ambiguity; by
the end of the novel is it more of a
symbol of her transgressions or
her inner strength?
• Literary Focus
– Other Symbols
• The name itself is
• Pearl
representative of beauty—the
character has value and
beauty just like the piece
jewelry has value
• Representative of a living
version of Hester’s letter as
well as a constant reminder of
his sexual sin
• Representative of the Puritan
• Minister
Dimmesdale ideal of self-suffering, but also
representative of man’s
inability to escape its sinful
nature
Characters: The Scarlet Letter
• The Scarlet Letter:
Characters
– Hester Prynne
– Passionate, intelligent
and strong
– Endures shame and
scorn from her Puritan
community
– She is an outcast from
society, but this
alienation gives her
unique perspective on
the actions of others
• The Scarlet Letter:
Characters
– Reverend Arthur
Dimmesdale
– Hester’s lover
– Famed in England for
his elegant and
powerful sermons
– Feels tremendous guilt
and inner-conflict
between his
commitment to the
church and his love for
Hester
• The Scarlet Letter: Characters
– Roger Chillingworth
– Hester’s husband; remains
in disguise throughout the
novel
– Seeks revenge against
Hester and makes it his
personal mission to
discover and torture her
lover
– Indulgent and presented as
both physically and
mentally twisted