SOME CRITICAL QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN VIEWING A TEXT:
EVERY attempt to make meaning from a text is grounded in a certain theory about HOW
meaning is generated. All meaning is contingent upon the framework we use to give shape
and structure to the world. And these frameworks can exist in competition with one
another, generating multiple layers of meaning at once. Here are a few different ways of
looking at a text in order to discuss its meaning. Practice these analytical methods on the
texts found on my schoolwires site. You will receive extra credit for each text you analyze,
and for each framework you use.
Structuralism:
In particular, in The Scarlet Letter, you should consider parallels and contrasts in Hawthorne’s imagery, and
juxtapositions between (and tensions within) his characters and his settings. How do these patterns help you to
give the text a logic that you can draw conclusions from?
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What patterns, parallels, contrasts, juxtapositions (in other words, structures) do you see evident in
the text that help give it shape, form, meaning?
Who is the intended audience of this text, and how do you think that audience is intended to feel
upon viewing this text? What position does the text’s overall style place you in as a reader?
What does the main purpose of this text seem to be? What conscious choices seem evident in the
creation of this text?
What genre does this text seem to participate in? How does this text adhere to the traditional
expectations of this genre, and how does it challenge them?
What (if anything) is surprising or confusing to you about this text? How might closer attention to
the text’s structures and patterns help to resolve your confusion or explain your surprise as the
product of either an intentional choice on the author’s part or an initial misreading on your part?
Historicism:
In particular, in The Scarlet Letter, you should consider Hawthorne’s relationship with puritanism and
transcendentalism. How do these philosophical frameworks both influence his purposes and shape the questions
and concerns raised by the novel?
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Whose voices, values and/or concerns are given emphasis in this text? Whose voices, values and/or
concerns are marginalized?
What can you determine about the historical, intellectual, and/or biographical contexts within which
this text was created? What cultural trends, historical circumstances, theoretical concerns, and/or
personal issues might help to explain the author’s particular intentions in creating this text?
What might be some unstated, unintentional, or unexamined implications of this text, either in its
original context or in your own?
What (if anything) is surprising or confusing to you about this text? How might added knowledge of
the contexts within which it was created, and any contrasts between that context and your context as
a reader, help to resolve your confusion or explain your surprise?
Psychoanalysis:
According to Freud, symbols might better be understood as developing out of the author’s unconscious unresolved
issues rather than from his conscious intentions. Certainly, a Freudian lens can, in The Scarlet Letter, bring about
interesting new ideas of how to make sense of the characters and images developed in the novel.
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What Freudian concepts can you perceive as underlying drivers of meaning in this text, whether
through imagery, character development, or narrative structure?
How might Freud’s psychoanalytical concepts help us to understand the experiences and choices of
any key characters depicted within the text?
How might Freud’s concepts of the unconscious mind help us to understand the unconscious motives
of the author in creating the text, or the reader in being drawn to certain interpretations of it?
What (if anything) is surprising or confusing to you about this text? How might a knowledge of
Freudian concepts help you arrive at a deeper resolution of these confusions?
Archetypal Criticism:
C.G. Jung felt that the root of all symbolic meaning was the collective unconscious—in The Scarlet Letter, you might
see the text not as the product of Hawthorne’s particular concerns so much as an unconscious expression of these
powerful mythical archetypes.
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How might you grasp particular elements of the text (whether images, characters, or narrative events
and structures) as expressions of mythical archetypes?
Is there a central figure in the text who can be interpreted as a hero who goes on a journey of
discovery and transformation? What more universal pattern in myth or in individual psychological
development might this journey relate to?
What (if anything) is surprising or confusing to you about this text? How might a knowledge of
Jungian archetypes help you arrive at a deeper resolution of these confusions?