The Scarlet
Letter
By: Nathaniel
Hawthorne
About the Author: His Childhood
• Born 4 July 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts
• He was the son of Elizabeth Clarke Manning and
Nathaniel Hawthorne, a Captain in the U. S. Navy
who died when Nathaniel was four years old.
• His ancestors were some of the first Puritans to
settle in the New England area.
• The lingering guilt Hawthorne felt from his great
grandfather having officiated during the Salem
Witch Trials provided a theme for many of his
stories
• After his father died Nathaniel and his mother
moved to her parents’ home just a few doors down,
which Hawthorne referred to as ‘Castle Dismal’.
About the Author: His Education
• Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine
(1821-24) along with fellow poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
and future American President Franklin Pierce, about whom he
wrote a biography of in 1852.
• Hawthorne was not interested in entering any of the
traditional professions; he was an avid reader and already
writing his own short stories and had many published in
magazines.
• Upon graduation he continued to write stories and sketches.
• His writing was not a lucrative pursuit so Hawthorne worked at
the Salem Custom-House to augment his income.
• He also lived at the experimental transcendentalist community
‘Brook Farm’, but stayed only a year.
About the Author: His Family
• In Boston on 9 July 1842, Hawthorne married
painter and fellow transcendentalist Sophia
Peabody with whom he would have three
children
– daughters Una (1844-1877)
– Rose (1851-1926)
– and future author Julian Hawthorne (1846-1934).
• The newly married couple settled in the heart of
Transcendentalist country Concorde,
Massachusetts, living in the ‘The Old Manse’.
About the Author: His Adult Life
• In 1851 Herman Melville dedicated Moby Dick to
Hawthorne.
• In 1852 Hawthorne bought his home ‘The Wayside’
where the Alcotts had once lived and called
‘Hillside’.
• The same year, the Hawthorne family set sail for
Liverpool, England where Nathaniel served as U.S.
Consul.
• They traveled throughout Europe and lived for a
time in France and Italy where they met fellow
authors Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her
husband Robert Browning.
About the Author: His Adult Life
• Back home at The Wayside, Hawthorne continued to write
of his travels in his Passages From Notebooks volumes.
• Nathaniel Hawthorne died on 19 May 1864. Franklin Pierce,
James Russell Lowell, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Dr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes were among the many who
mourned the loss of their friend.
• Hawthorne lies buried on Author’s Ridge in the Sleepy
Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts among his
many friends including the Alcotts, Emerson, and Thoreau.
• After devoting her remaining years to editing her husband’s
notebooks for publication, Sophia died in 1871.
About the Author: His Personal Struggles
• He is a Puritan
• He is a Transcendentalist
• He feels the guilt of his family involvement in
the Salem Witch Hunts and Trials
• He enjoys the psychological side of
investigating the human condition
About the Author: His Works
• Hawthorne defined his longer works as “romances”—not
novels.
• A romance is radically different from a novel by not being
concerned with the possible or probable course of
ordinary experience.
• Many of his works are inspired by Puritan New England,
combining historical romance loaded with symbolism and
deep psychological themes, bordering on surrealism.
• Hawthorne's works belong to dark romanticism
– cautionary tales that suggest that guilt, sin, and evil are the
most inherent natural qualities of humanity.
• His later writings would also reflect his negative view of
the Transcendentalism movement.
About the Author: His Writing Style
• Gloomy
• Complex
• Involves the reader in his own exploration of
the human condition
• Wry joker
• Riddler
• Self-mockery/skepticism
“The Custom House”
• Customs are the taxes paid on
foreign goods brought into the
country
• The Custom House is the place
where these taxes are paid
• The surveyor is the head of the
Custom House and is generally
appointed in the political arena
(i.e. by the President)
• Hawthorne was the surveyor
for the Salem Custom House
but eventually lost his job due
to political turnover
“The Custom House”
• This fictional sketch was written in response to
Hawthorne’s being let go from the Custom
House
• Hawthorne wrote this both as a jumping off
point for The Scarlet Letter, but also in order
to speak out about being “laid off.”
“The Custom House”
• The Custom House has several purposes:
– Introduces us to narrator of the novel and his
history
– Tells us the origin of the story we are about to
hear
– Draws parallels between the narrator, the main
characters of the story (mainly Hester Prynne),
and the author
– Introduces us to some of the themes of the larger
work
The Scarlet Letter: What to Read For
• Patterns:
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Character
Theme
Image
Symbolism (color!)
• Hawthorne’s exploration of the human condition:
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Mind
Heart
Spirit
Will
Imagination
Indulgence
Human Needs (bodily and emotional)
The Scarlet Letter: What to Read For
• Topics that connect to themes:
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Self-trust vs authority
Gender roles
Open-mindedness
Hypocrisy
Presumed guilt (real or imagined)
Nurturance vs destructiveness
Isolation
Crimes against the heart
Patriarchal power
Fate vs free will
Human progress (all kinds)
Dreams, reverie, reality
Earthly perfection
The Scarlet Letter: What to Read For
• Character:
– Recurrent “types”
– Interrelationships
– Heroism
– Villainy
– What does Hawthorne condemn, admire, or accept about
humans
• Image Clusters/Juxtapositions:
– Dark vs light
– Natural vs unnatural
– Sunshine and firelight vs moonlight and reflections
Journal Entry
• Choose 3 items from the list below and research two interesting
facts of life about daily living in Puritan colonies for each
category
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Daily routine
Dress
Diet
Historical events
Puritan belief system (and its background)
Social order
Political order
Position of women
Attitudes and superstitions
Puritan personages
• Discuss the items you have discovered and their possible
implications for people of the time in a paragraph of 250 words
or more
Research and Presentations
•
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Generated groups of two
Assigned topic
Create a Web 2.0 presentation
Include relevant information and at least one
graphic
• Be sure to cite your sources on a separate
MLA formatted page
1. Daily Routine
2. Dress
3. Diet
4. Historical Events
5. Puritan Belief System and Background
6. Social Order
7. Political Order
8. Position of Women
9. Attitudes and Superstitions
10.Puritan Personages
11.Role of Churches
12.Economy
13.Family Structure
14.Penal System
15.Death Causes and Customs
16.Salem Witchcraft