American Romanticism
(1820-1865)
Early romanticism
New England transcendentalism
High romanticism
Romanticism
Values
- passion, emotion, natural beauty
- imagination, mysticism, liberalism
(freedom to express personal feelings)
Describes
- personal human experiences
- often social nonconformists or
outcasts
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Time and Place of the Story
Boston
1642-1649
Chapters 1-3 Market-Place. A June morning, 1642.
Chapter 4 Prison. Afternoon of the same day.
Chapters 7-8 Home of Governor Bellingham. Late
summer, 1645.
Chapter 12 Market-Place. Saturday night, early May,
1649 (Governor Winthrop’s death).
Chapters 14-15 Sea coast. Several days later.
Chapters 16-19 Forest. Several days later.
Chapters 21-23 Market-Place. Three days later.
New England Puritan’s
intolerance
Hostile to witchcraft
- Ann Hibbins hanged as a witch in 1656.
- witchcraft trial in Salem in 1692
Hostile to other Protestant sectarians
like Antinomians and Quakers
- Ann Hutchinson (1591-1643) was banished
from Massachusetts in 1638 for unlawful
preaching.
- counter force: religious freedom in Rhode
Island
Antinomians / Quakers
vs. Puritans
Antinomians / Quakers - the individual’s
inner light.
Puritans - no individual could hear the
voice of God speaking directly to their
soul.
Settlement at Boston
Established in 1630
Main colony of Massachusetts
Early center of American Puritanism
Theocratic-minded statesmen and
ministers
The Newsletter (1704) - the 1st
newspaper
Harvard University founded at nearby
Cambridge in 1636
Commercial center
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)’s
family
Salem, Massachusettes – New England
Puritans
Hathornes
- William: prosecutor of Quakers
- John (William’s son): prosecutor of
witches
- grandfather: revolutionary war hero
- father: sea captain
Mother - Elizabeth Manning Hathorne
Hawthorne’s enemies
Intolerance
Hypocrisy that hides the common sin
Greed that refuses to share joy
Incapacity for human sympathy
The Unpardonable Sin
“The Unpardonable Sin might consist in a
want of love and reverence for the
Human Soul; in consequence of which, the
investigator pried into its dark depths, not
with a hope or purpose of making it better,
but from a cold philosophical curiosity, content that it should be wicked in whatever
kind or degree, and only desiring to study it
out. Would not this, in other words, be the
separation of the intellect from the
heart?”
(Hawthorne, The American Notebooks, 1844)
Discussion questions
1. The function of “The Custom-House:
Introductory to ‘The Scarlet Letter’” and the first
three chapters in the structure of the whole novel?
2. What crime/sin was Hester Prynne found
committing? Who are involved in this crime/sin?
How do people in the novel react to the crime /sin?
3. Describe the traits of early Puritans as is revealed
in The Scarlet Letter? Which do you think
desirable and which not?
Discussion Topics for Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
Discussion Questions
4. How do Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale
each react to the crime / sin? What are the
consequences of their reactions? Find the things
and people associated with each of these
characters and their indications about these
characters.
5. Tell the story of the witch in the novel. Look for
evidence revealing the townspeople’s concept of
“witch” and “witchcraft”. Give a comment on
what a witch is.
Discussion Questions
6. Ambiguity and ambivalence in the narrative
voice
7. Describe the changes in the appearances of the
priest Dimmesdale and Hester's husband
Chillingworth during the process of their
several encounters and analyze what these
changes indicate and symbolize.
Structural significance of
The Custom-House: integral to the novel?
links – source of the story; reason for
Hawthorne’s interest in the Puritan period;
some aspects of the narrator’s character, his
emotional responses to people and his situation
Chapter 1: sets the mood for the tale
Chapter 2 & 3:
introduce major characters, settings, the event
that will push the plot onward.
Hester Prynne’s crime / sin
Adultery
People involved: Prynne, Dimmesdale,
Chillingworth, Pearl, and townspeople
Reactions
Hester Prynne’s Reaction
Openly acknowledges her sin
Publicly accepts her punishment
- wearing the scarlet letter A which is
elaborately embroidered by herself
- humbly accepting all people’s derision
and belittlement without feeling
wronged; instead, keeping helping the
poor and the diseased
Effect of Hester Prynne’s Reaction
Wins respect from the community and
changing the meaning of the letter “A”
on her bosom
Be at peace with herself and with other
people
Grows stronger in mind
Sees more clearly and thinks more
critically about the people about her
and the sins hidden in these people
Things and people associated
with Hester Prynne
A blossoming wild rose-bush (p. 48);
the sainted Ann Hutchinson (p. 48, 165)/ Prophetess (p.165)
The scarlet letter “A” elaborately embroidered on the
bosom of her gown
Black hair and eyes
A spell taking her out of ordinary human beings and
inclosing her in a sphere by herself (p. 54)
The image of Divine Maternity (Virgin Mary) (p. 56):
perfect elegance, natural dignity of the feminine gentility
(p. 53), serene beauty (p.55)
Needle / embroidery / art
Arthur Dimmesdale’s Reaction &
Its Effects
Reaction: Hiding his sin
Effects:
- suffers from increasing torment of
conscience (his own hypocrisy)
- grows weaker both physically and
psychologically
- dies from the mental torture
Things and people associated
with Arthur Dimmesdale
Eloquence & fervor / speech of an angel
Nervous sensibility: tremulous mouth,
melancholy brown eyes, apprehensive,
startled and half-frightened look, emaciated
form, gloom and terror, pain
White: white brow, pale cheek
Shadowy by-path
the meteoric sign of the letter “A”
Hand over his heart
Chillingworth’s Reaction and Its
Effects
• Reaction:
- Revengeful
- Hideously torments a human heart
Effects:
- changes into a cold-hearted devillike man
- loses humanity and motive to live after the
object of his revenge dies.
Things and people associated
with Roger Chillingworth
Dim eyes (p.58)
Deformity: Misshapen shoulders (p.58…)
Snake / horror / terror (p.61, 76)
Blackness / darkness / dusk
Sombre, lonely, chill (p.74…)
Glare of red light / fire / flame
herb
Devil (p.170) / Black Man in the forest (p.77)
Ambiguity & ambivalence
Ambiguity
- Scarlet letter “A”
- Pearl
- Forest
Narrator’s ambivalent attitude towards:
- Is adultery wrong or pardonable?
- Is Hester being praised or condemned?
Theme of the Novel
1. New England Puritan moral life
2. a love story
3. necessity of being true / criticism of
hypocrisy
4. a critique of New England Puritans’
intolerance
5. effect of sin on people
6. conflict between society and individual
Conflict between society and individuals
The novel represents the conflict between
individuals and society by the example of the
minister Dimmesdale (pp. 132-33; p. 259).
- Society needs a pious minister.
- The minister is eager to be true.
Narrative method
Telling vs. showing
Narrative mode: omniscient narration
with frequent author intrusions
Optional readings
The scarlet letter in the sky?
A scarlet letter on Dimmesdale’s
bosom?
Assignments for Huck Finn
1. Is the book a production of racism or against
racism? Comment on the character of Jim
and Mark Twain’s portrayal of “niggers”.
2. Comment on the images of women in the
novel.
3. Is Huck and Jim’s images in the ending
(about the last 11 chapters, from chapt 33
on) consistent with those in the previous
chapters? Is the ending a success, failure or
disappointment?
Assignments for Huck Finn
4. What are the major symbols in the novel?
5. Use examples to illustrate the effect of using
vernacular language to describe characters.
6. What’s the effect of using Huck as the 1stperson narrator?
Gerald Graff & James Phelan, eds,
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A
case study in critical controversy
(Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s,
1995).