THE SCARLET LETTER Chapters 1 and 2 By Matt Mosley, Britt Boler, and Park Gibbs.

Summary of Chapter Chapter 1: The first chapter is very short but it sets the setting for the novel, it takes place in Boston of the seventeenth century in June. It starts with a group of people standing outside of a prison door that Hawthorne describes in excessive detail about how dark it is. The door is an old wooden beat up door with weeds and a wild rosebush which makes the prison seem very dark. Chapter 2: This chapter is very unique because it reveals Hester Prynne and what she has done to go to prison, women are waiting outside discussing her wrongdoing. But long and behold Hester comes out wearing a elaborately embroidered scarlet letter “A” standing for adultery on her breast and is carrying a three month old baby in her arms. She is led into a unsympathetic crowd into a scaffold for punishment for her sin. Hester is thinking about her past life and then comes out of her daydreams to realize her position in the prison of shame and punishment.

Theme The theme for these two chapters is that you must face the consequences for your actions. Hester has committed adultery and for that she must go to prison and face the fact and deal with it.

Romantic and Puritan ideas Romanticism: During this time period, romanticism was very widely used and art was very popular. Puritan ideas: Puritan was a religion widely used back in the seventeenth century, they believed that man existed for the glory of God, that his first concern in life was to do God’s will and so to receive future happiness. They were mostly strict and just taught what the bible said, and since adultery is a sin, that is why Hester went to jail.

Character Analysis Hester Prynne: A young woman that is proud and confident at first but then comes to realize that she is in a very bad situation. She is the main character but we still don’t know much about her from these two chapters. Pearl: Pearl is a three month old baby that belongs to Hester

Literary Devices Irony: the irony is that people have their own sins but people still look down on her for her sin. Narrative Voice: the narrative voice in the first two chapters is just a narrator, we do not know who it is. Symbolism and Color: The prison door is the main symbol out of these two chapters because it symbolizes consequences of wrongdoing and the outside of the prison represents personal freedom.

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