“I believe that The Scarlet Letter, like all great novels, enriches our sense of human experience and complicates and humanizes our approach to it.” from Solitude, Love, and Anguish: The Tragic Design of the Scarlet Letter by Seymour L. Gross

Born in Salem, MA in 1804 Wrote during the Romantic and Transcendentalist periods Trickiness: TSL published in 1850, but set in 1650ish Nathaniel Hawthorne

His great-great-grandfather, William Hathorne, ordered the whipping of Anne Coleman and four others in the streets of Salem. His great-grandfather, John Hathorne, was the magistrate presiding over the trial of the accused witches of Salem (1692). Family History

The Salem Witch Trials May – October 1692: Salem, MA Constitute a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 “witches” to be hanged and many others imprisoned Period of public hysteria generated by false accusations and coerced confessions

Romantic Era Literature a. deal with the strange and the mysterious. b. involve symbolic imagination. c. turn to the past for subject matter.

Transcendentalism Humans are born good Children are God’s most perfect creation One can only find God in and through Nature

Anti-Transcendentalism Man is born with the stain of the original sin Man is the most destructive force in nature One can only find God through good works and life experience

Hawthorne’s Focus The problem of evil and the nature of sin. The inner world of the human mind and heart Begin with a simple idea, like guilt. Use symbolism intertwined with complex personal relationships between the characters The Scarlet Letter: analyzes the effect of one sin on the four main characters who are closely intertwined because of the sin (Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth).

What is sin? Sin and civil law (criminality) Sin and moral law (religious) Sin and natural law (human nature)

Setting All action occurs in the center of Boston and the outskirts of this village. Three scaffold scenes: one in the beginning, one in the middle, and one at the end. In each of these scenes, the four main characters are present, and the changes in each are shown.

Imagery Creates mood and emphasizes his ideas. Uses types of plants to differentiate between those with whom Nature sympathizes and those with whom she does not. Uses images of darkness and shadows, light, the play of sunlight in the forest, etc.

Puritans Did NOT come to America for religious freedom; came to build a new community (New Jerusalem=Salem) that was “pure” and true to God’s law. Theocracy: ministers and magistrates (judges) enforce the laws of God and cooperate to serve God.

Puritans All members were judges of the faith and works of every other member. Lifestyle of self-discipline, zealously avoid the temptations of the devil Followed the will of God, as expressed in the Ten Commandments and the Bible. Completely intolerant of sin. Any sin could cause God’s wrath (illness, Native American attacks, natural disasters) Seek out sin in others to bring it into the open

Puritans Valued hard work. (“Idle hands are the devil’s playthings”).

Puritans Regular Puritanism Humans were too sinful to earn salvation by performing good works or avoiding sin. People could go to Heaven only if they received God’s grace in the process of conversion. During conversion, saving grace enters people’s hearts, and they are released from sin. Calvinist Puritanism Doctrine of predetermination.: The “saved” (those destined to spend eternity in Heaven) had already been determined. The way you knew you were saved: you were able to avoid sin. If you sinned, are you already damned? Not because of the sin per se, but because if you sinned, didn’t it indicate that you had already been damned?

Thematic Subjects Adultery Alienation Guilt Hypocrisy v. Integrity Fate v. Free Will Individual Rights v. Society Moral Pride v. Intellect Isolation Natural v. Civil Law Science v. Reason Intuition

Plot/Setting The novel is set in the mid 1600s in Boston, Massachusetts. The plot encompasses a seven year period. The plot involves the love triangle of wife- lover-husband.

Hester Prynne- wearer of the scarlet letter Pearl- child of Hester; living symbol of Hester’s sin Roger Chillingworth- learned scholar; doctor Arthur Dimmesdale- admired young minister Governor Bellingham- governor and magistrate of Massachusetts Bay Colony Rev. John Wilson- senior minister of colony Mistress Hibbins- Gov. Bellingham’s sister Characters

Symbol The scarlet letter itself is the central symbol. It changes meaning for the characters in the novel as Hester’s character changes. The A becomes a pathway to redemption for some characters as well. Watch the many ways Hawthorne uses the scarlet A as a symbol…

Other Symbols Rosebush Weeds Names: Hester Prynne, Chillingworth, Dimmesdale, Pearl Scaffold Night/Shadows Day/Sunshine Forest Town Meteor Brook Colors: red, black, gold Hester’s clothing Pearl’s clothing

The Scarlet Letter Upon finishing The Scarlet Letter in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne read the manuscript to his wife, Sophia.

The Scarlet Letter “It broke her heart,” Hawthorne wrote, “and “sent her to bed with a grievous headache, which I look upon as a triumphant success.”

Hawthorne originally intended The Scarlet Letter to be a short story but expanded it at the suggestion of his publisher. The Scarlet Letter Original Cover

The Scarlet Letter is peopled with characters who are meant to be the embodiments of moral traits, rather than realistic, living figures. The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter displays Hawthorne lifelong preoccupation with the themes of secrecy and guilt, the conflict between intellectual and moral pride, and the lingering effects of Puritanism. The Scarlet Letter Original title page

“The Prison-Door” The year is The place is Boston, a small Puritan settlement. Before the town jail, a group of somber people wait with stern expressions.

“The Prison-Door” They are expecting Hester Prynne, a woman convicted of adultery.

“The Prison-Door” Even this early, Hawthorne has marked the thematic boundaries of his novel: law and nature repression and freedom

“The Market Place” “The Market Place” is some curtain- raiser. In one vivid image, you have the whole story. The lines of conflict are drawn, the issues defined, the characters placed in relation to one another.

“The Market Place” The image Hawthorne gives us is that of a young woman taken in adultery, and standing on a scaffold in the midst of a hostile crowd.

Lillian Gish in The Scarlet Letter

Meg Foster in The Scarlet Letter

Demi Moore in The Scarlet Letter

"Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter - Authors FREE Presentations." Literature Index - FREE Presentations in PowerPoint Format, Free. N.d. Web. 12 Apr The Scarlet Letter. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Ppt. The Scarlet Letter Powerpoint. Henry County Schools, n.d. Web. 13 Apr Willett. "PowerPoint Presentations." Graves County Schools Official Web Site. N.d. Web. 12 Apr Works Cited

Sentence #1 A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.

Sentence #2 The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.

Sentence #3 In accordance with this rule, it may safely be assumed that the forefathers of Boston had built the first prison-house, somewhere in the vicinity of Cornhill, almost as seasonably as they marked out the first burial-ground, on Isaac Johnson’s lot, and round about his grave, which subsequently became the nucleus of all the congregated sepulchres in the old church-yard of King’s Chapel.