Transcript Presentation Title - Chicago High School for Agricultural

The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Catharsis
• Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter time
between the fall of 1849 when his mother died
and February 3, 1850
• Repeatedly read the conclusion to his wife
• Story deals with the consequences of breaking
a moral code; Hester Prynne is found guilty of
adultery in a Puritan town in Boston in the
mid-1600’s
• Hawthorne’s intention is to explore how guilt
and sin operate in the human mind
• Literary scholars identify Hester Prynne as the
first American heroine
Author of the Subconscious
• Hawthorne characterizes her as a whole
person—woman, mother, sinner, and member
of the community—rather than as a stereotype,
as so many writers at that time cast their
female characters.
• Hawthorne loved to explore the dark parts of
the human psyche, the subconscious
• Book was considered very risqué in the mid1800s.
The Scarlet Letter Chapters 1–8
How and should criminals be punished?
• Laws in colonial Massachusetts covered
everything from swearing to excessive
decoration on women’s caps to murder.
• Whipping, branding, and other forms of public
humiliation were relatively common practices
in the colonies.
• Hester Prynne’s punishment was mild--- by
Puritan standards, that is.
Words to Know
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
edifice n. building
ensue v. to take place afterward
feign v. to pretend
gesticulation n. expressive gesture
ignominy n. deep humiliation; disgrace
inauspicious adj. unfavorable
panoply n. full suit of armor; impressive array
tribunal n. court or meeting at which a trial is
carried out
Study Questions Chapters 1-8
• How are the Puritans of Boston first
portrayed?
• What is significant about the rosebush outside
the prison door?
• Describe Hester’s demeanor as she emerges
from her prison cell.
• What is the significance to Hester’s viewing
the crowd from atop the scaffold?
Study Questions Chapters 1-8
• Describe Roger Chillingworth in the scene in
which he visits Hester in jail.
• Why does Chillingworth ask Hester to keep his
identity a secret?
• Why does Hawthorne introduce all the main
characters so early?
• Why does Hester refuse to reveal her partner’s
sin?
Study Guide Questions 1-8
• Why does Hester remain in Boston?
• How does Hester support herself and her
daughter?
• How is Hester treated by the townspeople?
• Why does Hester name her daughter Pearl?
• How is Pearl first described?
• How is Pearl treated by the children of
Boston?
Study Guide Questions 1-8
• How does Pearl amuse herself?
• What does Pearl first notice as a baby?
• Why does Hester visit Governor Billingham’s
mansion?
• What reason does Hester give for her need to
keep Pearl?
• Who supports Hester in her pleas to keep Pearl
and by what argument?
Study Guide Questions 1-8
• How does Pearl behave toward
Dimmesdale in the Governor’s
garden?
• Why does Dimmesdale speak so
eloquently on Hester’s behalf?
• What function does Mistress Hibbins
serve in the story?
The Scarlet Letter Chapters 9–15
How does guilt effect a person’s life?
• Governor Winthrop’s greatest opposition was a
woman whose liberal ideas were popular for a
time among Boston residents.
• Anne Hutchinson was born in Lincolnshire,
England, in 1591. In 1634 she moved with her
husband and family to Boston, Massachusetts.
The Scarlet Letter Chapters 9–15
• Hutchinson began holding meetings in her
house, teaching her own concepts of God and
religion.
• She opposed the Puritan concept of morality,
which she considered too “legal” in nature.
• She also opposed the authority of the Boston
clergy.
Words to Know
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
abstruse adj. difficult to understand
appellation n. identifying name or title
deleterious adj. having an unexpected harmful effect
importunate adj. troublesomely urgent
latent adj. hidden
propensity n. tendency
propinquity n. nearness
stigmatized adj. identified with disgrace
torpid adj. sluggish; without motion
Study Questions Chapters 9-15
• How does Roger Chillingworth come to be
Dimmesdale’s personal physician?
• How has Roger Chillingworth changed since
Hester first knew him?
• What does Chillingworth suggest is the cause
of Dimmesdale’s suffering?
• How does Pearl’s behavior in the cemetery
express a link between Dimmesdale and
Hester?
Study Questions Chapters 9-15
• How does Chillingworth finally discover the
cause of Dimmesdale’s suffering?
• What reason is given for Dimmesdale’s ability
to touch the soul of others?
• What effect does public veneration have upon
the Reverend Dimmesdale?
• How does Dimmesdale seek penitence?
• Describe Dimmesdale’s first vigil on the
scaffold.
Study Questions Chapters 9-15
• What meanings are given to the apparition in
the sky?
• What effect does the midnight vigil have on
Hester?
• What has Hester’s A come to mean to many of
the townspeople?
• Describe the changes in Hester’s appearance
and temperament wrought by the scarlet token.
• In what way has the A freed Hester?
Study Questions Chapters 9-15
•
•
•
•
Why does Dimmesdale go to the scaffold?
Why does Chillingworth torture the minister?
How does Hester come to view womanhood?
Why does Chillingworth refuse to leave
Dimmesdale alone?
• What does Hester discover after her interview
with Chillingworth?
• How does Hester respond when Pearl makes
an A for herself of eel-grass?
Study Questions Chapters 9-15
• When asked what the A truly means, what
does Hester say?
• What does Hawthorne mean when he
says that “the scarlet letter had not done
its office”?
• Why does Hawthorne NOT make
Chillingworth totally devilish?
The Scarlet Letter Chapters 16–24
Why does society demand that
we conform to certain conventions?
• The government of Massachusetts was a
theocracy.
• The General Court had decided, early on, that
only church members could take part in the
government of the colony.
• The ministers were not actually elected
officials, but held great influence and power of
interpretation
The Scarlet Letter Chapters 16–24
• Freemen eventually changed the
political structure by not allowing life
terms but annually elected ones
• Thus, by the mid-1600s, the annual
election day, as observed in The
Scarlet Letter, had become an
established event.
Words to Know
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
colloquy n. formal conversation or discussion
contiguous n. next to; touching
indefatigable adj. untiring
inducements n. motives; incentives
loquacity n. the habit of talking continually or
excessively
obeisance n. gesture of respect
probity n. honesty; uprightness
recompense n. payment for a service
vicissitude n. quality of being changeable
The Scarlet Letter Chapters 16–24
• How does Pearl explain the sun’s refusal to
shine on Hester?
• What answer does Hester give Pearl when she
asks if Hester has met the Black Man?
• How does Dimmesdale react when Hester
reveals Chillingworth’s true identity?
• What does Hester suggest they do?
• What does Hester do to signal the beginning of
a new life?
The Scarlet Letter Chapters 16–24
• How does Pearl act when she sees her mother
without the A?
• How is Dimmesdale affected by his interview
with Hester?
• How is Dimmesdale’s sin different from
Chillingworth’s?
• Why does Dimmesdale conceal his sine for
seven years?
The Scarlet Letter Chapters 16–24
• How does Dimmesdale treat Chillingworth
when the two meet?
• What does Chillingworth do when he sees
Dimmesdale’s transformation?
• How does Dimmesdale finally escape
Chillingworth?
• What becomes of Chillingworth after
Dimmesdale’s death?
The Scarlet Letter Chapters 16–24
• How do the townspeople react to
Dimmesdale’s confession?
• What becomes of Hester and Pearl?
• Why does Dimmesdale act so strangely upon
his return from the forest?
• Why doesn’t Hawthorne clearly explain what
is on Dimmesdale’s chest?
The Scarlet Letter
painting by T. H. Matteson