Transcript Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne
and The Scarlet Letter
Overview Video
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
Hawthorne's Life
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE







Born July 4, 1804 in Salem, MA
Education- Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine
(38 freshmen, 5 faculty members)
Married Sophia Peabody in 1842
Job at Custom House 1839-40, 46-49
3 Children
Moved to England, France, and Rome after
Salem
Died in 1864
Do you want to learn more?
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
“The Scarlet Letter is powerfully
written but my writings do not, nor
ever will, appeal to the broadest
class of sympathies, and therefore
will not obtain a very wide
popularity.”
-Hawthorne, after finishing the novel
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
As a literary artist…
First American “pro writer”: college
educated, familiar with the great European
writers
4,000 copies of The Scarlet Letter sold in
the first 10 days
OVERVIEW
The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester
Prynne who has committed adultery and must
wear a scarlet "A" publicly as punishment. When
her husband, whom she believed to be dead,
suddenly reappears, he determines to discover
the identity of the father of Hester's child,
although Hester steadfastly refuses to reveal his
identity. Through the use of rich symbolism and
supernatural events, Hawthorne shows the
destructive effects of guilt and revenge.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The Scarlet Letter was finished in 1850…..
What was going on in
America in 1850?
HISTORICAL, SOCIAL, AND
LITERARY EVENTS TIMELINE
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
To what “period” of American
Literature does Hawthorne belong??
Lets take a look at the history of
American Literature…..
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
English Heritage (Elizabethan Age)
 1650-1770: Early Colonial periodPuritan writings, no distinctive American
literature
 1750-1800: Later Colonial periodAge of Reason/Enlightenment
(Neoclassicism, Rationalism)

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

1800-1850: American Renaissance/
Romanticism- slave narratives, inner
feelings, the burden of a Puritan past, the
rejection of Neoclassicism
Transcendentalism was a part of this…
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
TRANSCENDENTALISM
 Boston-centered movement, led by Emerson,
was an important force in New England circles
 Human existence transcends the sensory realm
 Formalism in favor of individual responsibility
 Belief in individual choice and consequence
 Focus on the positive
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
SUBDIVISION OF ROMANTICISM: GOTHIC
LITERATURE, the “dark romantics”(1800-1850)
-use of supernatural
-motif of double (both good and evil in
characters; sin and evil does exist)
-depression, dark forests
-Poe, Hawthorne, Melville
-emphasis on symbolism (which we will discuss later)
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

In what ways can you see the
Transcendentalist influence on
Hawthorne?
(His wife was a Transcendentalist and had some effect
on his literature, and he also became friends with
Transcendentalists in Concord, Emerson and Thoreau)

How is he also ANTITRANSCENDENTALIST/ GOTHIC, as
exhibited in the novel?
LITERARY ELEMENTS
 Characters
 Mood
 Setting
 Plot
 Symbolism
 Themes
LITERARY
ELEMENTS:CHARACTERS

Hester Prynne- protagonist, married to
Chillingworth, adultery with Dimmesdale
LITERARY
ELEMENTS:CHARACTERS
Arthur Dimmesdale- pastor, intense
suffering, tragic figure
 Roger Chillingworth- physician, old,
evil, deformed, diabolical vengeance on
Dimmesdale
 Pearl- beautiful daughter, sometimes
imp-like, rebellious, inquisitive

LITERARY
ELEMENTS:CHARACTERS
Gov. Bellingham- based on actual
governor of Boston
 John Wilson- eldest clergyman, based
on actual English minister
 Mistress Hibbins- based on figure
executed for witchcraft, appears to know a
great deal about the adultery

LITERARY ELEMENTS: MOOD
The SOMBER, DARK mood is welldefined from the beginning:
“sad-colored garments” of spectators, the
prison door which is “heavily timbered and
studded with iron spikes”
LITERARY ELEMENTS: SETTING
17th century Puritanical
New England (Mass.)
What was America like then?
LITERARY ELEMENTS: SETTING
Life in the Mid 1600s








Boston was founded just 2 decades earlier
1st governor was John Winthrop, who governed based on religious
and civic ideals
People were hardworking and devoted
1630s- Puritans established a number of settlements in
Massachusetts
PURITANISM involved belief that the church of England was too
much influenced by the Catholic church
Strict code, on which people were expected to act and judged upon
Rejected belief that divine authority is channeled through any one
single person (i.e. the pope)
THEOCRACY- state governed by the church
LITERARY ELEMENTS: SETTING
What aspects of this type of religious society can
be seen in The Scarlet Letter?
How do you think Hawthorne views this type of
society?
How do you think his own past might
have affected his writing?
(Hawthorne was intrigued and even haunted
by his past ancestors, and they appeared
quite often in his fiction. Hawthorne’s past
greatly influenced his writing of The
Scarlet Letter.)
How did his life affect the
writing of the novel?
1. Influences on Hawthorne: Puritan background
John Hathorne presided over
the Salem Witch Trials of
1692
Major William Hathorne (16081681) persecuted quakers
How did his life affect the
writing of the novel?
2) Salem- childhood, later work at the Custom
House, as Surveyor of the Port
“The Custom House” introduction creates a
FRAME STORY
This introduction gives an account of his experience as
surveyor; he attacks the officials who connived in his
dismissal… Like his heroine Hester, Hawthorne emerges
from confrontation with a self-righteous society as an
individual of integrity,passion, and moral superiority.
The Custom House
LITERARY ELEMENT:
SYMBOLISM IN THE NOVEL
MAJOR THEMES








PURITAN MORALITY v. PASSION AND INDIVIDUALISM
Self-trust v. accomodation to authority
Conventional v. unconventional gender roles
Guilt: sense of guilt forced by puritanical heritage/society
The penalties of isolation/ isolation because of self-cause
and societal cause
Patriarchal power
Belief in fate/free will
Impossibility of earthly perfection
MAJOR THEMES
Perhaps his greatest interest was the human capacity on
how sin operates on the inner workings of minds
With the superstition common to his
brotherhood, he fancied himself given
over to a fiend, to be tortured with
frightful dreams, and desperate
thoughts, the sting of remorse, and
despair of pardon; as a foretaste of
what awaits him beyond the grave.
But it was the constant shadow of my
presence!--the closest propinquity of the
man whom he had most vilely
wronged!--and who had grown to exist
only by this perpetual poison of the
direst revenge! Yea, indeed!--he did
not err!--there was a fiend at his elbow!
A mortal man, with once a human
heart, has become a fiend for his
especial torment!" The unfortunate
physician, while uttering these words,
lifted his hands with a look of horror, as
if he had beheld some frightful
shape, which he could not
recognize, usurping the place of his
own image in a glass.
“smile with a sinister meaning”
THE END