Themes:
Revenge: Nathaniel Hawthorne presents revenge as an unnatural act that twists a person’s soul into something evil. In the religious worldview vengeance belongs to God alone.
Women and Femininity: several strong women in an era when women were expected to be subordinate to their male counterparts. Hester Prynne is willing to take on her own shame while protecting the man she loves from his share of the public condemnation. She keeps his secret faithfully, for seven long years. Even when she might have been able to demand his help, she does not seek it. Alternatively, the two men in Hester's life, her husband and her lover, are cowards and hypocrites, unwilling to reveal their true identities. Women, although the "weaker sex" in this heavily religious society, prove to be incredibly strong in this novel.
Nature vs. Human Law/ Justice vs. Judgement: the inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay Colony have a finely tuned sense of justice based on a partnership of religion and law. When a citizen breaks the colony’s law, he is also breaking God’s law. While it is only through confession to the public that a sinner, Arthur Dimmesdale, finds peace, this conflation of God’s law with man’s law also creates an intolerant, authoritarian society that does not allow for human mistakes.
Nature of Evil/ Supernatural: things like eyes that glow red, meteors in the shape of an “A,” witches that go riding their broomsticks. These events as being part of a fable or (dark) fairy tale tell us something important about the characters and the secrets they keep.
Sin vs. Forgiveness or Punishment vs. Forgiveness: In Christianity, grace and forgiveness are frequently contrasted with the law. The Puritan faith suggests that conformity to a strict set of rules is the most important religious practice you can perform. The more good you do and the fewer sins you commit, the more likely you are to go to heaven.
The narrator presents the society as essentially legalist, with its inhabitants adhering to strict moral codes and societal values. Hester’s punishment is a form of legalism. She has sinned and must be isolated from the rest of the group to keep her from contaminating them. The narrator gives the belief that their society should be ruled by grace.
Guilt & Blame: The relationships of these characters are defined by either the guilt they feel or by the blame they place. Hester Prynne commits adultery and is ostracized for the blame placed upon her. Her lover is transformed physically and emotionally by the guilt he feels, and her husband is driven mad by his quest to inspire guilt in Hester’s lover.
Exile: Hester Prynne lives in isolation for years for having a child out of wedlock. Her isolation leads her to see her society in a new light and allows her to think outside of the box. Ironically, it seems characters who are the most appreciated by and involved in this society seem to be the most conflicted and alone.
Public Guilt vs. Private Guilt/Hypocrisy: Private guilt is a sin that leads to great personal injury. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a religious figure, comes to embody hypocrisy, resulting in so much guilt that he becomes ill. His guilty conscience produces the mysterious appearance of the scarlet letter on his skin over his heart and ultimately causes his death.
The narrator warns us not to let our reputations become more important than our lives, and it poses an interesting question about the danger of valuing appearances.
Civilization vs. Wilderness or Town vs. Woods: Nature is almost like a character in their society. It is often personified as listening, commenting on, and interacting with other characters. The society itself is like an island surrounded by nature. The town is bordered on one side by a huge expanse of woods, home to Native Americans (the Wampanoag tribes). On the other side lies the big blue Atlantic Ocean. From the beginning of this story, our narrator tells us that nature is “kind” and generous, contrasting heavily with the cold and strict ways of Puritan society.
Good vs. Evil/Sin: In the Puritan society religious sin is associated with breaking the law.
Fate vs. Free Will/ Individual vs. Society: a religious society that believes in fate and in the idea that each person’s life follows a specific and set path. Puritans believed that God was a guide who controlled every aspect of life and a nation’s livelihood. They believed God worked toward bringing about good, and they looked for messages and signs from him through the celestial occurrences (like meteors). Characters in this novel constantly struggle between letting fate run its course and choosing a path for themselves. Those who are ostracized by society seem more able to forge a life of their own.
Questions that would be good to Answer:
1. The function of physical setting in a book.
2. The relationship between the book’s events and the locations in which these events take place.
3. Do things happen in the forest that could not happen in the town? What about time of day?
4. Does night bring with it a set of rules that differs from those of the daytime?
5. Questions about the different treatments of men and women.
6. Questions about revenge.
7. The function of the past in the novel. The narrator tells a two-hundred-year-old story that is taken from a hundred-year-old manuscript.
8. The role of a child. Why are children presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults? How do children differ from adults in their potential for expressing these perceptions?
Literary Devices:
Symbols:
Revenge: Nathaniel Hawthorne presents revenge as an unnatural act that twists a person’s soul into something evil. In the religious worldview vengeance belongs to God alone.
Women and Femininity: several strong women in an era when women were expected to be subordinate to their male counterparts. Hester Prynne is willing to take on her own shame while protecting the man she loves from his share of the public condemnation. She keeps his secret faithfully, for seven long years. Even when she might have been able to demand his help, she does not seek it. Alternatively, the two men in Hester's life, her husband and her lover, are cowards and hypocrites, unwilling to reveal their true identities. Women, although the "weaker sex" in this heavily religious society, prove to be incredibly strong in this novel.
Nature vs. Human Law/ Justice vs. Judgement: the inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay Colony have a finely tuned sense of justice based on a partnership of religion and law. When a citizen breaks the colony’s law, he is also breaking God’s law. While it is only through confession to the public that a sinner, Arthur Dimmesdale, finds peace, this conflation of God’s law with man’s law also creates an intolerant, authoritarian society that does not allow for human mistakes.
Nature of Evil/ Supernatural: things like eyes that glow red, meteors in the shape of an “A,” witches that go riding their broomsticks. These events as being part of a fable or (dark) fairy tale tell us something important about the characters and the secrets they keep.
Sin vs. Forgiveness or Punishment vs. Forgiveness: In Christianity, grace and forgiveness are frequently contrasted with the law. The Puritan faith suggests that conformity to a strict set of rules is the most important religious practice you can perform. The more good you do and the fewer sins you commit, the more likely you are to go to heaven.
The narrator presents the society as essentially legalist, with its inhabitants adhering to strict moral codes and societal values. Hester’s punishment is a form of legalism. She has sinned and must be isolated from the rest of the group to keep her from contaminating them. The narrator gives the belief that their society should be ruled by grace.
Guilt & Blame: The relationships of these characters are defined by either the guilt they feel or by the blame they place. Hester Prynne commits adultery and is ostracized for the blame placed upon her. Her lover is transformed physically and emotionally by the guilt he feels, and her husband is driven mad by his quest to inspire guilt in Hester’s lover.
Exile: Hester Prynne lives in isolation for years for having a child out of wedlock. Her isolation leads her to see her society in a new light and allows her to think outside of the box. Ironically, it seems characters who are the most appreciated by and involved in this society seem to be the most conflicted and alone.
Public Guilt vs. Private Guilt/Hypocrisy: Private guilt is a sin that leads to great personal injury. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a religious figure, comes to embody hypocrisy, resulting in so much guilt that he becomes ill. His guilty conscience produces the mysterious appearance of the scarlet letter on his skin over his heart and ultimately causes his death.
The narrator warns us not to let our reputations become more important than our lives, and it poses an interesting question about the danger of valuing appearances.
Civilization vs. Wilderness or Town vs. Woods: Nature is almost like a character in their society. It is often personified as listening, commenting on, and interacting with other characters. The society itself is like an island surrounded by nature. The town is bordered on one side by a huge expanse of woods, home to Native Americans (the Wampanoag tribes). On the other side lies the big blue Atlantic Ocean. From the beginning of this story, our narrator tells us that nature is “kind” and generous, contrasting heavily with the cold and strict ways of Puritan society.
Good vs. Evil/Sin: In the Puritan society religious sin is associated with breaking the law.
Fate vs. Free Will/ Individual vs. Society: a religious society that believes in fate and in the idea that each person’s life follows a specific and set path. Puritans believed that God was a guide who controlled every aspect of life and a nation’s livelihood. They believed God worked toward bringing about good, and they looked for messages and signs from him through the celestial occurrences (like meteors). Characters in this novel constantly struggle between letting fate run its course and choosing a path for themselves. Those who are ostracized by society seem more able to forge a life of their own.
Questions that would be good to Answer:
1. The function of physical setting in a book.
2. The relationship between the book’s events and the locations in which these events take place.
3. Do things happen in the forest that could not happen in the town? What about time of day?
4. Does night bring with it a set of rules that differs from those of the daytime?
5. Questions about the different treatments of men and women.
6. Questions about revenge.
7. The function of the past in the novel. The narrator tells a two-hundred-year-old story that is taken from a hundred-year-old manuscript.
8. The role of a child. Why are children presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults? How do children differ from adults in their potential for expressing these perceptions?
Literary Devices:
Symbols:
The Scarlet Letter
The Meteor
Pearl
Motifs:
Civilization Versus the Wilderness
Night Versus Day
Evocative Names (“Prynne” rhymes with “sin”, “Dimmesdale” suggests “dimness”)
Important Scenes:
The scaffold scenes: dramatic structure devices. Hawthorne's three scaffold scenes symbolizes Dimmesdale's gradual advancement towards an utter public repentance.
In the first scaffold scene, he acts as Hester's deceitful accuser. Hester stands alone on the scaffold with Pearl, a child born out of wedlock, in her arms. Meanwhile, a crowd of townspeople has gathered to watch her humiliation and to hear the sermon. Dimmesdale is present throughout the scene as a mere spectator but in reality he is her accomplice in the crime of transgression. Moreover it is in this scene where Haster's husband Chillingworth comes to know about his wife's transgression.
In the second scaffold scene all the major characters are brought together. this scene focuses upon Dimmesdale's guilt and remorse, which have led him to the edge of insanity. The scene takes place in the middle of the night, seven years after Hester's punishment, Dimmesdale holds a vigil on the scaffold where he finally accepts his sin not to the town but to himself. In his torture he suddenly cries out a shriek of agony that is heard by Hester and Pearl on their journey home from the dying bed of Governor Winthrop. After hearing this shriek both Hester and Pearl join Dimmesdale on the scaffold. Pearl then asks Dimmesdale if he will be joining her and Hester there at noontime on the next day. Dimmesdale responds that this meeting will be on the great judgement day rather than here in the daylight. Hawthorne describes this situation as such: "And there stood the minister, with his hand on his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between the two of them" The cry od Dimmesdale was also heard by two other people and they were Mr. Wilson and Chilligwoth. Mr. Wilson thought that Dimmesdale was sad over the death of Governor Winthrop, Chilligworth was spotted by Pearl when a large meteor flashed in the sky.
The final scaffold scene occurs after the procession of Election Day. Dimmesdale give his sermon and confesses his sin to the public. suddenly he sinks down and dies. In this powerful scene Dimmesdale regains his soul, Pearl gains humanity, Chillingworth loses his victim and Hester loses her dream.
The Meteor
Pearl
Motifs:
Civilization Versus the Wilderness
Night Versus Day
Evocative Names (“Prynne” rhymes with “sin”, “Dimmesdale” suggests “dimness”)
Important Scenes:
The scaffold scenes: dramatic structure devices. Hawthorne's three scaffold scenes symbolizes Dimmesdale's gradual advancement towards an utter public repentance.
In the first scaffold scene, he acts as Hester's deceitful accuser. Hester stands alone on the scaffold with Pearl, a child born out of wedlock, in her arms. Meanwhile, a crowd of townspeople has gathered to watch her humiliation and to hear the sermon. Dimmesdale is present throughout the scene as a mere spectator but in reality he is her accomplice in the crime of transgression. Moreover it is in this scene where Haster's husband Chillingworth comes to know about his wife's transgression.
In the second scaffold scene all the major characters are brought together. this scene focuses upon Dimmesdale's guilt and remorse, which have led him to the edge of insanity. The scene takes place in the middle of the night, seven years after Hester's punishment, Dimmesdale holds a vigil on the scaffold where he finally accepts his sin not to the town but to himself. In his torture he suddenly cries out a shriek of agony that is heard by Hester and Pearl on their journey home from the dying bed of Governor Winthrop. After hearing this shriek both Hester and Pearl join Dimmesdale on the scaffold. Pearl then asks Dimmesdale if he will be joining her and Hester there at noontime on the next day. Dimmesdale responds that this meeting will be on the great judgement day rather than here in the daylight. Hawthorne describes this situation as such: "And there stood the minister, with his hand on his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between the two of them" The cry od Dimmesdale was also heard by two other people and they were Mr. Wilson and Chilligwoth. Mr. Wilson thought that Dimmesdale was sad over the death of Governor Winthrop, Chilligworth was spotted by Pearl when a large meteor flashed in the sky.
The final scaffold scene occurs after the procession of Election Day. Dimmesdale give his sermon and confesses his sin to the public. suddenly he sinks down and dies. In this powerful scene Dimmesdale regains his soul, Pearl gains humanity, Chillingworth loses his victim and Hester loses her dream.
Characters:
• Hester Prynne
• Roger Chillingworth
• Arthur Dimmesdale
• Pearl
Structure:
Its structure is tight, with all of the events interrelated and integrated into a logical sequence. The imagery is bright, and the writing is consistent in its evocation of the dark reality of Puritan Boston.
Summary:
Hester is briefly released from prison so that she can be paraded through town, displaying her scarlet "A" while standing on top of the town scaffold (a public stage). She carries her baby daughter, Pearl, in her arms. Pearl was born in prison. Hester steadfastly refuses to reveal the name of Pearl’s father, so that he might be saved from punishment.
Hester Prynne’s long lost husband arrives in the midst of this parade through town. He visits her in prison before her release and asks her not to tell anyone that he’s in town. His plan is to disguise himself so that he can ferret out and seek revenge on her lover.
Hester’s husband tells the townspeople that he’s a physician, and he adopts a fake name: Roger Chillingworth. Hester keeps his secret. Chillingworth soon realizes that the minister, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, is the likely father of Hester’s baby, and he haunts the minister’s mind and soul, day and night, for the next seven years.
The minister is too afraid to confess his sin publicly, but his guilt eats away at him; Chillingworth’s constant examination really makes him antsy. Seven years pass and, finally, Hester realizes the evil her husband has done to the man she loves.
Dimmesdale confesses his sin to the townspeople on the scaffold that had, seven years earlier, been the scene of Hester’s public shaming. His dying act is to throw open his shirt so that the scarlet A that he has carved onto his chest is revealed to his parishioners. Dimmesdale finds peace through confession.
When Chillingworth dies about a year after his rival, Dimmesdale, he leaves all his money and property to Pearl. Hester and Pearl finally escape the community where they have been outcasts for so many years and return to the England.
Many years later, Hester returns to the New England community that had been the site of her shame, resuming the scarlet letter of her own will.
When she dies, she is buried near the minister, and they share a gravestone. The gravestone contains an image, described as follows: "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules." In other words, marked on the headstone is a scarlet letter A drawn over a black background.
Summary:
Hester is briefly released from prison so that she can be paraded through town, displaying her scarlet "A" while standing on top of the town scaffold (a public stage). She carries her baby daughter, Pearl, in her arms. Pearl was born in prison. Hester steadfastly refuses to reveal the name of Pearl’s father, so that he might be saved from punishment.
Hester Prynne’s long lost husband arrives in the midst of this parade through town. He visits her in prison before her release and asks her not to tell anyone that he’s in town. His plan is to disguise himself so that he can ferret out and seek revenge on her lover.
Hester’s husband tells the townspeople that he’s a physician, and he adopts a fake name: Roger Chillingworth. Hester keeps his secret. Chillingworth soon realizes that the minister, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, is the likely father of Hester’s baby, and he haunts the minister’s mind and soul, day and night, for the next seven years.
The minister is too afraid to confess his sin publicly, but his guilt eats away at him; Chillingworth’s constant examination really makes him antsy. Seven years pass and, finally, Hester realizes the evil her husband has done to the man she loves.
Dimmesdale confesses his sin to the townspeople on the scaffold that had, seven years earlier, been the scene of Hester’s public shaming. His dying act is to throw open his shirt so that the scarlet A that he has carved onto his chest is revealed to his parishioners. Dimmesdale finds peace through confession.
When Chillingworth dies about a year after his rival, Dimmesdale, he leaves all his money and property to Pearl. Hester and Pearl finally escape the community where they have been outcasts for so many years and return to the England.
Many years later, Hester returns to the New England community that had been the site of her shame, resuming the scarlet letter of her own will.
When she dies, she is buried near the minister, and they share a gravestone. The gravestone contains an image, described as follows: "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules." In other words, marked on the headstone is a scarlet letter A drawn over a black background.
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