Mahek Mehta Ap Preparation Guide : The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his bold novel, The Scarlet Letter tackles a variety of themes that include: sin, guilt, redemption, postfeminism, and organized religion's abuse of power. Hawthorne spoke in a somber and grim tone, designed to arouse a sense of suspense for his readers. The audience in which he was addressing would have been conservative Christians and women suffragettes, all of whom reflected the ideologies during this time period. By instilling clever diction, Hawthorne exposes hypocrisy in Puritanism and objects against the religion's superfluous punishments; which force individuals to endure unnecessary and extreme suffering.

At what point are you certain that Chillingworth is Hester’s husband? Cite the passage that confirms your suspicions.

From the beginning, we see that Hester Prynne is a young and beautiful woman who has brought a child into the world with an unknown father. She is punished by Puritan society by wearing the scarlet letter A on the bosom of her dress and standing on the scaffold for three hours. The scaffold is a painful task to bear; the townspeople gathered around to gossip and stare at Hester and her newborn child, whom she suitably named Pearl, named because of her extreme value to her mother. Her subjection to the crowd of

During the 17th century, a Puritan commonwealth presided over Boston and was known for its strict adherence to religious, moral and social codes. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes rhetorical strategies in order to denounce the Puritan system of beliefs and bring to light the hypocrisy of the Puritan community as he tells the agonizing story of a young woman who was condemned by society.

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne often demonstrates the frailty of humans. Nature is often described as beautiful, while the Puritan society and human nature are viewed in a harsh light. Hawthorne illustrates that human nature is flawed and judgmental through use of figurative language, critical diction, and symbolism.

1. Hester recognizes a white man that has uneven shoulders and is standing with a Native American. He seems to be very smart with intelligence in his eyes and he has a deformed figure. It is obviously someone important because she gets alarmed and even clutches her baby harder, even though it is crying.

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, reflects the ideals of American Romanticism by the use of the concept of Dark Romanticism, the evident appreciation of nature and innocent children, and the rejection of the standard rules of society and the influence of England, instead, answering to a higher moral code.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the most important authors in the history of American literature and the genre of Romanticism or Dark Romanticism, due to his unique style of writing and his focus upon subjects of Puritan religion and the unknown. I consider Hawthorne an important author, due to the fact that he skillfully and accurately based his fictional writings upon happenings of colonial times, was one of the first authors to display unfortunate outcomes for his characters’ immoral choices according to Puritan beliefs, and wrote of things that were considered taboo in his time, such as witchcraft, scientific innovation and experimentation. I strongly believe that Hawthorne’s influence for his writings were his Puritan ancestral background, his fascination with Puritan beliefs, and his interest in what was considered the unknown such as witchcraft and science. According to the Norton Anthology Textbook Vol. B, Nathaniel Hawthorne was “born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804” (370). Hawthorne belonged “to a family whose ancestral roots were tied to Puritan history, with his family being among the first settlers of Massachusetts and having one of his relatives serve as a judge during the Salem witch trials” (370). Hawthorne, as a young boy, “had a particular interest in writings such as John Bunyan’s Puritan allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, and by his mid-teens he took interest in British novelists such as Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollet, William Godwin, and Sir Walter Scott”

Prediction #1: I predict that Roger Chillingworth, in the blind pursuit of Hester’s lover, will injure, kill, or in some other way hurt Pearl, Hester, or Hester’s lover. Throughout our exploration of Hawthorne’s short stories, a common theme that arose was the unpardonable sin, which by Hawthorne’s definition, is the quest for knowledge at the expense of one’s own humanity. While this theme is not as salient as in other stories, I have a suspicion that Chillingworth will stop at nothing in order to find the identity of Pearl’s father, and will not care who stands in his way, even at the expense of Pearl or Hester. The three times Chillingworth has appeared so far, he has tried to find out the identity of Hester’s lover, exhibiting the characteristics

     In Hawthorne's revered novel The Scarlet Letter, the use of Romanticism plays an important role in the development of his characters. He effectively demonstrates individualism in Hester to further our understanding of the difficulties of living in the stern, joyless world of Puritan New England.  It is all gloom and doom.  If the sun ever shines, one could hardly notice.  The entire place seems to be shrouded in black.  The people of this society were stern, and repressed natural human impulses and emotions than any society before or since.  But for this reason specifically, emotions began bubbling and eventually boiled over, passions a novelist

Hawthorne’s work takes America’s Puritan past as its subject, but The Scarlet Letter uses the material to the greatest effect. The Puritans were

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a man who was both plagued and absorbed by the legacy of the Puritans in New England. He was related to John Hathorne, a Puritan judge during the infamous Salem Witch trials of 1692. In The Scarlet Letter, his fictional account of mid-17th century Boston presents an opportunity to examine different themes commonly associated with Puritans. Particularly the nature of sin, personal identity and the repression of natural urges are themes that appear repeatedly through the novel. While his account of this time period may not be completely historically accurate, it is indicative of the persistent thematic influence of Puritan culture on American and New England society.

Frederick William Robertson once said, “There are three things in the world that deserve -- no mercy, hypocrisy, fraud, and tyranny.” Ushering in the Romantic era in literature, this quote stood as the foundation for many transcendental pessimists; Nathaniel Hawthorne was no exception. As described in The Custom House, the introduction to The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne heavily disapproves of his own extreme Puritan past and, in fact, heavily critiques it throughout the entire novel. However, while not directly, Hawthorne criticizes Puritan culture and ideals by exposing their sin in the community. He does this in a number of ways, but readers can plainly see that he chastises the Puritans by portraying them as religious extremists, intelligently

Next, the interaction between Chillingworth and Hester further proves Hester’s strength. Chillingworth orders Hester to tell him the name of Pearl’s father. Hester refuses, “Ask me not! That thou shalt never know!” (Chapter 4). This is surprising now because during the puritan times, husbands had control over their spouses. Women were seen as disobedient if they didn’t follow their husband’s orders. The setting and Hester’s replies to Chilling worth shows Hester’s obvious strength and her

Hester then returned to her cell and Roger Chillingworth was brought into the cell to attempt to calm her and Pearl down. Chillingworth then proceeded to send the jailer on his way, and demanded that Hester tell him who the father was. She refused. Since Hester knew that Chillingworth was her long lost husband, Chillingworth insisted that Hester never reveal that they were married. Chillingworth said that if Hester does, he would ruin the real fathers life. Hester agreed reluctantly fearing that she may come to regret her decision.