APEN 11

1
APEN 11

• Warm-Up
• Hawthorne
• Writing Prompt
• The Scarlet Letter

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Warm-Up

• What symbols exist within The Scarlet Letter?
  What does each represent? How do you know?

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The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Hawthorne was born on July 4th, 1804 in Salem,
  Massachusetts
• Father Nathaniel Hathorne Sr. was a sea captain.
  
• Mother Elizabeth Clarke Manning was a descendent
  of blacksmiths

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The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College
• After his graduation he turned to writing.
• He wrote several successful short stories which
  were collected in Twice-Told Tales (1837).

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The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Following university, Hawthorne returned to Salem
  where he met Sophia Peabody.
• After a five year engagement, they were married
  in 1842.

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The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Unable to support his new family by writing, in
  1846 Hawthorne accepted a political appointment
  to the Salem Custom House as Surveyor of the Port.

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The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne

• This bureaucratic position stunted Hawthorne's
  creativity.
• A change in administration, however, led to his
  termination in 1849.
• Hawthorne's mother died at the same time.

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The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Some critics have suggested that the loss of both
  his position and mother provided the creative
  impetus to write The Scarlet Letter (1850).

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The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Hawthorne's connection to Salem haunted him.
• His great-grandfather John Hathorne was the
  chief-interrogator of the "Salem Witches."

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The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne

• The story that Hawthorne added the "w" to his
  name to distance himself from his Hathorne
  ancestors has no clear evidence to support it.

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The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Nathaniel Hawthorne died on May 18, 1864 in
  Plymouth, New Hampshire.
• He is credited with writing the first truly
  American novel The Scarlet Letter.

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Literary Themes

• Alienation a character is isolated due to
  self-cause or societal-cause
• Guilt vs. Innocence a character's sense of
  guilt caused by Puritanical values/heritage

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Literary Themes

• Individual vs. Society
• Self-reliance vs. Accommodation
• Hypocrisy vs. Integrity
• Fate vs. Free Will
• Unconventional Gender Roles
• Impossibility of Human Perfection

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Imagery

• Hawthorne makes use of the following patterns of
  images
• Light vs. Dark
• Natural vs. Unnatural
• Sunshine vs. Firelight or Moonlight and
  Reflections

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Romantic/Gothic Motifs

• Fantasies
• Dreams
• Reveries
• Open-ended endings and unanswered questions the
  open-ended possibilities of idealistic romance

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Hawthorne's Views of Romanticism and
Transcendentalism

• Hawthorne did not conform to the Romantic focus
  on the emotions and abandonment of reason.
• Hawthorne strove to create a balance between
  "head and heart."

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Hawthorne's Views of Romanticism and
Transcendentalism

• Hawthorne believed that human fulfillment was
  achieved through a balance between mind, reason,
  heart, spirit, will, and imagination.
• Hawthorne's balanced approach placed him in
  opposition to Transcendentalists like Emerson,
  Thoreau, and Longfellow.

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The American Novel

• Hawthorne's novel was not a means of escape, but
  rather a means to examine society and life.
• His novel invited criticism of the worlds he
  reflected Puritanism.

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Hawthorne's Novel

• Hawthorne's novel found relevance as more than
  mere entertainment, but as something more
  prophetic and integral to the American identity.

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The Puritans

• 1565 Spanish settlers land in St. Augustine, FL
• 1607 Captain John Smith and others land at
  Jamestown and establish the first English
  settlement in America
• 1638 Anne Hutchinson is banished from New
  England for her beliefs.

• 1650 The events of The Scarlet Letter take
  place
• 1773 The Boston Tea Party is staged to protest
  British taxes on the colonists
• 1776 Colonists declare their independence from
  Britain
• 1850 The Scarlet Letter

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The Custom House

• Why is this included in the text? What purpose
  does it fulfill?

22
Writing Prompt

• Why dost thou smile so at me? inquired
  Hester, troubled at the expression of his eyes.
  Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the
  forest round about me? Hast though enticed me
  into a bond that will prove the ruin of my
  soul?
• Not thy soul, he answered, with another
  smile. No, not thine!
• In your own words, explain this exchange between
  Hester and Roger Chillingworth. What bond is she
  discussing and whose soul is in danger? Your
  answer should prove a thorough reading of the
  text!

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The Scarlet Letter Part I

• He was small in stature, with a furrowed visage
  which, as yet, could hardly be termed aged. There
  was a remarkable intelligence in his features, as
  of a person who had so cultivated his mental part
  that it could not fail to mould the physical to
  itselfone of this mans shoulders rose higher
  than the other.

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The Scarlet Letter Part I

• How do you feel about what happens to Hester
  Prynne in the beginning?
• What is her punishment? What do you think the
  magistrates are hoping to accomplish with this
  punishment?

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On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth,
surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and
fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the
letter A.
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SYMBOLISM

• Hesters and Pearls Clothing
• Her own dress was of the coarsest materials and
  the most sombre hue with only that one
  ornamentthe scarlet letterwhich it was her doom
  to wear.
• The childs attire, on the other hand, was
  distinguished by a fanciful, or, we might rather
  say, a fantastic ingenuity, which served, indeed,
  to heighten the airy charm that early began to
  develop itself in the little girl

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SYMBOLISM

• PEARL (the name)
• Her Pearl!For so had Hester called her not as
  a name expressive of her aspect, which had
  nothing of the calm, white, unimpassioned lustre
  that would be indicated by the comparison. But
  she named the infant Pearl, as being of great
  pricepurchased with all she hadher mothers
  only treasure!

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SYMBOLISM

• The A!
• It was so artistically done, and with so much
  fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that
  it had all the effect of a last and fitting
  decoration to the apparel which she wore and
  which was of a splendor in accordance with the
  taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was
  allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the
  colony.
• Not a stitch in that embroidered letter, but
  she has felt it in her heart.

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SYMBOLISM

• The Prison Gate and the Rose
• But on one side of the portal, and rooted
  almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush,
  covered, in this month of June, with its delicate
  gemsThis rosebushhas been kept alive in
  history but whether it had merely survived out
  of the stern old wildernessIt may serve, let us
  hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that
  may be found along the track, or relieve the
  darkening close of a tale of human frailty and
  sorrow.

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Homework

• Scarlet Letter Journals are due 11/6