American Romanticism (1820-1865)

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American Romanticism (1820-1865)

• Early romanticism
• New England transcendentalism
• High romanticism

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Romanticism

• Values
• - passion, emotion, natural beauty
• - imagination, mysticism, liberalism (freedom
  to express personal feelings)
• Describes
• - personal human experiences
• - often social nonconformists or outcasts

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The Scarlet Letter (1850)
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Time and Place of the Story

• Boston
• 1642-1649
• Chapters 1-3 Market-Place. A June morning,
  1642.
• Chapter 4 Prison. Afternoon of the same day.
• Chapters 7-8 Home of Governor Bellingham. Late
  summer, 1645.
• Chapter 12 Market-Place. Saturday night, early
  May, 1649 (Governor Winthrops death).
• Chapters 14-15 Sea coast. Several days later.
• Chapters 16-19 Forest. Several days later.
• Chapters 21-23 Market-Place. Three days later.

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New England Puritans intolerance

• Hostile to witchcraft
• - Ann Hibbins hanged as a witch in 1656.
• - witchcraft trial in Salem in 1692
• Hostile to other Protestant sectarians like
  Antinomians and Quakers
• - Ann Hutchinson (1591-1643) was banished from
  Massachusetts in 1638 for unlawful preaching.
• - counter force religious freedom in Rhode
  Island

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Antinomians / Quakers vs. Puritans

• Antinomians / Quakers - the individuals inner
  light.
• Puritans - no individual could hear the voice of
  God speaking directly to their soul.

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Settlement at Boston

• Established in 1630
• Main colony of Massachusetts
• Early center of American Puritanism
• Theocratic-minded statesmen and ministers
• The Newsletter (1704) - the 1st newspaper
• Harvard University founded at nearby Cambridge in
  1636
• Commercial center

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Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)s family

• Salem, Massachusettes New England Puritans
• Hathornes
• - William prosecutor of Quakers
• - John (Williams son) prosecutor of witches
• - grandfather revolutionary war hero
• - father sea captain
• Mother - Elizabeth Manning Hathorne

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Hawthornes enemies

• Intolerance
• Hypocrisy that hides the common sin
• Greed that refuses to share joy
• Incapacity for human sympathy

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The Unpardonable Sin

• The Unpardonable Sin might consist in a want of
  love and reverence for the Human Soul in
  consequence of which, the investigator pried into
  its dark depths, not with a hope or purpose of
  making it better, but from a cold philosophical
  curiosity, - content that it should be wicked in
  whatever kind or degree, and only desiring to
  study it out. Would not this, in other words, be
  the separation of the intellect from the heart?
• (Hawthorne, The American Notebooks, 1844)

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Discussion questions

• 1. The function of The Custom-House
  Introductory to The Scarlet Letter and the
  first three chapters in the structure of the
  whole novel?
• 2. What crime/sin was Hester Prynne found
  committing? Who are involved in this crime/sin?
  How do people in the novel react to the crime
  /sin?
• 3. Describe the traits of early Puritans as is
  revealed in The Scarlet Letter? Which do you
  think desirable and which not?

Discussion Topics for Nathaniel Hawthorne's The
Scarlet Letter
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Discussion Questions

• 4. How do Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale
  each react to the crime / sin? What are the
  consequences of their reactions? Find the things
  and people associated with each of these
  characters and their indications about these
  characters.
• 5. Tell the story of the witch in the novel. Look
  for evidence revealing the townspeoples concept
  of witch and witchcraft. Give a comment on
  what a witch is.

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Discussion Questions

• 6. Ambiguity and ambivalence in the narrative
  voice
• 7. Describe the changes in the appearances of the
  priest Dimmesdale and Hester's husband
  Chillingworth during the process of their several
  encounters and analyze what these changes
  indicate and symbolize.

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Structural significance of

• The Custom-House integral to the novel?
• links source of the story reason for
  Hawthornes interest in the Puritan period some
  aspects of the narrators character, his
  emotional responses to people and his situation
• Chapter 1 sets the mood for the tale
• Chapter 2 3
• introduce major characters, settings, the
  event that will push the plot onward.

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Hester Prynnes crime / sin

• Adultery
• People involved Prynne, Dimmesdale,
  Chillingworth, Pearl, and townspeople
• Reactions

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Hester Prynnes Reaction

• Openly acknowledges her sin
• Publicly accepts her punishment
• - wearing the scarlet letter A which is
  elaborately embroidered by herself
• - humbly accepting all peoples derision and
  belittlement without feeling wronged instead,
  keeping helping the poor and the diseased

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Effect of Hester Prynnes Reaction

• Wins respect from the community and changing the
  meaning of the letter A on her bosom
• Be at peace with herself and with other people
• Grows stronger in mind
• Sees more clearly and thinks more critically
  about the people about her and the sins hidden in
  these people

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Things and people associated with Hester Prynne

• A blossoming wild rose-bush (p. 48)
• the sainted Ann Hutchinson (p. 48, 165)/
  Prophetess (p.165)
• The scarlet letter A elaborately embroidered on
  the bosom of her gown
• Black hair and eyes
• A spell taking her out of ordinary human beings
  and inclosing her in a sphere by herself (p. 54)
• The image of Divine Maternity (Virgin Mary) (p.
  56) perfect elegance, natural dignity of the
  feminine gentility (p. 53), serene beauty (p.55)
• Needle / embroidery / art

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Arthur Dimmesdales Reaction Its Effects

• Reaction Hiding his sin
• Effects
• - suffers from increasing torment of
  conscience (his own hypocrisy)
• - grows weaker both physically and
  psychologically
• - dies from the mental torture

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Things and people associated with Arthur
Dimmesdale

• Eloquence fervor / speech of an angel
• Nervous sensibility tremulous mouth, melancholy
  brown eyes, apprehensive, startled and
  half-frightened look, emaciated form, gloom and
  terror, pain
• White white brow, pale cheek
• Shadowy by-path
• the meteoric sign of the letter A
• Hand over his heart

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Chillingworths Reaction and Its Effects

• Reaction
• - Revengeful
• - Hideously torments a human heart
• Effects
• - changes into a cold-hearted devillike man
• - loses humanity and motive to live after the
  object of his revenge dies.

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Things and people associated with Roger
Chillingworth

• Dim eyes (p.58)
• Deformity Misshapen shoulders (p.58)
• Snake / horror / terror (p.61, 76)
• Blackness / darkness / dusk
• Sombre, lonely, chill (p.74)
• Glare of red light / fire / flame
• herb
• Devil (p.170) / Black Man in the forest (p.77)

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Ambiguity ambivalence

• Ambiguity
• - Scarlet letter A
• - Pearl
• - Forest
• Narrators ambivalent attitude towards
• - Is adultery wrong or pardonable?
• - Is Hester being praised or condemned?

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Theme of the Novel

• 1. New England Puritan moral life
• 2. a love story
• 3. necessity of being true / criticism of
  hypocrisy
• 4. a critique of New England Puritans
  intolerance
• 5. effect of sin on people
• 6. conflict between society and individual

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Conflict between society and individuals

• The novel represents the conflict between
  individuals and society by the example of the
  minister Dimmesdale (pp. 132-33 p. 259).
• - Society needs a pious minister.
• - The minister is eager to be true.

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Narrative method

• Telling vs. showing
• Narrative mode omniscient narration with
  frequent author intrusions
• Optional readings
• The scarlet letter in the sky?
• A scarlet letter on Dimmesdales bosom?

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Assignments for Huck Finn

• 1. Is the book a production of racism or against
  racism? Comment on the character of Jim and Mark
  Twains portrayal of niggers.
• 2. Comment on the images of women in the novel.
• 3. Is Huck and Jims images in the ending (about
  the last 11 chapters, from chapt 33 on)
  consistent with those in the previous chapters?
  Is the ending a success, failure or
  disappointment?

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Assignments for Huck Finn

• 4. What are the major symbols in the novel?
• 5. Use examples to illustrate the effect of using
  vernacular language to describe characters.
• 6. Whats the effect of using Huck as the
  1st-person narrator?
• Gerald Graff James Phelan, eds, Adventures of
  Huckleberry Finn. A case study in critical
  controversy (Boston Bedford / St. Martins,
  1995).