The Scarlet Letter“What other dungeon is so

dark as one’s own heart! What jailer so inexorable as

one’s self.”

What literary device is used?SimileWHY?

“What other dungeon is so dark as one’s own heart! What jailer so

inexorable as one’s self.”

About WHOM is the narrator speaking?

Reverend DimmesdaleWHY?

“What other dungeon is so dark as one’s own heart! What jailer so

inexorable as one’s self.”

Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne

1804-1864

Central Theme

An ALLEGORY of the

heart vs. the head;

the value of truth

Major Characters

Hester Prynne

Roger Chillingworth

Arthur Dimmesdale

Pearl

Setting

17th Century

7 year span (1642-1649)

Puritan Boston

Village-never farther than forest

The novel

NOT a historical novel

Considered a “romance” not a realistic novel

Balance of realistic detail with extravagant, supernatural

touches

Point of ViewThe Custom House essay –

1st person-gives story air of historical reality

The rest – 3rd person omniscient occasionally interrupted by

narrator to address the reader directly – “we…”

Other Themes

sin and its effects

hypocrisy

the Puritan world view

individual vs. society, nature and self

Other Themes

alienation

man’s inhumanity to man

search for freedom and identity

Other Themesfour kinds of sin:

confessed, open sinsecret, hidden sin

inherited sinthe “unpardonable sin” of

vengeance

Symbols & Motifsrosebush

prison & cemetery

Hester’s hair

Letter A

Faustian Bargain

Symbols & Motifsscaffold

tombstoneforestPearl

Satan/shadow“mad scientist”

Motifs of dualitylight vs. shadow

day vs. nightChristian vs. Pagan

“black flower” vs. rosebushHead (intellect) vs. heart (passion)

Religious duty vs. lovetown vs. forest

Public life vs. private life

Four levels of meaningLiteral Level: word for word as

it reads.

Social Level: the Puritan community; the individuals’

reactions to one another

Four levels of meaningMoral Level: What is right?

What is wrong?Allegorical: Each of the four

major characters in The Scarlet Letter has an

allegorical role.

•Guilt can destroy a person, body and soul.

•True repentance must come from within.

•Revenge destroys both the victim and the seeker.

•One must have the courage to be true to one’s self.

Possible Themes

• It is by recognizing and dealing with our weaknesses that we grow stronger.

• The choices we make determine what we become.

•Within each person exists the capacity for both good and evil.

•We must accept responsibility for our actions or suffer the consequences.

Literary elementsConflict

Point of view

Foreshadowing

Irony

Allusion

Theme

Fig. Lang.

Simile

Metaphor

Personification

Paradox

Oxymoron

Atmosphere/MoodIt is established through

setting and tone (attitude) to create the gloomy world of

Puritan New England.

Look for contrast of words of pessimism and words of

optimism

Atmosphere/Mood“Accordingly, the crowd was

somber and grave. The unhappy culprit sustained

herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a

thousand unrelenting eyes,all fastened upon her, and

concentrated at her bosom.”

LanguageSimiles and Metaphors

“Sometimes a light gleamed out of the physician’s eye like

the reflection of a furnace, or, let us say, like one of

those gleams of ghostly fire.”

LanguageSimiles, Metaphors, Personification

“The pine trees, aged, black, and solemn, and flinging groans and other melancholy utterances on

the breeze, needed little transformation to figure as Puritan elders; the ugliest

weeds of the garden were their children.”

Atmosphere/Mood“Standing on that miserable eminence, she saw again her native village, in Old England,

and her fraternal home; a decayed house of ray stone,

with a poverty-stricken aspect, but retaining a half-obliterated shield of arms over the portal, in token of antique gentility.”