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A novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Important Notes for Chapter 1 – “The Prison Door”

• The mood is set as gloomy and dismal due to Hawthorne’s use of the colors gray, brown, and black, as well as the stern clothing the people are wearing.

• It is ironic that the Puritans, in building their Utopia, built first a prison and a cemetery.

• The decay of the prison symbolizes the decay of Puritan rules and law.

• The prison is surrounded by “unsightly vegetation.”

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• Nature is personified as being compassionate towards prisoners. This is seen with the growth of the rosebush outside of the prison door.

• It is suggested that the rosebush “sprung up from the footsteps of the sainted Anne Hutchinson.” This is an allusion.– Anne Hutchinson was a real-life Puritan

woman who was banished for being a heretic.

– Does this allusion foreshadow the plot?

• The narrator says that the novel is a rose plucked from that bush.

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Symbolism

• Weeds• Rose-bush• Flowers • Prison• Cemetery• Scaffold• Town beadle• Letter A• Pearl• Sunshine• Brook• Meteor• Names

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Structure – The novel is structured around 5 main scenes that includes 3 scaffold scenes plus transitional chapters that develop the

characters.

• The First Scaffold Scene (1-3)– Chapters 4-6 develop Chillingworth, Hester,

and Pearl.• The Governor’s Mansion (7-8)– Chapters 9-11 develop Chillingworth and

Dimmesdale.• The Second Scaffold Scene (12)– Chapters 13-15 develop Hester and

Chillingworth.• The Forest Scene (16-19)

Chapters 20-22 develop Hester and Dimmesdale.

• The Final Scaffold Scene (23 -24)

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Chapter 2 – “The Market-Place”

• The action starts around the prison, next to the scaffold.

• People are all gathered around the prison.

• The narrator explains that many different types of sinners were punished:– Naughty children– Drunk Indians– Quakers– Witches

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5. Describe the physical appearance of the Puritan women.

They were quite masculine, with the “beef and ale of their native land” making up their physical appearance.They had broad shoulders, large busts, and ruddy cheeks.

They were not as pale or thin as women who were younger and raised in New England, as opposed to England.

HI!!!!

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6. Identify four statements some of the Puritan women make about Hester’s punishment.

 

• One woman says that they should have been allowed to think up the punishment because Hester got off too easily.

• Another woman states that Hester should have been branded with a hot iron on her forehead.

• One younger Puritan woman does come to her defense slightly by saying that Hester will always feel the pain in her heart. This symbolizes the change between generations.

• Another woman states that Hester shames all women and should be put to death. The magistrates can blame themselves if their own wives and daughters sin.

This is ironic because they are not acting Christian at all.

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7. Explain the following statement which was spoken to the women by a man in the crowd: “…is there no virtue in woman, save what springs from a wholesome

fear of the gallows?”

• The man is asking these five women if it is only the fear of death and punishment that keeps women virtuous. Shouldn’t people be good for the sake of being good?

• One interpretation of this scene is that this is Hawthorne placing himself as a character in the novel in order to make this moral statement.

• Do people only behave in fear of punishment?

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Here-ye! Here-ye! Here comes Hester Prynne!8. Tell us about her. What does she look like? How does she act? Quote, if necessary.

• The town-beadle, the man who carries out all punishments and a symbol of Puritan law himself, tries to lead Hester out of the prison, but she repels him, walking herself out.

• Hester is tall with a “perfect elegance.” She is absolutely beautiful and lady-like.

• She has thick, glossy, dark hair, that threw off the sunlight, and deep black eyes.

This shows her pride and symbolizes her rejection of Puritan rules.

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9. “She bore in her arms a child, a baby of some three months old, who winked and turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day …”

 Why is the baby winking from the sun?

• The baby, Pearl, is three months old, yet she has never been in the sunlight. This is because Hester was arrested while she was pregnant and the baby was born in jail.

• The sunlight shines on Pearl, yet not on Hester. What might this symbolize? What is the difference between Pearl and Hester?

Hester is a sinner and hides a

secret. The sun can represent God or truth.

Parts of her sin are still a secret. Pearl is innocent.

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10. Why did Hester Prynne resist her urge to cover the ‘A’ with the baby? What did she do instead?

• Hester realized that the ‘A’ and the baby are both symbols of her sin, and, therefore, covering her ‘A’ with the baby wouldn’t have covered her shame.

• Hester fought her embarrassment, her “burning blush,” smiled haughtily, and faced the Puritans with the baby on her arm.

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11. Create an illustration showing the detail of the ‘A’ on the bodice of Hester’s dress.

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12. Describe Hester Prynne’s beauty. Who is it compared to?

• Hester Prynne is absolutely stunning and “picturesque.”

• She is compared to the “Divine Maternity” – the Virgin Mary, whose child was “to redeem the world.”

• This allusion is ironic because Hester committed a sexual sin, yet her beauty is that of the mother of Christ.

• “The world was only the darker for this woman’s beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne.”

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13. Give explicit details of the memories Hester recalls while standing on the scaffold. What literary technique is this?

• Hester has a flashback to her previous life in England.

• She thinks about her parents and her home.

• She thinks about her girlish beauty.

• Hester also recalls an older, scholarly man with one shoulder that is higher than the other.

• Then she realizes that is all in the past, and her punishment is now her present.

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Chapter 3 – “The Recognition”• A man in the crowd is

wearing half Indian, half Puritan clothing.

• He is short, scholarly-looking, with penetrating eyes.

• He is an older man.• One shoulder is higher

than the other.• His face writhes like a

snake in anger.• He seems calculating,

diabolical, scary• This same man appeared

in Hester’s flashback.

The use of a snake in describing his face is an ALLUSION to the devil. This man is immediately associated with evil.

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Symbolism

• A Native American is in the crowd

• Represents the wilderness and freedom

• Removed from Puritan Law and Religion

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• The usual punishment for adultery is death. Hester’s punishment is less severe because the magistrates took pity on her, as she didn’t know if her husband was alive or dead.

• They are all asking her to reveal the father, but Hester refuses.

• There are three men on the balcony: – Arthur Dimmesdale: young minister– John Wilson: head of the Puritan Church

(symbolic of Puritan Religion)– Governor Bellingham: head of the State

(symbolic of Puritan Law)

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Arthur Dimmesdale• Young clergyman• Well-educated• Eloquent and

passionately religious• Very white skin, high

forehead• Large, brown, melancholy

eyes• Trembling mouth• Worshipped by the

Puritans• Considers Hester a

generous and strong woman for refusing to reveal the name of the father.

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