Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Patterns and Terms	The Scarlet Letter by Chapters
The Short Stories	Essay Topics for The Scarlet Letter
Listen to The Scarlet Letter	Return to American Literary History

Recurring Patterns and Themes:

Recurring terms that will help bridge Hawthorne discussions:

Ambivalence: the presence of two opposing ideas, emotions, or attitudes at the same time; a feeling of uncertainty about something due to a mental conflict.

Ambiguity: a situation in which something can be understood in more than one way, and it is not clear which meaning is intended. Why would an author abandon clarity (a quality for which we strive for in essay writing) and produce purposeful ambiguity?

Uncanny: Two definitions from the OED: b. Partaking of a supernatural character; mysterious, weird, uncomfortably strange or unfamiliar. (Common from c1850.) Of persons: Not quite safe to trust to, or have dealings with, as being associated with supernatural arts or powers.

Doubling: (See Chapter 9 in Scarlet Letter; The red and black rebel with a double face in MKMM.)

Recurring patterns and themes:

Thresholds: as characters pass physical thresholds, be a critical reading! Observe and take notes on the psychological change that happens to characters.

The Short Stories:

My Kinsman Major Molineux:

The first paragraph of dry history emphasizes how in the space of forty years six govern ers were driven from office. In your class notes, look for the analogy that we made. A political leader is to a father as the population is to the children in a family. Recall how we observed that we call George Washington the father of our country. Now, since Young Goodman Brown is not following in his father's footsteps, who will be his next father figure?
What does this story have in common w/Young G. Brown? Why does Hawthorne repeat the pattern of showing us young (naive) male characters? What are the connotations for the name Robin? What are Robin's obstacles? Hawthorne closes the story Young Goodman Brown on a note of gloom; what is the tone of this story's closing?

Young Goodman Brown:

Three possible interpretations for this story about a walk in the woods:

This story dramatizes Brown's nightmarish attempt of coming to terms with his Puritan heritage and his male ancestors: religious intolerance, genocide, etc.
This story dramatizes the nightmarish attempt of a young man coming to terms with the maturation process of marrying young. Look in your class notes to understand how Brown put his wife on a pedestal of Romantic love, and she subsequently fell off according to his perspective.
This story dramatizes Brown's loss of faith.

The Scarlet Letter

Chapter I

Be sure to have in your notes some key words here: threshold, rose bush, Anne Hutchinson.

Chapter II

What do we learn from the women gossiping?
Note how Hester's moody thoughts wander to images of her mother and father. NB: Arthur Dimmesdale will have similar visions of his parents in Chapter 11.
Be sure to trace some key descriptions of Hester and her attitude during her punishment.

Chapter III

What are some key descriptions about Roger Chillingworth? Who was Roger's traveling companion?
What is the great nonverbal, dramatic gesture in this chapter?
What do the magistrates want Hester to do? What is Arthur Dimmesdale's treatment towards Hester?
What threw "a lurid gleam" as it reentered the jail?

Chapter IV

What are Hester's emotions during this interview?
What does Roger want of Hester during this interview? What does he eventually get from her?
What happens to Pearl during this interview?
Note how the state of silence (Hester won't reveal father's identity) and the act of silencing (RC makes Hester swear his real identity remain a secret) becomes a recurring pattern. With that in mind, what do you think about the setting of this scene (jail cell)?

Chapter V

What did we say was another way to read this subtitle? Hester and her...what?
How can you trace some of Hester's personality and motives to the way she sewed her A?
How does every description of Hester's house relate to Hester? How can the same be said of Pearl's clothes?

Chapter VI

What do we learn about Pearl's relationship with other children?
How is Pearl a child of nature?
Pearl raises Hester's anger by throwing flowers. Find and understand this passage. How else does Pearl get Hester's anger to a boiling point?

Chapter VII

What is the rumor that Hester is responding to?
Who is flinging mud and why?
The Bond servant is another threshold guardian, just like Mistress Hibbins and the town beadle.

Chapter VIII

This chapter contains a great scene of dialogue. Because she hears rumors that the magistrates will take away Pearl, Hester goes to the Governor's house and plays offence on this group of white hair, established male leaders. You go girl!
What is an interesting nonverbal moment in this dialogue?

Chapter IX

This is Roger's chapter. What did he learn from his year of captivity with Native Americans? What do the townspeople want Roger to do to Mr. Dimmesdale?
Doubling: where do these men live? How does each apartment tell us something about each character?
Did you notice Chillingworth's intuition in this chapter?
Who turns ugly and evil in this chapter?

Chapter X

There are many Romantic elements here: Individualism; Supernatural; Nature.
Be sure to polish up the picture in your notebook that displays the debate between Arthur (man of religion) and Roger (man of science). Who interrupts this discussion as to ability to analyze a person's heart after close examination of a dark, flabby weed growing from the heart of the gravesite.
NB: evil influence = supernatural. Dimmesdale's "dim perception" = intuition. Arthur intuits that Roger is watching!
Remember, the act of reading is similar to the act of dreaming. In both, we are influence and affect by figures of our imagination. Note well that a dream and a book can change a person. What happens here when Arthur falls asleep?

Chapter XI

What elements of indivualism are there in this chapter? Supernatural elements?
What passage discusses the evil influence in Arthur's life. Note evil influence = supernatural. Dimmesdale's "dim perception" = intuition.
What passage discusses the point that as Dimmesdale's soul suffers, his popularity rises?
Why does he keep Vigils?
Note how Dimmesdale's visions follow the same pattern as Hester's in Chapter II. Both guilty character's moody thoughts wander to images of mother and father.
What are the supernatural elements in this Chapter?

Chapter XII

Again, refer to your art work in your note book. Where does the electric chain occur?
Who understood Arthur's cry?
What is Pearl's good question to A.D.?
Where is the sound of silence in this chapter?
What does Roger say as a possible reason for A. D. somnambulism--ouch, vocabulary word?
How does the Sexton's joke shows the community op ion of Dimmesdale?

Chapter XIII

What do we learn about Hester's role in the community? What else does the A mean?
Reread the last paragraph; it's a cinematic transition to the next chapter. What is Hester's goal and motive born in this chapter?

Chapter XIV

Be sure to note Roger's elements of being a magician (alchemist). He is gathering what? Radix! = radical, dude!
What is Hester's response to Roger's statement about the A?
What does Hester ask of Roger?
What is his response?

Chapter XV

What are Pearl's antics in nature? Why does she act out those activities?
What does Hester threaten when Pearl's capricious character gets out of hand?

Chapter XVI

Explain the game with sunshine. How does that show us information about the characters? What Romantic element is illuminated?
Where does the Black Man appear in this chapter?
What is the story associated with the sad brook?

Chapter XVII

How does this chapter open with ambiguity?
Be sure to have in your notes the map of Boston/threshold/Woods/threshold of our mythological imitation of Lethe/Indian and Apostle--folks beyond human comprehension of the day.
The important passage about the blackest sin is on the test of life!
What is the significance of this setting being the place where Arthur and Hester have an intimate moment?

Chapter XVIII

Why does Arthur call Hester his better angel? How is he acting like Young Goodman Brown with that appellation?
Ask me how a scene here echoes a scene from the preface chapter, The Custom House?
Why does Pearl approach slowly?

Chapter XIX

Where is a strong example of ambivalence in the start of this chapter?
How does Pearl's reflection of her pointing her finger at Arthur (yet another nonverbal moment) echo a scene from Chapter 11?
What is Pearl's good question (that she keeps repeating)? Be sure to trace the other places in the novel where she asks a similar question.

Chapter XX

Where is the ambiguity here? What is the maze and who made it?
In class project: small groups traced the encounter that Dimmesdale had with the various town folks that he meets on the way back into town. Similar to Young Goodman Brown, A.D. treats his fellow town folks differently. Notice what happens when he meets: the old deacon, the pious widow, the young maiden, Mistress Hibbins, and finally Roger Chillingworth.
Why is A.D. so hungry? What does he do with his old sermon?

Chapter XXI

Pearl's good question about A.D. echoes the question she asked him in Chapter 12.
Find where we have another intimate glance (nonverbal communication: silence theme again--Bam!) across a public place. How does this imitate a previous scene with Hester and Chillingworth?

Chapter XXII

In this chapter, A.D. no longer seems feeble. He seems more energetic, similar to his physical change when he reenters town. Why?
How does the narrator create an ambiguous atmosphere in towards the end of this chapter?

Chapter XXIII

A.D. is no longer the hypocrite that he hated in himself. How does he perform his best preachable moment on the scaffold?

Chapter XXIV

How does Pearl's life turn out? Is she scared from her childhood?
In this chapter, the narrator describes the powers of Hester and how she helped other women. Why was Hester so good at helping other women?

Essay Topics:

ESSAY TOPICS FOR THE SCARLET LETTER

1) Write an essay that explains, illuminates and contemplates three Romantic element(s) in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. See our web page for the various elements.

2) Before New Criticism, a school of thought that governed literary teaching/thinking methods roughly during the time period of 1955-1975, critics of The Scarlet Letter widely agreed that novel glorified Hester as the main character. Then, the New Critics arrived and agreed that Dimmesdale was the novel's "true protagonist" and that "Hawthorne portrayed Hester as woefully inadequate." What do you think? Start the formation of your thesis with your selection of the main character. You can not argue that both characters share this mantle. Make a case.

3) Many critics celebrate The Scarlet Letter's unity, sense of wholeness and overall balance by examining the three scaffold scenes. F.O. Mathiessen believed The Scarlet Letter to be Hawthorne's "most coherent plot...its symmetrical design is built around the three scenes on the scaffold." Formulate a thesis that celebrates the aesthetic balance of this text. One could also create a thesis that celebrates the dramatic structure of the novel.

4) (Challenging Topic!) In his essay, "Silence, Family Discourse, and Fiction in The Scarlet Letter," Michael Ragussis focuses on the "paralyzing silence" that involves the four family members: Pearl, Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale. "With the acts of engendering and speech under lock and key, silence becomes a kind of action potent to obscure, violate, and orphan. The tale's center, then, lies less in the crime of sexual transgression than in the crime of silence: to recognize publicly one's kindred is, after all, the moral concomitant to engendering, the means by which the family is defined not merely biologically but morally." Write an essay that delineates Ragussis’ claim about the ban of silence in the novel. How does his observation help us to better understand the importance of the novel’s moral?

Are you an audio learner? Know Thy Learning Style!

Enjoy chapter 14 in three parts:

Part I: click here for the mp3

Part II: click here for the mp3

Part III: click here for the mp3

Chapter 15

Part I Click here

Part II Click here

Part III Click here

Chapter 16

Part I Click here

Part II Click here