She Reads Me Like a Scarlet Letter Green Day

1850 novel past Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter

Title folio, get-go edition, 1850
Writer	Nathaniel Hawthorne
Country	Us
Language	English
Genre	Romantic, Historical| Thriller|Supernatural
Publisher	Ticknor, Reed & Fields
Publication appointment	1850
Dewey Decimal	813.three
Text	The Crimson Letter at Wikisource

The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850.^[1] Set in Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Containing a number of religious and historic allusions, the book explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

The Cerise Letter was one of the showtime mass-produced books in the U.s.. It was popular when first published^[2] and is considered a classic work today.^[3] It inspired numerous film, television, and phase adaptations. Critics have described it as a masterwork,^[4] and novelist D. H. Lawrence called it a "perfect work of the American imagination".^[v]

Plot [edit]

In this painting, The Scarlet Letter by Hugues Merle (1861), Hester Prynne and Pearl are in the foreground and Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth are in the background.

In Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, a crowd gathers to witness the punishment of Hester Prynne, a young woman who has given nascence to a baby of unknown parentage. Her sentence required her to stand on the scaffold for three hours, exposed to public humiliation, and to article of clothing the scarlet "A" for the rest of her life. As Hester approaches the scaffold, many of the women in the crowd are angered by her beauty and quiet dignity. When demanded and cajoled to name the father of her child, Hester refuses.

As Hester looks out over the crowd, she notices a small, misshapen human and recognizes him equally her long-lost married man, who has been presumed lost at sea. When the husband sees Hester's shame, he asks a man in the oversupply most her and is told the story of his married woman's adultery. He angrily exclaims that the child'southward father, the partner in the adulterous act, should as well be punished and vows to find the human. He chooses a new name, Roger Chillingworth, to assist him in his programme.

The Reverend John Wilson and the minister of Hester'southward church, Arthur Dimmesdale, question her, merely she refuses to proper noun her lover. After she returns to her prison cell, the jailer brings in Chillingworth, now a doc, to at-home Hester and her child with his roots and herbs. He and Hester accept an open conversation regarding their union and the fact that they were both in the wrong. Her lover, however, is another matter and he demands to know who it is; Hester refuses to divulge such data. He accepts this, stating that he will find out anyway, and forces her to conceal that he is her hubby. If she always reveals him, he warns her, he will destroy the kid'southward father. Hester agrees to Chillingworth's terms although she suspects she will regret information technology.

Post-obit her release from prison house, Hester settles in a cottage at the edge of town and earns a meager living with her needlework, which is of extraordinary quality. She lives a tranquility, somber life with her girl, Pearl, and performs acts of charity for the poor. She is troubled past her daughter'due south unusual fascination with the crimson "A". The shunning of Hester as well extends to Pearl, who has no playmates or friends except her mother. As she grows older, Pearl becomes capricious and unruly. Her conduct starts rumors, and, not surprisingly, the church members suggest Pearl be taken abroad from Hester.

Hester, hearing rumors that she may lose Pearl, goes to speak to Governor Bellingham. With him are ministers Wilson and Dimmesdale. Hester appeals to Dimmesdale in desperation, and the minister persuades the governor to let Pearl remain in Hester's care.

Because Dimmesdale's wellness has begun to neglect, the townspeople are happy to have Chillingworth, the newly arrived doctor, take upwardly lodgings with their beloved minister. Being in such shut contact with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth begins to suspect that the minister's illness is the result of some unconfessed guilt. He applies psychological pressure to the minister considering he suspects Dimmesdale is Pearl's father. One evening, pulling the sleeping Dimmesdale's vestment aside, Chillingworth sees a symbol that represents his shame on the minister's stake breast.

Tormented past his guilty conscience, Dimmesdale goes to the foursquare where Hester was punished years before. Climbing the scaffold in the dead of night, he admits his guilt just cannot observe the backbone to do and then publicly in the light of twenty-four hour period. Hester, shocked by Dimmesdale'due south deterioration, decides to obtain a release from her vow of silence to her husband.

Several days later, Hester meets Dimmesdale in the forest and tells him of her married man and his desire for revenge. She convinces Dimmesdale to leave Boston in secret on a ship to Europe where they tin can kickoff life afresh. Inspired by this plan, the government minister seems to gain new energy. On Election Day, Dimmesdale gives ane of his most inspired sermons. But equally the procession leaves the church, Dimmesdale climbs upon the scaffold and confesses his sin, dying in Hester'southward arms. Later, almost witnesses swear that they saw a stigma in the form of a scarlet "A" upon his chest, although some deny this argument. Chillingworth, losing his will for revenge, dies shortly thereafter and leaves Pearl a substantial inheritance.

After several years, Hester returns to her cottage and resumes wearing the scarlet letter. When she dies, she is buried nearly the grave of Dimmesdale, and they share a simple slate tombstone engraved with an escutcheon described equally: "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules" ("A ruby-red letter A written on a black groundwork").

Major theme [edit]

The major theme of The Scarlet Letter of the alphabet is shaming and social stigmatizing, both Hester'due south public humiliation and Dimmesdale'due south private shame and fear of exposure. Notably, their liaison is never spoken of, and then the circumstances that led to Hester'due south pregnancy, and how their affair was kept secret never go part of the plot.

Elmer Kennedy-Andrews remarks that Hawthorne in "The Custom-business firm" sets the context for his story and "tells us about 'romance', which is his preferred generic term to describe The Cherry Letter, every bit his subtitle for the book – 'A Romance' – would indicate." In this introduction, Hawthorne describes a infinite between materialism and "dreaminess" that he calls "a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbues itself with nature of the other". This combination of "dreaminess" and realism gave the author space to explore major themes.^[half-dozen]

Other themes [edit]

The feel of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve considering, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. Merely it also results in knowledge – specifically, in cognition of what it means to be immoral. For Hester, the Cherry Letter is a concrete manifestation of her sin and reminder of her painful solitude. She contemplates casting it off to obtain her freedom from an oppressive social club and a checkered past as well as the absence of God. Because the society excludes her, she considers the possibility that many of the traditions upheld past the Puritan civilisation are untrue and are not designed to bring her happiness.

As for Dimmesdale, the "cheating minister", his sin gives him "sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, and so that his breast vibrate[s] in unison with theirs." His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy.^[vii] The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and most fully authorized principles in Christian thought.^{[ commendation needed ]} His "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity merely he ends in corruption. The subtlety is that the minister's belief is his own adulterous, convincing himself at every stage of his spiritual pilgrimage that he is saved.^[8]

The rose bush's beauty forms a striking contrast to all that surrounds it; equally after the beautifully embroidered scarlet "A" will be held out in part as an invitation to find "some sweet moral blossom" in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that "the deep center of nature" (perhaps God) may expect more kindly on the errant Hester and her child than her Puritan neighbors do. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.^[ix]

Chillingworth's misshapen trunk reflects (or symbolizes) the anger in his soul, which builds every bit the novel progresses, similar to the mode Dimmesdale'due south illness reveals his inner turmoil. The outward man reflects the condition of the heart; an observation thought inspired by the deterioration of Edgar Allan Poe, whom Hawthorne "much admired".^[9]

Some other theme is the farthermost legalism of the Puritans and how Hester chooses non to accommodate to their rules and beliefs. Hester was rejected by the villagers even though she spent her life doing what she could to help the sick and the poor. Because of the social shunning, she spent her life generally in confinement and would non go to church building.

As a result, she retreats into her own heed and her own thinking. Her thoughts begin to stretch and become beyond what would be considered by the Puritans every bit safe. She still sees her sin, only begins to look on information technology differently than the villagers ever have. She begins to believe that a person's earthly sins do not necessarily condemn them. She even goes so far every bit to tell Dimmesdale that their sin has been paid for by their daily penance and that their sin volition not keep them from getting to heaven, although the Puritans believed that such a sin surely condemns.^{[ dubious – discuss ] [ citation needed ]}

But Hester had been alienated from the Puritan society, both in her physical life and spiritual life. When Dimmesdale dies, she knows she has to motion on because she can no longer conform to the Puritans' strictness. Her thinking is complimentary from Puritan religious bounds and she has established her own different moral standards and behavior.^[7]

Publication history [edit]

Hester Prynne at the pillory, an engraved illustration from an 1878 edition

It was long thought that Hawthorne originally planned The Scarlet Letter to be a shorter novelette, role of a drove named Old Time Legends, and that his publisher, James T. Fields, convinced him to expand the work to a full-length novel.^[10] This is not true: Fields persuaded Hawthorne to publish The Scarlet Letter alone (along with the earlier-completed "Custom Firm" essay) but he had nil to do with the length of the story.^[11] Hawthorne'due south wife Sophia later challenged Fields' claims a little inexactly: "he has fabricated the cool boast that he was the sole crusade of the Scarlet Letter being published!" She noted that her hubby's friend Edwin Percy Whipple, a critic, approached Fields to consider its publication.^[12] The manuscript was written at the Peter Edgerley House in Salem, Massachusetts, still standing as a private residence at fourteen Mall Street. It was the last Salem home where the Hawthorne family lived.^[thirteen]

The Crimson Alphabetic character was commencement published in the spring of 1850 by Ticknor and Fields, first Hawthorne's most lucrative period.^[2] When he delivered the concluding pages to Fields in February 1850, Hawthorne said that "some portions of the book are powerfully written" merely doubted it would be popular.^[xiv] In fact, the book was an instant best-seller, though, over fourteen years, it brought its author only $1,500.^[ii] Its initial publication brought wide protest from natives of Salem, who did not corroborate of how Hawthorne had depicted them in his introduction "The Custom-House". A two,500-copy second edition included a preface past Hawthorne dated March thirty, 1850, that stated he had decided to reprint his Introduction "without the change of a word... The only remarkable features of the sketch are its frank and genuine skilful-humor ... As to enmity, or ill-feeling of whatever kind, personal or political, he utterly disclaims such motives".^[15]

The Ruby-red Letter was also 1 of the first mass-produced books in America. In the mid-nineteenth century, bookbinders of home-grown literature typically mitt-made their books and sold them in minor quantities. The beginning mechanized press of The Scarlet Letter, 2,500 volumes, sold out inside ten days,^[ii] and was widely read and discussed to an extent not much experienced in the immature country up until that fourth dimension. Copies of the first edition are often sought by collectors equally rare books, and may fetch up to around $18,000 USD.

Critical response [edit]

On its publication, critic Evert Augustus Duyckinck, a friend of Hawthorne's, said he preferred the author'due south Washington Irving-like tales. Another friend, critic Edwin Percy Whipple, objected to the novel's "morbid intensity" with dense psychological details, writing that the book "is therefore apt to become, like Hawthorne, besides painfully anatomical in his exhibition of them".^[16] English writer Mary Anne Evans writing equally "George Eliot", chosen The Scarlet Letter, along with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow'southward 1855 book-length verse form The Song of Hiawatha, the "two most indigenous and masterly productions in American literature".^[17] Most literary critics praised the book but religious leaders took issue with the novel's subject affair.^[18] Orestes Brownson complained that Hawthorne did not empathise Christianity, confession, and remorse.^[19] A review in The Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register concluded the author "perpetrates bad morals."^[20]

On the other manus, 20th-century author D. H. Lawrence said that there could not be a more perfect work of the American imagination than The Scarlet Letter of the alphabet.^[5] Henry James once said of the novel, "It is beautiful, admirable, boggling; it has in the highest degree that merit which I have spoken of as the mark of Hawthorne's best things—an indefinable purity and lightness of conception...1 tin often render to it; it supports familiarity and has the inexhaustible amuse and mystery of slap-up works of art."^{[5] [21]}

Allusions [edit]

The following are historical and Biblical references that appear in The Scarlet Letter.

• Anne Hutchinson, mentioned in Chapter 1, "The Prison Door", was a religious dissenter (1591–1643). In the 1630s she was excommunicated by the Puritans and exiled from Boston, and moved to Rhode Island.^[nine]
• Ann Hibbins, who historically was executed for witchcraft in Boston in 1656, is depicted in The Blood-red Alphabetic character as a witch who tries to tempt Prynne to the practice of witchcraft.^{[22] [23]}
• Richard Bellingham (c. 1592–1672), who historically was the governor of Massachusetts and deputy governor at the time of Hibbins'southward execution, was depicted in The Ruddy Letter as the blood brother of Ann Hibbins.
• Martin Luther (1483–1545) was a leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.
• Increment Mather (1639–1723), a powerful leader of the early Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was a Puritan minister involved with the government of the colony, and also the Salem Witch Trials.
• Sir Thomas Overbury and Dr. Forman were the subjects of an adultery scandal in 1615 in England. Dr. Forman was charged with trying to poison his adulterous wife and her lover. Overbury was a friend of the lover and was possibly poisoned.
• John Winthrop (1588–1649), 2d governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• Rex's Chapel Burying Ground, mentioned in the final paragraph, exists; the Elizabeth Pain gravestone is traditionally considered an inspiration for the protagonists' grave.
• The story of King David and Bathsheba is depicted in the tapestry in Mr. Dimmesdale's room (affiliate ix). (See 2 Samuel xi–12 for the Biblical story.)
• John Eliot (c. 1604–1690) was a Puritan missionary to the American Indians whom some chosen "the apostle to the Indians". He is referred to as "the Apostle Eliot" whom Dimmesdale has gone to visit at the first of Affiliate 16, "A Wood Walk".

Symbols [edit]

The post-obit are symbols that are embedded in The Scarlet Alphabetic character:

• The Cherry-red Letter A: In the beginning of the novel Hester'due south alphabetic character A is a representation of her sin and adultery. Still, as fourth dimension progresses, the meaning of the letter changed. Information technology now represented, to some, able. It states "The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her—then much ability to do, and power to empathise—that many people refused to interpret the ruddy A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able, so stiff was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength" (129).^[24]
• Falling star: The shooting star shaped as an A serves equally another symbol in the book. To Reverend Dimmesdale the meteor is a sign from God who is revealing his sin to everyone and causes him to be ridden with guilt. All the same, others perceived the alphabetic character to be a symbol for angel.^[24]
• Dimmesdale's proper noun: Dimmesdale'southward name itself also holds symbolism. His proper name contains the root word "dim" which evokes the feeling of faint, weak, and gloom. This represents the abiding land Dimmesdale finds himself in. His life has dimmed itself ever since his sin, causing his light of life to fade and dim.^[24]
• Pearl: Pearl symbolizes the apotheosis of her parents' sin and passion. She is a constant reminder of the sin from which her mother cannot escape. It is mentioned she "was the cherry alphabetic character in another form; the blood-red letter endowed in life" (84).^[24]
• Rosebush: The rosebush is mentioned twice within the course of the story. At the outset, it is commencement viewed every bit nature'southward way of offering beauty to those who leave and enter the prison also equally providing a glimmer of hope to those who inhabit it. The rosebush is perceived every bit a symbol of brightness in a story filled with human sorrow.^[24]
• The Scaffold: The scaffold is mentioned 3 times throughout the novel. It can exist viewed every bit separating the book into the first, eye, and end. It symbolizes shame, revelation of sin, and guilt for it is where Hester received her scarlet letter as punishment and where Dimmesdale experiences his revelation through the meteor.^[24]

Adaptations and influence [edit]

The Cherry-red Alphabetic character has inspired numerous film, goggle box, and stage adaptations, and plot elements take influenced several novels, musical works, and screen productions.

See also [edit]

• Badge of shame
• Boston in fiction
• Colonial history of the U.s.
• Illegitimacy in fiction
• Whore of Babylon
• Affections and Apostle, a 2005 novel almost the same characters

References [edit]

Notes [edit]

1. ^ Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1850). The Red Letter: A Romance story (2 ed.). Boston: Ticknor, Reed and Fields. Retrieved July 22, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
2. ^ ^{a b c d} McFarland, Philip. Hawthorne in Concord. New York: Grove Press, 2004: 136. ISBN 0-8021-1776-7
3. ^ "The 100 best novels: No 16 – The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850) | Books | The Guardian". TheGuardian.com. vi January 2014.
4. ^ "Sinner, Victim, Object, Winner | ANCHORS: JACKI LYDEN". National Public Radio (NPR). March 2, 2008. (quote in article refers to information technology equally his "masterwork", listen to the sound to hear it the original reference to it beingness his "magnum opus")
5. ^ ^{a b c} Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: Academy of Iowa Press, 1991: 284. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
6. ^ Kennedy-Andrews (1999), p. 8–9.
7. ^ ^{a b} "The Cerise Letter". Sparknotes. Retrieved 2012-08-07 .
8. ^ Davidson, Due east.H. 1963. Dimmesdale's Autumn. The New England Quarterly 36: 358–370
9. ^ ^{a b c} The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, CliffNotes from Yahoo! Education
10. ^ Charvat, William. Literary Publishing in America: 1790–1850. Amherst, MA: The Academy of Massachusetts Printing, 1993 (first published 1959): 56. ISBN 0-87023-801-9
11. ^ Parker, Hershel. "The Germ Theory of The Scarlet Letter," Hawthorne Society Newsletter 11 (Jump 1985) eleven-13.
12. ^ Wineapple, Brenda. Hawthorne: A Life. Random House: New York, 2003: 209–210. ISBN 0-8129-7291-0.
13. ^ Wright, John Hardy. Hawthorne's Haunts in New England. Charleston, SC: The History Printing, 2008: 47. ISBN 978-1-59629-425-7.
14. ^ Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 299. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
15. ^ Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling house Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Printing, 1991: 301. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
16. ^ Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Home Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa Metropolis: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 301–302. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
17. ^ Davidson, Mashall B. The American Heritage History of the Writers' America. New York: American Heritage Publishing Company, Inc., 1973: 162. ISBN 0-07-015435-Ten
18. ^ Schreiner, Samuel A., Jr. The Hold Quartet: Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and the Friendship That Freed the American Mind. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006: 158. ISBN 978-0-471-64663-1
19. ^ Crowley, J. Donald, and Orestes Brownson. Affiliate fifty: [Orestes Brownson], From A Review In Brownson's Quarterly Review." Nathaniel Hawthorne (0-415-15930-X) (1997): 175–179. Literary Reference Center Plus. Spider web. 11 Oct. 2013.
20. ^ Wineapple, Brenda. Hawthorne: A Life. Random Firm: New York, 2003: 217. ISBN 0-8129-7291-0.
21. ^ James, Henry (1901). Hawthorne. Harper. pp. 108, 116. it has in the highest degree that merit.
22. ^ Schwab, Gabriele. The Mirror and the Killer-Queen: Otherness in Literary Language. Indiana University Press. 1996. Pg. 120.
23. ^ Hunter, Dianne, Seduction and Theory: Readings of Gender, Representation, and Rhetoric. University of Illinois Press. 1989. Pgs. 186–187
24. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "The Ruddy Letter (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 2018-06-04 .

Bibliography [edit]

• Boonyaprasop, Marina. Hawthorne's Wilderness: Nature and Puritanism in Hawthorne'south The Red Letter of the alphabet and "Young Goodman Chocolate-brown" (Anchor Academic Publishing, 2013).
• Brodhead, Richard H. Hawthorne, Melville, and the Novel. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1973.
• Brown, Gillian. "'Hawthorne, Inheritance, and Women'due south Holding", Studies in the Novel 23.1 (Spring 1991): 107–18.
• Cañadas, Ivan. "A New Source for the Title and Some Themes in The Carmine Letter ". Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 32.1 (Spring 2006): 43–51.
• Kennedy-Andrews, Elmer (1999). Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter . Columbia Disquisitional Guides. New York: Columbia Academy Press. ISBN9780231121903.
• Korobkin, Laura Haft. "The Scarlet Letter of the Law: Hawthorne and Criminal Justice". Novel: a Forum on Fiction 30.2 (Wintertime 1997): 193–217.
• Gartner, Matthew. "The Scarlet Letter and the Book of Esther: Scriptural Letter and Narrative Life". Studies in American Fiction 23.2 (Autumn 1995): 131–51.
• Newberry, Frederick. "Tradition and Disinheritance in The Scarlet Letter of the alphabet ". ESQ: A periodical of the American Renaissance 23 (1977), ane–26; repr. in: The Ruddy Letter of the alphabet. W. W. Norton, 1988: pp. 231–48.
• Reid, Alfred S. Sir Thomas Overbury's Vision (1616) and Other English Sources of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter of the alphabet. Gainesville, FL: Scholar's Facsimiles and Reprints, 1957.
• Reid, Bethany. "Narrative of the Captivity and Redemption of Roger Prynne: Rereading The Red Letter ". Studies in the Novel 33.3 (Fall 2001): 247–67.
• Ryskamp, Charles. "The New England Sources of The Scarlet Letter ". American Literature 31 (1959): 257–72; repr. in: The Scarlet Letter of the alphabet, third ed. Norton, 1988: 191–204.
• Savoy, Eric. "'Filial Duty': Reading the Patriarchal Body in 'The Custom Firm'". Studies in the Novel 25.4 (Wintertime 1993): 397–427.
• Sohn, Jeonghee. Rereading Hawthorne'due south Romance: The Problematics of Happy Endings. American Studies Monograph Series, 26. Seoul: American Studies Institute, Seoul National University, 2001; 2002.
• Stewart, Randall (ed.) The American Notebooks of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Based upon the Original Manuscripts in the Piermont Morgan Library. New Oasis: Yale University Press, 1932.
• Waggoner, Hyatt H. Hawthorne: A Critical Study, 3rd ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Printing, 1971.

External links [edit]

• The Scarlet Letter at Standard Ebooks
• The Scarlet Letter at Project Gutenberg
• The Ruby Letter public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• "Critical Commentary Related to Female person Characters in The Scarlet Letter "—Hawthorne in Salem Website
• Excerpts from the opera The Scarlet Letter past Fredric Kroll at YouTube
• Seabrook, Andrea (2 March 2008). "Hester Prynne: Sinner, Victim, Object, Winner". In Character: A 6-calendar month series exploring the neat characters of American fiction, folklore and popular civilisation. (Opinion). All Things Considered. NPR. Retrieved 12 March 2019.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_Letter

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