NOTES
The Scarlet Letter 1850
Nathaniel Hawthorne
CONTEXT
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American short story writer and romance novelist who
experimented with a broad range of styles and genres.
LITERARY MOVEMENT
Even if the young Hawthorne was a Transcendental idealist (literary movement that
believed in the existence of the divine spirit within all of us, that embraced intuition rather than
rationality, and believed in the “inherent goodness of both people and nature”), much of his work
belongs to the sub-genre of Dark Romanticism (distinguished by an emphasis on human fallibility
that gives rise to lapses in judgement that allow even good men and women to drift toward sin and
self-destruction). Some of his darkest works falls within the genre of Gothic Literature (the darkest
form of Dark Romanticism, in its extreme expressions of self-destruction and sin involving
absolute terror, personal torment, graphic morbidity, madness, and the supernatural).
WORK
“The Scarlet Letter”, published in 1850, provides a view of Puritan society in the
seventeenth century. The novel follows the story of Hester Prynne and her life as an outcast having
been caught committing adultery when she gives birth to a daughter. She is punished and forced
to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest for the rest of her life. When her husband returns under a
false identity, Hester and her young daughter must navigate the fallout of sin, betrayal, and
revenge.
MAJOR THEMES
Some of the major themes in the novel that have to be mentioned are as follows: the human
experience of sin, conventional and unconventional gender roles, the sense of guilt forced by
puritan society, the patriarchal power, the puritan morality and individualism, the belief in free
will, etc.
SYMBOLS
The meteor, Hester’s and Pearl’s clothing, the name Pearl, the “A!”, the Prison Gate and
Rose.
1.
The Scarlet Letter 1850
Nathaniel Hawthorne
CONTEXT
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American short story writer and romance novelist who
experimented with a broad range of styles and genres.
LITERARY MOVEMENT
Even if the young Hawthorne was a Transcendental idealist (literary movement that
believed in the existence of the divine spirit within all of us, that embraced intuition rather than
rationality, and believed in the “inherent goodness of both people and nature”), much of his work
belongs to the sub-genre of Dark Romanticism (distinguished by an emphasis on human fallibility
that gives rise to lapses in judgement that allow even good men and women to drift toward sin and
self-destruction). Some of his darkest works falls within the genre of Gothic Literature (the darkest
form of Dark Romanticism, in its extreme expressions of self-destruction and sin involving
absolute terror, personal torment, graphic morbidity, madness, and the supernatural).
WORK
“The Scarlet Letter”, published in 1850, provides a view of Puritan society in the
seventeenth century. The novel follows the story of Hester Prynne and her life as an outcast having
been caught committing adultery when she gives birth to a daughter. She is punished and forced
to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest for the rest of her life. When her husband returns under a
false identity, Hester and her young daughter must navigate the fallout of sin, betrayal, and
revenge.
MAJOR THEMES
Some of the major themes in the novel that have to be mentioned are as follows: the human
experience of sin, conventional and unconventional gender roles, the sense of guilt forced by
puritan society, the patriarchal power, the puritan morality and individualism, the belief in free
will, etc.
SYMBOLS
The meteor, Hester’s and Pearl’s clothing, the name Pearl, the “A!”, the Prison Gate and
Rose.
1.
