"The Scarlet Letter" Analysis by Megan Irvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4 by Megan Irvin en-us 2020-06-12 22:08:19 UTC 2023-06-18 02:29:26 UTC hello@padlet.com Be True to Oneself 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624656568 The theme of being true to oneself is shown through both Hester and Dimmesdale. For Hester, she learns throughout the book to change the meaning of the scarlet letter and abandon the shame given from the town. For Dimmesdale, he learns to own up to his mistakes and be honest. When he reveals that Pearl is his daughter, he is finally being true to himself and sets his guilt free. ]]> 2020-06-12 22:18:18 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624656568 Female Independence 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624656789 In the book, Hawthorne explores the theme of female independence. He does this through Hester, who takes care of herself and Pearl on her own and boldly faces her consequences. Being a single and working mother was not at all common during that time and challenges what the Puritans believed about family life. Over the course of the book, Hester becomes comfortable with standing up for herself and her daughter, portraying a level of female independence unknown to the town. ]]> 2020-06-12 22:18:41 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624656789 The Town vs. The Forest 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624658221 Hawthorne creates two settings in the book that have very different meanings. The town represents order, rules, and civilization, where everything is seen and, therefore, can be punished. The forest represents a place where human authority does not exist. The forest is a safe place of escape for Hester, for she is free of society's rules and punishments. ]]> 2020-06-12 22:20:28 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624658221 Day vs. Night 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624658321 Hawthorne uses the motif of day versus night or light versus dark to categorize the book's events. The events that go on during the day, or appear in the light, are socially acceptable, for the eyes of the town are watching. The events that go on during the night, or happen in the dark, are trying to be concealed and hidden, for they are not acceptable in the eyes of others. ]]> 2020-06-12 22:20:39 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624658321 The Scarlet Letter 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624658628 In the beginning of the book, the scarlet letter worn by Hester is meant to symbolize shame and sin. However, towards the end of the book, the letter's meaning changes. The letter "A" starts off standing for "Adulterer," but ends up standing for "Able." As Hester's identity grows, the scarlet letter holds less meaning to her. It originally brings her suffering and loneliness, but ends up bringing her rejuvenation. ]]> 2020-06-12 22:21:11 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624658628 The Meteor 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624658706 The meteor represents different things to different characters in the book. To Dimmesdale, the meteor is representing him righting his wrong of not standing with Hester and Pearl seven years earlier. To others, the meteor represents an angry sign highlighting the sins of the family. Lastly, because the meteor's light was cast over the whole town, it could be saying that everyone sins. ]]> 2020-06-12 22:21:20 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624658706 Pearl 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624658772 While Pearl is her own character, she also is a symbol of her parent's infidelity. Pearl is more than just a punishment to her mother, for she is also seen as a blessing. Pearl gives Hester the strength to live on after the humiliation she faces from the town. It is because of Pearl that Hester and Dimmesdale are able to grow from their mistake and change the meaning of the scarlet letter. ]]> 2020-06-12 22:21:29 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624658772 The Scaffold 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624659005 The scaffold is another symbol in the book that has an evolving representation. In the beginning of the book, the scaffold represents a place of humiliation. Hester and Pearl are forced to stand there in front of the town, for public humiliation was part of Hester's punishment. As the characters evolve, the scaffold changes from a place of humiliation to a place of reconciliation. In the end of the book, Dimmesdale goes to the scaffold and confesses his sin before his death, changing the meaning of the scaffold. ]]> 2020-06-12 22:21:46 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/624659005 "Meagre, indeed, and cold, was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for, from such bystanders, at the scaffold" (Hawthorne 31). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628064094 2020-06-15 22:46:54 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628064094 "The door of the jail being flung open from within their appeared, in the first place, like a black shadow emerging into sunshine..." (Hawthorne 33). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628065052 2020-06-15 22:48:18 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628065052 "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; because its existence, heretofore, had brought it acquaintance only with the grey twilight of a dungeon..." (Hawthorne 33). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628066276 2020-06-15 22:50:06 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628066276 "Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast... as the figure, the body, the reality of sin" (Hawthorne 50). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628068424 2020-06-15 22:53:32 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628068424 "But she named the infant 'Pearl,' as being of great price - purchased with all she had - her mother's only treasure!" (Hawthorne 57). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628069614 2020-06-15 22:55:27 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628069614 "The truth was, that's a little Puritans, being of the most intolerant brood that ever lived, had got a vague idea of something outlandish, unearthly, or at variance with ordinary fashions, in the mother and child, and therefore scorned them in their hearts..." (Hawthorne 60). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628071305 2020-06-15 22:57:29 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628071305 "...the appearance of an immense letter - the letter A - marked out in lines of dull red light. Not but the meteor may have shown itself at that point...but with no such shape as his guilty imagination gave it, or, at least, with so little definiteness, that another's guilt might have seen another symbol in it" (Hawthorne 100). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628072262 2020-06-15 22:59:01 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628072262 "...'this morning on the scaffold where evil-doers are set up to public shame'" (Hawthorne 102). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628074107 2020-06-15 23:02:13 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628074107 "Then the very nature of the opposite sex, or its long hereditary habit, which has become like nature, is to be essentially modified before woman can be allowed to assume which seems a fair and suitable position" (Hawthorne 107). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628074795 2020-06-15 23:03:24 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628074795 "The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers - stern and wild ones - and they had made her strong..." (Hawthorne 131). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628076761 2020-06-15 23:06:38 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628076761 "Such was the sympathy of Nature – that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illuminated by higher truth – with the bliss of these two spirits! Love, whether newly-born, or aroused from a death-like slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world" (Hawthorne 133). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628077846 2020-06-15 23:08:16 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628077846 "In her was visible the tie that united them. She had been offered to the world... as the living hieroglyphic, in which was revealed the secret they so darkly sought to hide..." (Hawthorne 136). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628079453 2020-06-15 23:11:05 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628079453 "...'in the name of Him, so terrible and so merciful, who gives me grace, at this last moment, to do what - for my own heavy sin and miserable agony - I withheld myself from doing seven years ago... Come, Hester - come! Support me up yonder scaffold'" (Hawthorne 167). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628080655 2020-06-15 23:13:11 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628080655 "'Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!" (Hawthorne 172). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628082190 2020-06-15 23:15:44 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628082190 "But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester's life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too" (Hawthorne 174). 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628083067 2020-06-15 23:17:09 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628083067 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628085457 2020-06-15 23:20:22 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628085457 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628086302 2020-06-15 23:21:43 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628086302 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628087060 2020-06-15 23:22:47 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628087060 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628088442 2020-06-15 23:24:50 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628088442 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628089177 2020-06-15 23:26:03 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628089177 2021mirvin https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628089810 2020-06-15 23:27:02 UTC https://padlet.com/2021mirvin/nhhgirzasgsn9ri4/wish/628089810