The Scarlet Letter - EMC P

1 The Scarlet LetterNathaniel HawthorneTHE EMC MASTERPIECE SERIESA ccess EditionsEMC/Paradigm PublishingSt. Paul, MinnesotaStaff Credits:ForEMC/Paradigm Publishing,St. Paul, MinnesotaForPenobscot School Publishing, Inc.,Danvers, MassachusettsISBN 0 8219 1617 3 Copyright 1998 by EMC CorporationAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be adapted, reproduced,stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, elec-tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without permis-sion from the by EMC/Paradigm Publishing875 Montreal WaySt.

2 Paul, Minnesota 55102 Printed in the United States of 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 xxx 02 01 00 99 98 97 Laurie SkibaEditorShannon O Donnell TaylorAssociate EditorEileen SlaterEditorial ConsultantEditorialRobert D. ShepherdPresident, Executive EditorChristina KolbManaging EditorKim Leahy BeaudetEditorSara HyryEditorMarilyn Murphy ShepherdEditorSharon SalingerCopyeditorDesign and ProductionCharles Q. BentProduction ManagerSara DayArt DirectorTatiana CicutoCompositorTable of ContentsThe Life and Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne .. ivTime Line of Hawthorne s Life.

3 ViThe Historical Context ofThe Scarlet Letter .. viiiCharacters inThe Scarlet Letter .. xiiIllustrations .. xivThe Custom-House, Introductory to The Scarlet Letter 1 Chapter I, The Prison-Door .. 42 Chapter II, The Market-Place.. 44 Chapter III, The Recognition.. 56 Chapter IV, The Interview .. 65 Chapter V, Hester at Her Needle .. 74 Chapter VI, Pearl .. 83 Chapter VII, The Governor s Hall .. 93 Chapter VIII, The Elf-Child and the Minister.. 100 Chapter IX, The Leech.. 111 Chapter X, The Leech and His Patient .. 120 Chapter XI, The Interior of a Heart.

4 131 Chapter XII, The Minister s Vigil .. 138 Chapter XIII, Another View of Hester .. 150 Chapter XIV, Hester and the Physician .. 158 Chapter XV, Hester and Pearl .. 166 Chapter XVI, A Forest Walk .. 172 Chapter XVII, The Pastor and His Parishioner .. 180 Chapter XVIII, A Flood of Sunshine .. 189 Chapter XIX, The Child at the Brook-Side .. 197 Chapter XX, The Minister in a Maze .. 203 Chapter XXI, The New England Holiday .. 215 Chapter XXII, The Procession .. 223 Chapter XXIII, The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter .. 235 Chapter XXIV, Conclusion.

5 243 Plot Analysis ofThe Scarlet Letter .. 250 Creative Writing Activities .. 252 Critical Writing Activities .. 254 Projects.. 256 Glossary .. 258 Handbook of Literary Terms .. 267ivTHE Scarlet LETTERTHE LIFE AND WORKS OFNathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne (1804 1864).Born on July 4 in Salem,Massachusetts, Nathaniel was the second child and the onlyson of Elizabeth and Nathaniel Hathorne. By the timeNathaniel was born, five generations of Hathornes had livedin Salem. Two of the most infamous of these ancestors wereWilliam Hathorne and his son, John.

6 William was a Puritanleader and a fierce persecutor of the Quakers. He ordered thata Quaker named Ann Coleman receive a public whipping; shealmost died during this harsh punishment. John was a judgewho conducted hearings during the Salem Witchcraft a young man, Nathaniel added awto his last name. Somespeculate that he made this change to distance himself fromhis intolerant Puritan s father was a seaman who caught yellow feverand died in Surinam (Dutch Guiana) in 1808, whenNathaniel was only four years old. The sea captain left hiswife with little money, so Elizabeth sold the Hathorne houseand moved her family into the home of her more wealthybrothers, the Nathaniel was nine, he injured his leg and wasunable to attend school for almost two years; however, hebegan reading widely on his own.

7 Hawthorne was particular-ly influenced by the allegory and symbolism in works such asJohn Bunyan sPilgrim s Progressand Edmund Spenser sTheFaerie Queene, as well as by Sir Walter Scott s historicalromances and by the works of eighteenth-century novelistssuch as Henry Fielding and Tobias September of 1821, Hawthorne entered Bowdoin College,where he befriended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, FranklinPierce, and Horatio Bridge. In college, Hawthorne continuedhis extensive reading, enjoyed the Maine outdoors, andexcelled in composition.

8 Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoinin 1825 and returned to Salem. For the next twelve years, hewrote prodigiously, attempting to establish himself as a respect-ed writer. He published his first romance,Fanshawe,at his ownexpense but later tried to retrieve all copies of the book andburn them. Similarly, Hawthorne burned his first collection ofstories,Seven Tales of My Native Land,because he failed to finda publisher. Eventually, in 1830, he published five stories inTheSalem Gazette,and in 1834, some of his stories appeared inNewNathaniel Essex MuseumTHE LIFE AND WORKS OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEvEngland Magazine.

9 In 1836, Hawthorne worked as an editor forthe Boston-basedThe American Magazine of Useful andEntertaining Knowledge. In 1837, he publishedTwice-Told Tales,a collection of stories that finally brought him was unaware that his college friend Horatio Bridgehad given the publisher financial guarantees against failure asan incentive to publish this work. The same year, Hawthornemet his future wife, Sophia Amelia Peabody, to whom he wasengaged in 1838. To save money for his marriage, Hawthorneworked as a salt and coal measurer in the Boston CustomHouse, and planning for his future, bought shares in BrookFarm, a utopian Transcendentalist community, intending tolive there with Sophia once they were married.

10 However, com-munal living did not agree with Hawthorne, and he soonrequested the return of his and Sophia married on July 9, 1842, and movedinto the Old Manse, a house in Concord that they rented fromRalph Waldo Emerson. In Concord, Hawthorne formedfriendships with Transcendentalist writers and thinkers suchas Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott. In1845, the Hawthorne family returned to Salem, and in the fol-lowing year, Hawthorne publishedMosses from an Old Manse,a work that brought critical acclaim but little financial s financial woes were temporarily solved whenPresident James K.