What is the plot of the Scarlet Letter?

What is the plot of the Scarlet Letter?

Download this LitChart! (PDF) The Scarlet Letter Summary. The Scarlet Letter begins with a prelude in which an unnamed narrator explains the novel’s origin. While working at the Salem Custom House (a tax collection agency), the narrator discovered in the attic a manuscript accompanied by a beautiful scarlet letter “A.”.

Who is the narrator of the Scarlet Letter?

Everything you need for every book you read. The Scarlet Letter begins with a prelude in which an unnamed narrator explains the novel’s origin. While working at the Salem Custom House (a tax collection agency), the narrator discovered in the attic a manuscript accompanied by a beautiful scarlet letter “A.”

Why is the forest wilderness important in the Scarlet Letter?

This is important, because it is only in the forest wilderness where the Puritans’ laws fail to have any force. This is where Dimmesdale can find freedom to confess in the dark, and it is where he and Hester can meet away from the eyes of those who would judge them.

Why is Chillingworth like the black man in the Scarlet Letter?

Chillingworth’s physical deformity mirrors his spiritual deformity. As Hester suggests, he is like the “Black Man,” because he lures others into sin.

What happens to Hester in the Scarlet Letter?

The Scarlet Letter Summary. Hester is being led to the scaffold, where she is to be publicly shamed for having committed adultery. Hester is forced to wear the letter A on her gown at all times.

What does Chillingworth say in the Scarlet Letter?

Chillingworth remarks that the man who was her partner in the crime of adultery will eventually become known. The Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale is exhorted to make Hester tell the gathered crowd who the father is. She refuses and instead tells him that she will bear both his shame and her own. Dimmesdale cries out, “She will not speak!”

Plot analysis. The Scarlet Letter is a novel about what happens to a strict, tight-knit community when one of its members commits a societal taboo, and how shame functions in both the public and private realms of life.

What is a summary of the Scarlet Letter?

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a romance set in seventeenth century Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. It takes place during the years 1642 to 1649, and tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman who has a daughter from an affair. Being pregnant and without a husband, Hester draws much attention in…

What are some central ideas of the Scarlet Letter?

The central theme of The Scarlet Letter is. 1) the orthodox Puritan view that sin is permanently damaging and its inevitable destructiveness is inescapable. 2) the concept of the Fortunate Fall, which acknowledges the reality of sin but considers it the source of wisdom and spiritual enlightenment.

What’s the purpose of the preface to the Scarlet Letter?

What’s the purpose of the preface to The Scarlet Letter? The preface to The Scarlet Lettersets the atmosphere of the story and connects the present with the past. Hawthorne’s description of the Salem port of the 1800s is directly related to the past history of the area.

Back To Top