The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne THE EMC MASTERPIECE SERIES Access Editions EMC/Paradigm Publishing St. Paul, Minnesota Staff Credits: For EMC/Paradigm Publishing, St. Paul, Minnesota Laurie Skiba Eileen Slater Editor Editorial Consultant Shannon O’Donnell Taylor Associate Editor For Penobscot School Publishing, Inc., Danvers, Massachusetts Editorial Design and Production Robert D. Shepherd Charles Q. Bent President, Executive Editor Production Manager Christina Kolb Sara Day Managing Editor Art Director Kim Leahy Beaudet Tatiana Cicuto Editor Compositor Sara Hyry Editor Marilyn Murphy Shepherd Editor Sharon Salinger Copyeditor ISBN 0–8219–1617–3 Copyright © 1998 by EMC Corporation All 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 publishers. Published by EMC/Paradigm Publishing 875 Montreal Way St. Paul, Minnesota 55102 Printed in the United States of America. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 xxx 02 01 00 99 98 97 Table of Contents The Life and Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne . iv Time Line of Hawthorne’s Life. vi The Historical Context of The Scarlet Letter . viii Characters in The Scarlet Letter . xii Illustrations. xiv The 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 . 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 . 243 Plot Analysis of The Scarlet Letter. 250 Creative Writing Activities . 252 Critical Writing Activities . 254 Projects. 256 Glossary . 258 Handbook of Literary Terms . 267 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864). Born on July 4 in Salem, Massachusetts, Nathaniel was the second child and the only son of Elizabeth and Nathaniel Hathorne. By the time Nathaniel was born, five generations of Hathornes had lived in Salem. Two of the most infamous of these ancestors were William Hathorne and his son, John. William was a Puritan leader and a fierce persecutor of the Quakers. He ordered that a Quaker named Ann Coleman receive a public whipping; she almost died during this harsh punishment. John was a judge Nathaniel Hawthorne. who conducted hearings during the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Peabody Essex Museum As a young man, Nathaniel added a w to his last name. Some speculate that he made this change to distance himself from his intolerant Puritan ancestors. Nathaniel’s father was a seaman who caught yellow fever and died in Surinam (Dutch Guiana) in 1808, when Nathaniel was only four years old. The sea captain left his wife with little money, so Elizabeth sold the Hathorne house and moved her family into the home of her more wealthy brothers, the Mannings. When Nathaniel was nine, he injured his leg and was unable to attend school for almost two years; however, he began reading widely on his own. Hawthorne was particular- ly influenced by the allegory and symbolism in works such as John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, as well as by Sir Walter Scott’s historical romances and by the works of eighteenth-century novelists such as Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollet. In September of 1821, Hawthorne entered Bowdoin College, where he befriended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Franklin Pierce, and Horatio Bridge. In college, Hawthorne continued his extensive reading, enjoyed the Maine outdoors, and excelled in composition. Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin in 1825 and returned to Salem. For the next twelve years, he wrote prodigiously, attempting to establish himself as a respect- ed writer. He published his first romance, Fanshawe, at his own expense but later tried to retrieve all copies of the book and burn them. Similarly, Hawthorne burned his first collection of stories, Seven Tales of My Native Land, because he failed to find a publisher. Eventually, in 1830, he published five stories in The Salem Gazette, and in 1834, some of his stories appeared in New iv THE SCARLET LETTER England Magazine. In 1836, Hawthorne worked as an editor for the Boston-based The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. In 1837, he published Twice-Told Tales, a collection of stories that finally brought him recognition. Hawthorne was unaware that his college friend Horatio Bridge had given the publisher financial guarantees against failure as an incentive to publish this work. The same year, Hawthorne met his future wife, Sophia Amelia Peabody, to whom he was engaged in 1838. To save money for his marriage, Hawthorne worked as a salt and coal measurer in the Boston Custom House, and planning for his future, bought shares in Brook Farm, a utopian Transcendentalist community, intending to live there with Sophia once they were married. However, com- munal living did not agree with Hawthorne, and he soon requested the return of his stock. Hawthorne and Sophia married on July 9, 1842, and moved into the Old Manse, a house in Concord that they rented from Ralph Waldo Emerson. In Concord, Hawthorne formed friendships with Transcendentalist writers and thinkers such as Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott. In 1845, the Hawthorne family returned to Salem, and in the fol- Hawthorne’s friend Ralph Waldo Emerson was a lowing year, Hawthorne published Mosses from an Old Manse, leading Transcendentalist. a work that brought critical acclaim but little financial success. The Transcendentalists believed in spiritual truths Hawthorne’s financial woes were temporarily solved when that lay beyond sense per- President James K. Polk made him surveyor of the Salem ceptions and material things. They also believed Custom House. Hawthorne wrote little while working at the that one could glimpse these truths through com- Custom House. In 1849, Zachary Taylor, a Whig, became pres- munion with nature. ident, and Hawthorne, a Democrat, lost his office. In September, Hawthorne began work on The Scarlet Letter and on “The Custom-House,” which satirizes the Salem Custom- House and its officers, as well as the Whigs who deprived him of his office. Hawthorne originally planned to include “The Custom House,” The Scarlet Letter, and other works in a collec- tion called Old Time Legends; Together with Sketches, Experimental and Ideal. By 1850, Hawthorne had published The Scarlet Letter, and he published The House of the Seven Gables by 1851. By this time, he, his wife, and their children had moved from Lenox, Massachusetts, to West Newton, Massachusetts, where Hawthorne’s second daughter was born. The Hawthorne family returned to Concord in 1852. In 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed Hawthorne to the post of American consul at Liverpool, England, and Hawthorne served in this position for four years before mov- ing his family to Italy for a year. Hawthorne and his family returned to Concord in 1860, where he published a collec- tion of English sketches under the title Our Old Home in 1863. Nathaniel Hawthorne died in 1864, leaving several unfinished works. THE LIFE AND WORKS OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE v Time Line of Hawthorne’s Life July 4, 1804 Nathaniel Hathorne is born in Salem, Massachusetts, son of Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne and Nathaniel Hathorne. 1808 Nathaniel Hathorne’s father catches yellow fever and dies in Surinam (Dutch Guiana) while working as a sea captain. Elizabeth Hathorne moves Nathaniel and his two sisters into the Manning family’s house. April 1813 Nathaniel is injured when a ball hits his foot. Unable to attend school for almost two years after this injury, he begins reading widely on his own. 1818 Hathorne’s family moves to Raymond, Maine, where Hathorne wanders, hunts, and fishes. 1819 Hathorne returns to Salem to prepare for college. 1821 Hathorne enters Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, near Raymond. There he meets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Horatio Bridge, and Franklin Pierce. Shortly after this time, Hawthorne adds a w to his last name. 1825 Hawthorne graduates from college and returns to live with his family in Salem. 1828 Hawthorne publishes Fanshawe, a romance set in a college, at his own expense, but later tries to recover and burn all the copies he can find. After he fails to find a publisher, Hawthorne also burns Seven Tales of My Native Land, a collection of stories that he began to write while in college. 1830 Hawthorne publishes five stories in The Salem Gazette. 1832 Hawthorne plans a collection called The Story Teller. 1834 Some of the stories Hawthorne planned to include in The Story Teller are published in New England Magazine. 1836 Hawthorne moves to Boston to edit a short-lived magazine called The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. 1837 Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales is published. Hawthorne meets Sophia Amelia Peabody, his future wife. 1838 Hawthorne becomes engaged to Sophia Peabody. 1839–1840 Hawthorne works as a salt and coal measurer in the Boston Custom House to save money for his marriage. 1841 Hawthorne tries communal living in the experimental Brook Farm community.