Scarlet Letter Discussion Chapters 1 5 Woman transgress

Scarlet Letter Discussion Chapters 1 -5

"Woman, transgress not beyond the limits of Heaven's mercy. . . Speak out the name! That, and thy repentance, may avail to take the scarlet letter off thy breast“ (58). Chapter 3 Compare with “If thy feelest it to be for the soul’s peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow sinner and fellow sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him” (57). Chapter 3

“I, - a man of thought, - the book-worm of great libraries, - a man already in decay, having given my best years to feed the hungry dream of knowledge, - what had I to do with youth and beauty like thine own!” (63). Chapter 4 Compare with “As he spoke, he laid his long forefinger on the scarlet letter, which forthwith seemed to scorch into Hester’s breast, as if it had been red-hot. He noticed her involuntary gesture, and smiled. 'Live, therefore, and bear about thy doom with thee, in the eyes of men and women—in the eyes of him thou didst call thy husband—in the eyes of yonder child! And, that thou mayest live, take off this draught'” (62). Chapter 4

“Deep ruffs, painfully wrought bands, and gorgeously embroidered gloves, were all deemed necessary to the official state of men assuming the reins of wealth, even while the sumptuary laws forbade these and similar extravagances to the plebian order…” (69). Chapter 5 Compare with “But it is not recorded that, in a single instance, her skill was called in aid to embroider the white veil which was to cover the pure blushes of a bride” (69 -70). Chapter 5

“Dames of elevated rank…were accustomed to distil drops of bitterness into her heart; sometimes through that alchemy of quiet malice…that fell upon the sufferer’s defenceless breast like a rough blow…” (71) Chapter 5 Compare with “Sometimes, the red infamy upon her breast would give a sympathetic throb, as she passed near a venerable minister or magistrate…Or, once more, the electric thrill would give her warning, - ‘Behold, Hester, here is a companion!’” (73). Chapter 5

Consider The chapter titles 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Prison Door The Market Place The Recognition The Interview Hester at her Needle Character motivation 6. Hester 7. Dimmesdale 8. Chillingworth 9. The community Hawthorne the Romantic 10. The individual 11. Nature vs. Society 12. Emotion vs. Reason 13. Class Structure 14. Gender

Scarlet Letter Discussion Chapters 6 -10

"So magnificent was the small figure, when thus arrayed, and such was the splendor of Pearl's own proper beauty" (75). Chapter 6 ALSO "But Pearl’s laugh, when she was caught, though full of merriment and music, made her mother more doubtful than before" (76). Chapter 6 ALSO “Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations that made her mother tremble because they had so much the sound of a witch’s anathemas in some unknown tongue” (78). Chapter 6

"Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion. Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast, —at her…who had once been innocent, — as the figure, the body, the reality of sin. And over her grave, the infamy that she must carry thither would be her only monument“ (66). Chapter 5 ALSO “Her mother, in contriving the child’s grab, had allowed the gorgeous tendencies to her imagination their full play…But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and, indeed, of the child’s whole appearance, that it irresistibly and inevitably reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom. It was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life“ (84). Chapter 7

“…it may seem marvelous, that this woman should still call that place her home, where, and where only, she must needs be the type of shame. But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghostlike, the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime” (67). Chapter 5 ALSO "'God gave her into my keeping, ' repeated Hester Prynne, raising her voice almost to a shriek. 'I will not give her up!'” (94). Chapter 8

“In his Indian captivity, moreover, he had gained much knowledge of the properties of native medicines, Nature’s boon to the untutored savage, had quite as large a share of his own confidence as the European pharmacopoeia, which so many learned doctors had spent centuries in elaborating” (99) Chapter 9. ALSO “…Roger Chillingworth’s aspect had undergone a remarkable change while he had dwelt in town…[n]ow there was something ugly and evil… ” (106) Chapter 9.

1. Chillingworth as a vampire 2. Chillingworth/Cathy 3. Relationship between Dimmesdale/Chillingworth 4. Pearl