The Sc a rlet Letter “A”

1. The Scarlet Letter “A” HannahGrippo Pd. CD

2. Nathaniel Hathorne Nathaniel Hawthrone was born July 4, 1804, in the city of Salem, Massachusetts. His ancestors include John Hathrone, the only judge involved in the Salem witch trails who never repented of his actions. Nathaniel later added a “w” to his name to “Hawthrone” in order to hide this relation. In 1819, he was sent back to Salem for school and soon complained of homesickness. In spite of his homesickness, for fun, he distributed to his family seven issues of The Spectator in August and September 1820. The homemade newspaper was written by hand and included essays, poems, and news utilizing the young author's developing adolescent humor. Hawthorne's uncle Robert Manning insisted that the boy attend college. Hawthorne was sent to Bowdoin College in 1821, partly because of family connections in the Area. In 1836 Hawthorne contributed short stories, including "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister's Black Veil”, to various magazines and annuals. Horatio Bridge offered to cover the risk of collecting these stories in the spring of 1837 into one volume, Twice-Told Tales, which made Hawthorne known locally.Hawthorne returned to writing and published The Scarlet Letter in mid-March 1850. It sold 2,500 volumes within ten days and earned Hawthorne $1,500 over 14 years. The book was immediately thebest seller in the United States. A review by Julian Hawthorne “It has the charm of unconsciousness; the author did not realize while he worked, that this "most prolix among tales" was alive with the miraculous vitality of genius. It combines the strength and substance of an oak with the subtle organization of a rose,and is great, not of malice aforethought, but inevitably. It goes to the root of the matter, and reaches some unconventional conclusions, which, however, would scarce be apprehended by one reader in twenty.” Sadly Nathaniel Hathorne died May 19, 1864, he his work was never forgotten. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hawthorne

3. Conflict Analysis - Roger Chillingworth During the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth is not only in conflict with Hester Prynne, but he is also in conflict with Arthur Dimmesdale. In chapter 10, Roger plans revenge on Arthur ever since he has found out about their secret relationship. Chillingworth first found out about Hester’s sin when came to Boston to meet with her like she promised and seen her standing on the scaffold. He later came to her while she was in jail and asked her to tell her who she committed her adultry with. They both promised to keep his identity a secret. “I will keep thy secret, as I have his,” said Hester. “Swear it!” rejoined he. (pg 71) After committing his crime Dimmesdale started becoming very weak with his health and came to Chillingworth for medical advice. Chillingworth became Dimmesdale’s medical advisor in order for him to get better. Then eventually, Chillingworth’s plan started; he moved in with him to provide round-the-clock care. (pg 112,114) Chillingworth began to think that Dimmesdale’s sickness was linked to Hester, and he proved his suspicions were correct when Chillingworth saw the symbol on Dimmesdale’s chest (pg 126)

4. Conflict Analysis - Roger Chillingworth Arthur and Hester try making both their lives so much happier and decide to leave Boston, but when they find out Roger Chillingworth was going to be on the same boat Arthur had broke down and lost it. On page 227 Arthur confesses to his sin and drops to the ground dying. Roger on the other had is not to happy about this. On page 228 he shouts, “thou has escaped me!” He never gets the revenge that he wanted to get on Arthur Dimmesdale.

5. Theme Sometimes in life people make mistakes and things may not always go as planned. We may get hurt by the ones we love, or somebody may actually hurt the ones that are close to our heart. Sometimes the first thing we think about when this happens is revenge. Revenge is never the answer though. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth tried to get revenge on Arthur Dimmesdale. Roger’s wife, Hester Prynne, committed adultery with Dimmesdale, but when Roger found out about this he promised he would get revenge on him! “…I shall seek this man, as I have sought truth in books; as I have sought gold in alchemy. There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unwares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine!” said Roger. pg 70) He tells this to Hester just so she know how this made him feel and how he will seek revenge on Arthur Dimmesdale. Roger Chillingworth is a very dertermined man when it comes to getting revenge, he even lives with Arthur Dimmesdale as his doctor. Roger becomes very supious throughout his time living with Dimmesdale and soon discovers that is was him by the marking he finds on his chest. When Dimmesdale decides to tell everyone the truth Chillingworth is angry. When Dimmesdale tells the truth he drops dead and Chillingworth is never able to get revenge. The theme of The Scarlet Letter is a good theme that happens in everyday life. Even when someone hurts you or the ones you love, you have to know getting revenge is never the answer. People make mistakes each day and things may never go your way. Revenge may be temping to people at times, but it never works out.

6. Personal Reflection In my person opinion I found this book not to be in my best interest. It took a while for me to have any interest in the book and moved to slow for me. I personally did like some of the parts in this novel, but it is something I would not have chosen to read. I do think The Scarlet Letter has taught me to never give up on myself in tough situations which is one of the reasons I enjoyed this book a little bit, but other than that I didn’t enjoy much of this. In The Scarlet Letter I can personally relate to Hester Pyrnne, but not because of her sin of adultry that she committed. I realate with Hester easily because I’m usually treated as an outcast in school. I don’t fit with people from school beacause most of the people I hang out with are from my dance studio. In this book Hester is treated as an outcast for one mistake she had made and she flaunts it by wearing her “A.” This inspires me because I feel as if everything I do everyone is always judging me. Hester teaches me throughout the novel that even in tough situations life puts you in you can’t put yourself down and you have to keep going. Relating to Hester was easy to me because I know how it feels to be an outcast and how hard it is just to fit in. The Scarlet has also taught me not to always be apart of the in-crowd but stand out amongst yourself. Hester has a choice at one point if she wants to wear the scarlet letter “A” anymore and she chooses not to. I would recommend this book to my best friend Haley. She is just like me, when people put her down she listens to them. She doesn’t know how to overcome that. I think by reading this story she would see you can’t always put yourself down because everyone is judged and everyone makes mistakes you have to learn from the mistakes you made and show everyone you can over power what you have done wrong.