Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Author of The Scarlet Letter and His Puritan Background, Schemes and Mind Maps of Literature

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The

Scarlet

Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Born on July 4, 1804, in Salem Massachusetts, Hawthorne’s life was steeped in the Puritan legacy. An early ancestor, William Hathorne, first emigrated from England to America in 1630 and settled in Salem, Massachusetts, where he became a judge known for his harsh sentencing. William’s son, John Hathorne, was one of three judges during the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s. Hawthorne later added a “w” to his name to distance himself from this side of the family. Hawthorne was the only son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Clark Hathorne (Manning). His father, a sea captain, died in 1808 of yellow fever while at sea. The family was left with meager financial support and moved in with Elizabeth’s wealthy brothers. A leg injury at an early age left Hawthorne immobile for several months during which time he developed a voracious appetite for reading and set his sights on becoming a writer. With the aid of his wealthy uncles, young Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College from 1821 to 1825. There he met and befriended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future president Franklin Pierce. By his own admission, he was a negligent student with little appetite for study. Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter plot begins with a framing device, often used in literature of the 19th century. A clerk at the Customs House in Salem Massachusetts, discovers a sheaf of papers, at least 200 years old, wrapped beneath a piece of fabric intricately embroidered with the letter "A." The narrator begins to weave a story from the papers, beginning with a scene outside a prison, where Hester Prynne is walking out, her illegitimate child in her arms. She mounts the scaffold to face the public for her sin. Because Hester refuses to name the child's father, she is further shamed. Her lasting punishment is to always wear an "A" on her dress to identify herself as an adulterer. A strange man in the crowd, Roger Chillingworth, determines to find out the truth of her affair. Disguised as a doctor, Chillingworth is revealed to be Hester's long lost husband, who she mistakenly believed was dead.

Years pass, in which Pearl, the infant, grows older and Hester works as a seamstress. Chillingworth continues his quest to determine who is guilty of being Pearl's father. Arthur Dimmesdale, the town minister, falls ill, and in caring for him, Chillingworth discerns his guilt from both a suspicious red mark on his chest and the marks of the whip he uses to punish himself for his sins. One evening, Chillingworth spots Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale linking hands on scaffold under the cover of night. After several confrontations with a suspicious Chillingworth, Hester asks to meet Dimmesdale, whose health grows worse, in the woods outside town, where she begs him to come away with her and Pearl so they can live freely together. Dimmesdale agrees, but the next day, overwhelmed with guilt and gravely ill, he climbs atop the scaffold before the town. He rips open his shirt to reveal his own "A" carved on his chest right before his death. Hester and Pearl leave the town, but later return after Chillingworth's death when his inheritance is left to Pearl. Hester is still seen still wearing her "A' on her dress.

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