Scarlet Letter Theme Recognition Assignment for Chapters 6-10
“Perhaps Hawthorne’s greatest interest was the human capacity on how sin operates on the inner workings of minds.”
-Using the statement above as a lens, find an example of four of the themes listed below. Then, briefly explain how these themes represent the motivation for Hawthorne’s presentation of these themes within the story. Challenge yourself to create an efficient, yet complex, analysis. Complexity arises from the interconnected nature of ideas, themes, characters, and an evaluation of the function of society. Use your creativity to expand your analysis. HINT: Remember the tangible advice of using conjunctive adverbs and subordinating conjunctions as starters for complex observations.
PURITAN MORALITY v. PASSION AND INDIVIDUALISM /Adultery
Individual Rights/Self-trust vs. accommodation to authority
Conventional vs. unconventional gender roles
Guilt: sense of guilt forced by puritanical heritage/society
Hypocrisy vs. Integrity
Moral Pride vs. Intellect
The penalties of isolation/ isolation because of self-cause and societal cause
Patriarchal power
Belief in fate/free will
Impossibility of earthly perfection
Example: (You will start with Chapter 6)
Chapter 5
“What she compelled… the result of martyrdom” (page 67). (Quote and location, excerpted)
Hester’s insistence that she stay in New England, although described as “half a truth, and half a self-delusion”, represented the overwhelming, and apparently indomitable oppression of guilt forced by the puritanical heritage. In the construct of the strict puritan code her redemption could no longer be attained by normal means, and the purge of her sin required “the result of martyrdom.” The expectations of a sinner such as Hester to find absolution in the Puritan world, although truly impossible, exemplify Hawthorne’s criticism of a social order which attempts to validate its demands for accommodation to authority and order on the shoulders of the imperfect human soul. In order for Hester to regain the “purity…she had lost,” she had to face “the torture of her daily shame,” and forfeit her soul, even her person, to the isolation of shame.