The Scarlet Letter- Assignment 1
Establishing the author’s purpose, determining the author’s methods of establishing that purpose, determining the reader’s role:
Chapter -1 - What is the author trying to establish? What strategies does the author use to do so? What is the impact on the meaning of the novel at this point?
Setting-
Unsettling- author uses details to establish the societal need to accommodate the less attractive characteristics of society, “ The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have….to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison (33).” The reader immediately understands the establishment of this tale as one that reflects upon human virtue. Man cannot be separated from his vices or his existence from the specter of death. Invariably, these realities establish the necessity for societies to organize, and to create laws and rules, with these limitations in mind.
Mood-
Somber- author’s use of diction, “sad-colored garments (33)”, reader immediately feels the mood
Ominous- author’s use of diction, “studded with iron spikes (33)”, and the reader immediately reflects on conflict/mood
Characterization-
Theme-
“a tale of frailty and human sorrow (34)”, - The author/narrator directly states this thematic statement. As a reader, such a direct claim makes me wonder. What is the purpose of such a direct appeal? Does this direct appeal is some ways critically confront the reader’s awareness of “his” inclusion in this “tale of frailty?” Does the setting (environment) suggest that the frailty and sorrow may be derived from the harsh constructs of this society’s necessary and required development of prisons and graveyards?
Symbols-
“a wild rose-bush….the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him (34).”
-Hope, compassion, forgiveness, absolution? The reader must notice that “Nature” has established this symbol, and perhaps is only allowed to establish it parameters. Can man do so? From the earlier discussion of man’s characteristics as “one with his vices”, can it be determined that the narrator claims that the nature of man is unable to carry forth the compassion of “Nature.”
Plot/Conflict-
Other-
Allusion: to Anne Hutchinson, the Puritan women who challenged the vengeful, vindictive, and hypocritical leadership of the Puritan colony and were banished.
Foreshadow: Anne Hutchinson to Hester Prynne