Scarlet letter series#

This primary source set includes photographs, paintings, documents, maps, and items that relate both to the setting of The Scarlet Letter, the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the mid-seventeenth century, and thematic elements within the book. The scarlet letter A (for adultery) she has to wear on her clothes, along with her public shaming, is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy. The result made for one of the first mass-produced books in America, and a volume still on many high schools’ required reading lists today. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and will not reveal her lover’s identity. Those branded with a scarlet letter feel the punitive vengeance of an unforgiving society. The term often refers to an ongoing, public shame forced upon a person as a means of ostracizing him or her.

In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne’s romanticism helps him to critique the hypocrisy of the Puritan religion while also exploring more universal themes of self-consciousness, desire, revenge, shame, and guilt. A scarlet letter is a stigma someone bears for a misdeed he or she has committed.

So why is this novel considered one of the greatest American novels, and why do we study it in schools? Hawthorne wrote in the tradition of romanticism, a term used to describe literature that emphasizes individualism and emotion, uses both imagery and symbolism, and looks into humanity’s darker impulses and desires. (Gasp!) Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, sets its events in the Puritan society of two centuries before, and narrates a tale as scandalous for that time as the stuff in grocery-store paperbacks now. Even before the main narrative begins, the reader catches a glimpse of the letter, as the anonymous narrator of The Custom House describes it briefly in the book’s opening section. Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in 1850, the year in which the Clay Compromise postponed the American. Why? Because she had a baby.out of wedlock. The Scarlet Letter Given the book’s title, this object is unsurprisingly a very important symbol throughout the story.

Kathryn Gin Lum, author of Heathen: Religion and Race in American History, explained on the podcast Straight White American Jesus how White American Christians used the label “heathen” in order to name those they deemed not only different, but in need of saving (with “saving” often meaning occupation of native lands, overtaking cultures, and the exclusion of those who refused to, or couldn’t, assimilate).In a society governed by Puritans, Hester Prynne is an outcast.Joshua Zimmerman discussed Jozef Pilsudski: Founding Father of Modern Poland with Polish politician Radosław Sikorski on Wolne Radio Europa.

Scarlet letter series#

Bring the War Home author Kathleen Belew spoke at length with Walter Isaacson as part of Amanpour & Co.’s ongoing series “Exploring Hate.”.

Alessio Terzi, author of Growth for Good: Reshaping Capitalism to Save Humanity from Climate Catastrophe, argued at LSE Business Review that there’s nothing anti-capitalist about a shorter workweek today’s conversations about a three-day weekend are not a shift in paradigm but rather a continuation of the paradigm we have seen for over two centuries.