The Scarlet Letter: A Romance

Think about the subtitle of The Scarlet Letter. In what ways is this text "a romance"? What, if any, relationship, is there between "romance" and Romanticism?

If you are unfamiliar with Romanticism as a literary movement, please read the following background information:

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/romantic/welcome.htm
(Byron features prominently)

In Harold Bloom's introduction to Modern Critical Interpretations: Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, he writes: "Pearl...is the romance's prime knower no reader would doubt. The subtlest relation in Hawthorne's sinuously ambiguis romance is not that between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. It is the ambivalent and persuasive mother-daughter complex in which Hester is saved both from suicidal despair and from the potential of becoming the prophetess of a feminist religion only by the extraordinary return in her daughter of everything she herself has repressed" (Bloom 4).

Opening the exploration to any of the major four characters in the novel, what specific passages do you see that highlight the extent to which Hawthorne was influenced by romanticism? What tension(s) are illuminated, complicated or otherwise illustrated by Romanticism (or vice versa)?

Shame as Control (and a few announcements)

It seems that the combination of my being out, your presentation yesterday during class and today being a day off school has kind of thrown things into confusion. Tomorrow I need to collect your passages so that we can do the class activity I have planned. We can push the class activity until Friday if need be, but please bring those to class tomorrow so that I have time to photocopy them. (This is all explained on that note I left for you with the sub.)

For the blog tonight if you knew to post--I would like you to search though what you've read so far for evidence of Hawthorne's opinion on the public shaming of Hester as a means of discipline (or control to use the same word we used when discussing the Crucible). We will talk more about the idea of public shame tomorrow, in the general sense, but for now I want to begin the conversation with the text itself. So--what is Hawthorne saying about this as a practice?

Also: announcement incase you did not see it--ghost papers postponed until Monday, Scarlet Letter revised reading schedule coming soon and explanation of major assignment for Scarlet Letter to come shortly thereafter.

Chapter 2: "The Market-Place"

"In either case, there was very much the same solemnity of demeanour on the part of the spectators; as befitted a people amongst whom religion and law were almost identical, and in whose character both were so thoroughly interfused, that the mildest and severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful" (Hawthorne, 37).

This quote does a great job of summing up Puritan society, and you will see instances of the intertwining of law and religion throughout the novel. Consider these questions:

• While reading The Crucible, we talked about the ability of various opposing/seemingly related ideas to coexist. Do you think that morality and law coexisted in Puritan society? Is morality synonymous with religion in Puritanical society? Is morality always synonymous with religion?
• Why do you think religion played such a huge role in the Puritan's lives? Could it be kind of like the glue of their society? With this in mind, why were Puritans like Hester Prynne so harshly punished and frowned upon by their neighbors?
• Is it possible to be an individual in this strict society? Think about Hester's presence as she stands on the scaffold with her child.