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Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864 - Coggle Diagram
Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864
life
moved to Boston and got married, then had financial problems
he trailed europe and returned in the US
born in Massachusetts, suffered from poor health;
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Hester Prynne cheats on her husband with a reverend and gets pregnant of a baby girl.
she and the baby (Pearl) move outside Boston and she becames a needlewoman ganing the respect of the community
both her husband and the reverend die, the last confessing his sin and showing an A marked on his chest. the end Hester dies with an A in her tombston
since adultery is punished by puritan law, she is incarcerated and then forced to wear a scarlet letter whit an A (adulteress).
themes
puritan view of sin and its relation with guilt:
moral shame
frustration
isolation
letter A is both:
a sin
the symbol of Hester's peronal identity.
style
the novel mixes the real world and the fairyland, using symbols and spirituality.
omnicient narrator