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Scarlet letter chapter 5 Chapter Five: Hester at Her Needle Summary Hester is released from prison and finds a cottage in the woods, near the outskirts of the city,
The Scarlet Letter Notes These are my classnotes about THE SCARLET LETTER; be careful I have had no time to revise it, but I think it can be useful. REMEMBER BE
Scarlet Letter THE SCARLET LETTER The Custom House: Hawthorne says that he writes to the whole world hoping that someone will understand what he is talking about.
Scarlet Letter Report Summary The novel opens with Hester, the protagonist, being led to the scaffold where she is to be publicly shamed for having committed adultery.
Scarlet Letter, Pearl The Scarlet letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The plot focuses on sin in the Puritan society. Hester Prynne, the protagonist,
Submitted by esperado on August 9, 2006
Category: English
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The opening chapter of The Scarlet Letter may appear superfluous, but it is an integral part of the text. While only a scant three paragraphs long, "The Prison Door" serves a variety of functions. First, it establishes the novel's somber setting and tone. Next, it introduces the work's overriding themes of sin and penance. Most importantly, the first chapter subtly reveals the principle conflict at the core of Hawthorne's masterpiece. Through a combination of metaphor, allusion, imagery, and recurrent words, invaluable insight is provided into the tension among the autonomy and authority propelling the work. Therefore, "The Prison Door" proves to be indispensable in erecting the solid foundation in atmosphere and symbolism on which the novel securely rests.
In the most fundamental sense, the initial chapter supplies the story's setting. By opening outside a Boston prison during the mid-seventeenth century, the work is given a historical context. Certain knowledge and expectations are consequently evoked. Through its association with the colonization of the new world, the novel's locale summons images of austerity and peril. This fact alone successfully conveys the work's morose tone.
However, the gravity pervading The Scarlet Letter is best imparted through Hawthorne's deft use of language. From the very first sentence, he paints a dismal and foreboding portrait. The townsfolk's clothing is described as "sad-colored" and "gray" (53). While the prison door they have congregated around is "heavily-timbered" and "studded with iron spikes" (53). Marked by "weather stains and other indications of old age", this "beetle-browed" and "gloomy" edifice is characterized as "the black flower of civilized society" (53). Such images of corruption and condemnation run rampant throughout the first chapter. A nearby grass-plot is strangled by "burdock, pigweed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation" (53). While the close proximity of the words "doom",...
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