红字PPTTheScarletLetterPPT.ppt

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1、The Scarlet Letterby Nathaniel HawthorneAdvanced American LitMr.MaysThe AuthornNathanielHawthorneAmerican novelist and short story writer,most famous for his novel The Scarlet LetterNathaniel Hawthorne,BackgroundnBorn Salem,Mass.on July 4th,1804,son of a sea captain.nGraduated from Bowdoin College a

2、nd began to write.nInsufficient earnings as a writer forced Hawthorne to take a job in the Salem Custom House.nBy 1842,he was able to earn enough to marry Sophia Peabody and move to Concord,which was then the center of the Transcendental movement.nHawthorne returned to Salem in 1845 and in 1850,his

3、most famous novel,The Scarlet Letter was published.nNathaniel Hawthorne died at Plymouth,New Hampshire,on May 18th,1864.Picture found on Google ImagesnHe discovered that he had Puritan ancestors.nOne relative had served as a judge in the Salem witch trials of 1692nHawthorne added the“w”to his name t

4、o distinguish himself from his ancestors.nHe wrote during the Romantic period of literary history(1830-1865)along with Ralph Waldo Emerson,Henry David Thoreau,Herman Melville,Harriet Beecher Stowe and Edgar Allen PoePersonal NotablesThe Custom HousenSatirical introduction to the novelnAutobiographic

5、al of HawthornenUsed to show his dislike for the Puritans and their strong religious beliefsnHe is bored at his job which leads him to search through old boxes and discover the manuscript and the scarlet letter.The Custom House-Cont.The story is based on a historical manuscript that he found.The nar

6、rator of the story is nameless,but shares many qualities with Hawthorne himself.He creates the narrator similar to Hester since they both feel alienated from those around them.Narrator says one day he will be remembered by his name on the custom stamp,while Hester will be remembered for her scarlet

7、cloth.Primary Document 1 Custom House ReceiptnSalem Custom House Receipt,April 18,1848nSigned by Nathaniel HawthornePrimary Document 2 A letter from HawthornenPage one of a copy made by George B.Curwen of a letter from Hawthorne to Horace Ingersoll.nWritten in Lenox in the summer of 1850 about his f

8、iring as surveyor at the SalemCustomHouse the year before.courtesy of The House of the Seven Gables Historic SitePrimary Document 3 Original Book CovernTitle page of 1850 edition of The Scarlet LetternFirst PublishingnHawthorne was a Romantic Author(courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum)Defining ScarletF

9、unction:adjective1of the color scarlet2a:grossly and glaringly offensive sinning in flagrant and scarlet fashion-characterized by,or associated with sexual immorality Function:nounMiddle English scarlat,scarlet,from Anglo-French escarlet,from Medieval Latin scarlata,from Persian saqalAt,a kind of ri

10、ch cloth1:scarlet cloth or clothes2:any of various bright redsMain Entry:scarletletterFunction:noun:a scarlet A worn as a punitive mark of adulteryDefining Puritan Main Entry:1puritan Function:nounEtymology:probably from Late Latin puritas purity1 capitalized:a member of a 16th and 17th century Prot

11、estant group in England and New England opposing as unscriptural the ceremonial worship and the prelacy of the Church of England2 one who practices or preaches a more rigorous or professedly purer moral code than that which prevailsSee Endicott and the Red Cross Chapter at the end of the book.Nathan

12、ial Hawthorne as a paradoxPhilosophynInfluenced by Calvinism,which believed in“original sin”,but recognized its furor,peremptoriness and hypocrisynAccepting Emersons mysterious philosophy,but put the goodness and evilness of Calvinism as a standard of knowing the world.“I wish God had given me the f

13、aculty of writing a sunshiny book.”The Scarlet Letter“is a positively hell-fired story,into which I found it impossible to throw any cheering light.”One of the recurring themes is a sense of struggle and conflict with the workings of his own imagination.His stories and novels seem to be continually

14、attempting to wrestle out of his control.nDiscontent with the fallen social,moral and hypocritical aristocracy,but reluctant to make a radical change to the unreasonable social systemthe implication of protagonists namesHester PrynneHester:Hestier in Greek mythology,Zeuss sister,a woman of beauty he

15、stier(hasty)Prynne:prurient prune:purify her sin pry:probe into the interior of ones heart Arthur Dimmesdale Arthur:Adam,adulteryDimmesdale:dim+dale:dim interior (to hide ones sin)Roger ChillingworthRoger:rogue(revenge)Chillingworth:chilly(cruel,inhumane)+worth(induce Arthur to speak out his own sin

16、)Pearl:good,pure and preciousHester Prynne:opposite to Arthur(Hawthorne)1.Knows and acknowledges her guilty,but never hides her character and identity under a new exterior2.Bears her humiliation with supreme dignity,hides her agony 3.Quietly submits to the punishment and performs acts of charity to

17、those in trouble She never battled with the public,but submitted uncomplainingly to its worst usage;she made no claim upon it in requital for what she had suffered;she did not weigh upon its sympathies.“Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge?It is our Hester the towns own Hester who is so

18、kind to the poor,so helpful to the sick,so comforting to the afflicted.”The symbolic letter AThe physical letter A:this affair of fine red cloth,much worn and faded,notes the old fashioned stitching and the remains of gold embroidery,and tells us that by an accurate measurement,each limb proved to b

19、e precisely three inches and a quarter in length.Like any effective symbol,the letter achieves its status not in spite of but by reason of its literal texture.Before anything else,Hawthorne says,this is a scarlet letter;because of that,it is capable of further meaning.The letter will have to carry the burden of the tale.Hawthorne takes first step to insure its capacity to do so by making it seem more real than any other part of his story.