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The Effects of Guilt in The Scarlet Letter
5
Transcript
THE EFFECTS OF GUILT
IN THE SCARLET LETTER
Alex Chen
Bethany Hung
Claudia Shao
Dustin Tso
4º
CHARACTERS:
SETTING
WHO'S GUILTY?
forest
Reverend
- Location of many secret exchanges
Hester
- Hester's door faces the forest
- First thing visible
- Constant presence
Dimmesdale
Prynne
- Attempt to alleviate their guilt
- But it never leaves
- Devise escape plan
- She removes it at first, freeing herself of stigma, guilt
- Forced to wear it again – forced to take the guilt
- dark and oppressive
- no light
- always in the shade
Hester & Dimmesdale
The A
- Deals with guilt ineffectively - denial
- » disease » confession
- Morally responsible for townspeople, yet guilty with Hester
- Condemned to wearing scarlet letter
- Learns to deal with guilt effectively
- Tries to be best mother for Pearl
- Exclusion from Puritan society » does not need to conform
Why not the scaffold?
What about the town?
The scaffold represents freedom, rather than guilt. It is upon this scaffold that the characters are able to free themselves, bit by bit.
The town is where the other citizens initially judge Hester, but they gradually become tolerant of her. Furthermore, the town primarily represents civilization.
SYMBOLISM
scarlet letter
Hester is liberated by this sewn scarlet letter.
Meanwhile, Dimmesdale is oppressed.
The true scarlet letter is the guilt on Dimmesdale's heart - externally, the marking on his chest.
Pearl
QUOTE / PASSAGE
Plot twist!
The scarlet letter is not the physical, sewed-on letter.
‘“Is not this better," murmured he, ‘than what we dreamed of in the forest?’
Dimmesdale, on the brink of freeing himself from Chillingworth and finding his salvation, shows the effects of guilt upon himself in how he changes his view of what they should do.
‘I know not! I know not!’ she hurriedly replied. ‘Better? Yea; so we may both die, and little Pearl die with us!’”
(Hawthorne 249)
Additional Comments
» Hawthorne believes that sins are evil because they make sinners feel guilty
» Intolerance of sin » terrible thing because it makes the sinner feel more guilt for no reason
sins » source of guilt »evil;
not a Puritan viewpoint
scaffold
- living embodiment of scarlet letter
- behavior reflects Dimmesdale's guilt
- communicates the moral that externalization » redemption
- Used to display characters' guilt
- Showcases character development
Hester & Chillingworth
- Chillingworth's descent into evil is made apparent – no guilt
- effects of lack of guilt
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