The Scarlet Letter - Chapters I - III Reading Tags
Analyze the tags for Chapters I - III in this blog. Use the following format in your analysis of each tag:
1. Tag and page number where the tag can be found
A. Author/Facts (does not have to be in complete sentences)
oFacts from the novel according to the tag
oWho?, What?, When?, Where?
oDefine new words
oParaphrase/Summary
B. Reader/Response (SHOULD BE IN COMPLETE SENTENCES)
oHow? Why?
oApplication
oWhat do you think about the situation surrounding the tag?
oRespond to the quote.
oPredictions/Questions
DON'T FORGET TO BRING A HARD COPY TO CLASS ON THE DAY THE TAGS ARE DUE IN ORDER TO GET YOUR POINTS!
1. Tag and page number where the tag can be found
A. Author/Facts (does not have to be in complete sentences)
oFacts from the novel according to the tag
oWho?, What?, When?, Where?
oDefine new words
oParaphrase/Summary
B. Reader/Response (SHOULD BE IN COMPLETE SENTENCES)
oHow? Why?
oApplication
oWhat do you think about the situation surrounding the tag?
oRespond to the quote.
oPredictions/Questions
DON'T FORGET TO BRING A HARD COPY TO CLASS ON THE DAY THE TAGS ARE DUE IN ORDER TO GET YOUR POINTS!
posted by Jenni Vega | 12:45 PM
2 Comments:
1. Puritan Utopia (41-42)
A. Author/Facts
-Puritans realized that although they strive to obey God, their community will always be imperfect.
-Because of this, a prison and a cemetery were two of the first structures built in any puritan community.
-It talked about how anything dealing with crime always looks ugly even if it is brand new.
-Physiognomy- The antiquated belief that facial features can indicate character.
B. Reader/Response
-Puritans are always eager to crucify the first person that they catch sinning so it makes perfect sense that they would be eager to make a prison.
-I don't think that as much significance can be drawn from the cemetery. That is a necessary part of any community Puritan or not.
-The Puritans thought that it was possible to eradicate sin. They thought that if they applied enough pressure to "Satan’s grasp" on a person, than Satan and his sin could be chased away.
-This sets up the book very nicely and you can tell a lot about what is going to come even if the chapter is only one and one-half pages.
2. "A people amongst whom religion and law were identical" (43)
A. Author/Facts
-This is referring to the puritan community who viewed the Bible as the law and punished severely anyone who dared to contradict their narrow view of it.
-The village deals with Hester as they see fit.
-Her crime can be deduced as adultery because of the baby and the A.
-She is put in the stock area to face the village as her punishment.
-She looks back on her past and wakes up to her reality afterwards.
B. Reader/Response
-While what she allegedly did was wrong, it is questionable as to whether the villagers were the ones to deal out the punishment.
-The actions of these villagers in this particular situation prove this quote true. They see God's law being broken and they shame and shun the person who committed the crime.
-It almost seems like the whole thing is surreal to her. She doesn't know if she is really happening.
-It is clear to me that from the way Hawthorne describes her, he wants us to take pity on her. It would seem that she will be set up as the protagonist in the book. I think it is interesting that he has sympathy on this character since his great-grandfather was a puritan judge.
-The A is a significant symbol in the book because it shows how coldly and unthoughtfully the Puritans label and deal with people.
-I'm not sure why the people are so interested in seeing this woman stand in shame. Are they simply doing this to try to make her feel as sorry as possible?
3. "She will not speak" (57)
A. Author/Facts
-The quote refers to the ministers and the crowd trying to get the name of the adulterous man out of her.
-She sees the same man as in her visions she just had.
-The man asks about her and seems curious about her.
-The minister's attempt to get the name of the man doesn't work.
-The little brother of the main minister doesn't want to know who it was for some reason.
B. Reader/Response
-The fact that the puritans keep attempting to get the name of the man instead of trying to help her get past her sin tells you something about the Puritans. Again, they are more concerned with squashing out sin than helping anyone with it.
-I think that the man she saw in her visions and that saw her on the platform is her husband.
-The scarlet letter is again brought to the attention of the readers. Hester says that it will be a part of her forever.
-The minister comes from Boston to get the name of the adulterer. Is it all really that important?
1. Puritan Utopia (41-42)
a. Author/Facts
• A ‘utopia’ is ‘any visionary system of political or social perfection.’ This society is described as Puritanism in all of its glory being put to action because of its focus on crime and punishment. Puritans strictly believe that everything should be done according to the Bible and the law, and anyone who stepped out of those boundaries was a sinner. This was the reason why a prison is built before the church.
• With the society centered more around the prison than even the church (though to them they were greatly connected), the society became a prison itself, holding its occupants inside by the weight of religion, prejudice, and judgment. Anyone that stepped out from under a rule of complete piety and submission was scorned and hypocritically harassed by the people acting almost as the keepers of a prison cell.
• The symbolism of the roses in front of the prison door is very important. Hawthorne states, “It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow.” The roses represent that although the people of Boston are living in a social prison, that some innocence and good exists, leaving us with the hope that it will be discovered and embraced by this prejudiced society.
b. Reader Response
This society truly is crazy. Already, the foreshadowing indicates that the main character is going to undergo some major persecution from the people of Boston. The focus of crime and punishment by the Puritan Utopia of a society overshadows Christian morals and, even though to Puritans the church and prison are connected, it should not necessarily be a branch of the church in which no one can receive real forgiveness if not from God, then certainly not from the town. They are brainwashed. Brainwashed to the point where not one person can realize the insanity of their brainwashed insanity.
2. “a people amongst whom religion and law were identical” (43)
a. Author/Facts
• This chapter describes the trip and humiliating stand upon the scaffold of Hester Prynne.
• The women of the village, though they show different levels of scorn, are quite hostile for ‘moral, upstanding, and Christian’ women. They totally bash her saying her punishment was not enough and how horrible she is. They also ridicule her irregular clothing, too elaborate to their taste.
• This whole chapter is loaded down with symbolism. One example is Hester’s elegance and how she is almost above all that is around her. When introduced to the public with her newly acquired ‘A’ and even more proof of her newborn child. She shines amongst all of the negativity like a rose amongst thorns.
• This quote is very significant -actually that whole paragraph is- because it further proves the connection between law and religion to the point where it calls it identical. This is true because the law was a complete reflection and branch of Puritanism, with people being severely punished for any crime with little chance of forgiveness.
• The scaffold is also a use of symbolism. It is the stage on which Hester is both ridiculed and mocked, and still, she holds her honor. From reading the first two chapters, the roles, to me, have been reversed between that of Hester and the people around her. They are the ones sinning by judging her when they themselves are not perfect, while she, with great integrity, stands exalted above them.
• In the end of this chapter, everything seems to catch up to Hester, and regret seems to be present when she realizes, as if for the first lime, just how far she has come and what it has led to.
b. Reader/Response
These people are crazy. They are so mean to Hester and talk about her like she is the most disgusting thing that their perfect selves could ever see. The Puritans are extremely hypocritical, acting very un-Christian when she is the one who is the sinner. The hostility of the society is revolting and frustrating. It makes you want to take the criminals side, because no one deserves the judgment of anyone but God Himself. The Puritans, at least, should have believed that.
3. “she will not speak” (57)
a. Author/Facts
• This quote is in correspondence to the fact that Hester will not give the name of the father of her child. The reverends of the village are trying to get her to tell them who it is but she refuses to speak.
• She continues to stand upon the scaffold of shame, harassed by the villagers. A man, seemingly of importance and familiarity to her, appears in the back of the crowd and catches her attention. Seeing that she recognizes him, he asks a nearby villager what is going on. The villager explains the situation and gives us the first unveiling of her crime, though the term of adultery is never used.
• The old reverend in the end of the chapter comes across as very hypocritical, ironic because of the young minister’s quote saying, “would you tempt him to add hypocrisy to sin?” The older minister is also stuck up, and has a overpowering ‘holier-than-thou” kind of attitude. I don’t like him. When he tells the young minister the Hester is his problem I wanted to slap him. I just really don’t like him.
b. Reader/Response
These people are crazy. Especially those ministers. Just who do they think they are? They shouldn’t be able to talk about her to her face like “oh poor pitiful you, you are such a scummy sinner, you will never get into heaven” kind of way. It frustrates me. Also, who is that guy she knows in the crowd? It that the gut she committed adultery with? I think it is cause she was describing him earlier before he is a bystander. Those Puritans are craaaaazy.
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