THE SCARLET LETTER

By the end of this unit, students will be able to: analyze the characters of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, Pearl, and their relationships to one another; trace the development of Hester’s, Chillingworth’s, and Dimmesdale’s characters from their first mention in the novel until their last, noting how and why they change; examine characters and character relationships from a variety of literary positions; investigate the various notions of sin; identify the major elements of Romantic and Gothic literature; discuss the structural development of the novel in terms of exposition, conflict, climax, resolution; discuss Hawthorne’s use of humor, pathos, and occasionally bathos; analyze the importance of literary elements like dramatic irony and foreshadowing on the development of the plot; discuss the frequent references to light and darkness and to plant life as symbols and elements of a metaphor; analyze how Hawthorne creates suspense; explain and identify examples of where the Transcendentalists and Anti-Transcendentalists parted company; and debate the rightness or wrongness of the three main characters, considering the multiple concepts of right and wrong as presented in the novel. 90 pages. ©2003.