The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Access Editions. EMC/Paradigm Publishing St. Paul, Minnesota THE EMC MASTERPIECE SERIES

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1 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne THE EMC MASTERPIECE SERIES Access Editions EMC/Paradigm Publishing St. Paul, Minnesota

2 Staff Credits: EMC/Paradigm Publishing, St. Paul, Minnesota Laurie Skiba Editor Shannon O Donnell Taylor Associate Editor Eileen Slater Editorial Consultant Penobscot School Publishing, Inc., Danvers, Massachusetts Editorial Robert D. Shepherd President, Executive Editor Christina Kolb Managing Editor Kim Leahy Beaudet Editor Sara Hyry Editor Marilyn Murphy Shepherd Editor Sharon Salinger Copyeditor Design and Production Charles Q. Bent Production Manager Sara Day Art Director Tatiana Cicuto Compositor ISBN Copyright 1998 by EMC Corporation All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be adapted, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without permission from the publishers. Published by EMC/Paradigm Publishing 875 Montreal Way St. Paul, Minnesota Printed in the United States of America xxx

3 Table of Contents The Life and Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne iv Time Line of Hawthorne s Life vi The Historical Context of The Scarlet Letter viii Characters in The Scarlet Letter xii Illustrations xiv The Custom-House, Introductory to The Scarlet Letter 1 Chapter I, The Prison-Door Chapter II, The Market-Place Chapter III, The Recognition Chapter IV, The Interview Chapter V, Hester at Her Needle Chapter VI, Pearl Chapter VII, The Governor s Hall Chapter VIII, The Elf-Child and the Minister Chapter IX, The Leech Chapter X, The Leech and His Patient Chapter XI, The Interior of a Heart Chapter XII, The Minister s Vigil Chapter XIII, Another View of Hester Chapter XIV, Hester and the Physician Chapter XV, Hester and Pearl Chapter XVI, A est Walk Chapter XVII, The Pastor and His Parishioner Chapter XVIII, A Flood of Sunshine Chapter XIX, The Child at the Brook-Side Chapter XX, The Minister in a Maze Chapter XXI, The New England Holiday Chapter XXII, The Procession Chapter XXIII, The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter Chapter XXIV, Conclusion Plot Analysis of The Scarlet Letter Creative Writing Activities Critical Writing Activities Projects Glossary Handbook of Literary Terms

4 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne. Peabody Essex Museum Nathaniel Hawthorne ( ). Born on July 4 in Salem, Massachusetts, Nathaniel was the second child and the only son of Elizabeth and Nathaniel Hathorne. By the time Nathaniel was born, five generations of Hathornes had lived in Salem. Two of the most infamous of these ancestors were William Hathorne and his son, John. William was a Puritan leader and a fierce persecutor of the Quakers. He ordered that a Quaker named Ann Coleman receive a public whipping; she almost died during this harsh punishment. John was a judge who conducted hearings during the Salem Witchcraft Trials. As a young man, Nathaniel added a w to his last name. Some speculate that he made this change to distance himself from his intolerant Puritan ancestors. Nathaniel s father was a seaman who caught yellow fever and died in Surinam (Dutch Guiana) in 1808, when Nathaniel was only four years old. The sea captain left his wife with little money, so Elizabeth sold the Hathorne house and moved her family into the home of her more wealthy brothers, the Mannings. When Nathaniel was nine, he injured his leg and was unable to attend school for almost two years; however, he began reading widely on his own. Hawthorne was particularly influenced by the allegory and symbolism in works such as John Bunyan s Pilgrim s Progress and Edmund Spenser s The Faerie Queene, as well as by Sir Walter Scott s historical romances and by the works of eighteenth-century novelists such as Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollet. In September of 1821, Hawthorne entered Bowdoin College, where he befriended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Franklin Pierce, and Horatio Bridge. In college, Hawthorne continued his extensive reading, enjoyed the Maine outdoors, and excelled in composition. Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin in 1825 and returned to Salem. the next twelve years, he wrote prodigiously, attempting to establish himself as a respected writer. He published his first romance, Fanshawe, at his own expense but later tried to retrieve all copies of the book and burn them. Similarly, Hawthorne burned his first collection of stories, Seven Tales of My Native Land, because he failed to find a publisher. Eventually, in 1830, he published five stories in The Salem Gazette, and in 1834, some of his stories appeared in New iv THE SCARLET LETTER

5 England Magazine. In 1836, Hawthorne worked as an editor for the Boston-based The American Magazine of ful and Entertaining Knowledge. In 1837, he published Twice-Told Tales, a collection of stories that finally brought him recognition. Hawthorne was unaware that his college friend Horatio Bridge had given the publisher financial guarantees against failure as an incentive to publish this work. The same year, Hawthorne met his future wife, Sophia Amelia Peabody, to whom he was engaged in To save money for his marriage, Hawthorne worked as a salt and coal measurer in the Boston Custom House, and planning for his future, bought shares in Brook Farm, a utopian Transcendentalist community, intending to live there with Sophia once they were married. However, communal living did not agree with Hawthorne, and he soon requested the return of his stock. Hawthorne and Sophia married on July 9, 1842, and moved into the Old Manse, a house in Concord that they rented from Ralph Waldo Emerson. In Concord, Hawthorne formed friendships with Transcendentalist writers and thinkers such as Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott. In 1845, the Hawthorne family returned to Salem, and in the following year, Hawthorne published Mosses from an Old Manse, a work that brought critical acclaim but little financial success. Hawthorne s financial woes were temporarily solved when President James K. Polk made him surveyor of the Salem Custom House. Hawthorne wrote little while working at the Custom House. In 1849, Zachary Taylor, a Whig, became president, and Hawthorne, a Democrat, lost his office. In September, Hawthorne began work on The Scarlet Letter and on The Custom-House, which satirizes the Salem Custom- House and its officers, as well as the Whigs who deprived him of his office. Hawthorne originally planned to include The Custom House, The Scarlet Letter, and other works in a collection called Old Time Legends; Together with Sketches, Experimental and Ideal. By 1850, Hawthorne had published The Scarlet Letter, and he published The House of the Seven Gables by By this time, he, his wife, and their children had moved from Lenox, Massachusetts, to West Newton, Massachusetts, where Hawthorne s second daughter was born. The Hawthorne family returned to Concord in In 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed Hawthorne to the post of American consul at Liverpool, England, and Hawthorne served in this position for four years before moving his family to Italy for a year. Hawthorne and his family returned to Concord in 1860, where he published a collection of English sketches under the title Our Old Home in Nathaniel Hawthorne died in 1864, leaving several unfinished works. Hawthorne s friend Ralph Waldo Emerson was a leading Transcendentalist. The Transcendentalists believed in spiritual truths that lay beyond sense perceptions and material things. They also believed that one could glimpse these truths through communion with nature. THE LIFE AND WORKS OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE v

6 Time Line of Hawthorne s Life July 4, April Nathaniel Hathorne is born in Salem, Massachusetts, son of Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne and Nathaniel Hathorne. Nathaniel Hathorne s father catches yellow fever and dies in Surinam (Dutch Guiana) while working as a sea captain. Elizabeth Hathorne moves Nathaniel and his two sisters into the Manning family s house. Nathaniel is injured when a ball hits his foot. Unable to attend school for almost two years after this injury, he begins reading widely on his own. Hathorne s family moves to Raymond, Maine, where Hathorne wanders, hunts, and fishes. Hathorne returns to Salem to prepare for college. Hathorne enters Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, near Raymond. There he meets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Horatio Bridge, and Franklin Pierce. Shortly after this time, Hawthorne adds a w to his last name. Hawthorne graduates from college and returns to live with his family in Salem. Hawthorne publishes Fanshawe, a romance set in a college, at his own expense, but later tries to recover and burn all the copies he can find. After he fails to find a publisher, Hawthorne also burns Seven Tales of My Native Land, a collection of stories that he began to write while in college. Hawthorne publishes five stories in The Salem Gazette. Hawthorne plans a collection called The Story Teller. Some of the stories Hawthorne planned to include in The Story Teller are published in New England Magazine. Hawthorne moves to Boston to edit a short-lived magazine called The American Magazine of ful and Entertaining Knowledge. Hawthorne s Twice-Told Tales is published. Hawthorne meets Sophia Amelia Peabody, his future wife. Hawthorne becomes engaged to Sophia Peabody. Hawthorne works as a salt and coal measurer in the Boston Custom House to save money for his marriage. Hawthorne tries communal living in the experimental Brook Farm community. vi THE SCARLET LETTER

7 Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody marry and move to the Old Manse, a house that they rent from Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Concord, Massachusetts. Hawthorne s first daughter, Una, is born. Hawthorne moves to Salem with his wife and daughter. Hawthorne s Mosses from an Old Manse is published and receives critical acclaim. Hawthorne is appointed surveyor of customs in Salem by President James K. Polk. Julian, Hawthorne s first son, is born. Hawthorne is removed from office after Zachary Taylor, a Whig, is elected President. He begins writing The Scarlet Letter and The Custom-House. The Scarlet Letter is published. Hawthorne moves to Lenox, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires, where he meets Herman Melville. The House of the Seven Gables is published. The Hawthornes move to West Newton, Massachusetts. Rose, Hawthorne s second daughter and third child, is born. The Blithedale Romance is published. Hawthorne buys a house in Concord, which he names The Wayside. He writes a campaign biography of Presidential candidate and former classmate Franklin Pierce. President Pierce appoints Hawthorne American consul at Liverpool, England. Hawthorne and his family move to England. Hawthorne keeps notebooks dealing with his experiences abroad. Hawthorne gives up his consulship. Hawthorne and his family travel to Rome and take up residence there and, later, in Florence. He begins writing a romance based on his observations in Italy. Hawthorne returns to England and continues writing his Italian romance. The Marble Fawn is published. Hawthorne returns with his family to The Wayside in Concord. Hawthorne s English sketches are published under the title Our Old Home. Hawthorne dies in Plymouth, New Hampshire, while traveling with Pierce TIME LINE OF HAWTHORNE S LIFE vii

8 THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF The Scarlet Letter The Protestant Reformation and Puritanism approximately twelve hundred years, the major religion of Europe was Catholicism. In the sixteenth century, a German monk named Martin Luther started a movement that was to overthrow the power of the Catholic Church and split Christian Europe into two major groups the Catholics and the Protestants. In 1517, Luther nailed to the door of a church in Wittenburg, Germany, a list of objections to central beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church. While preparing for his ordination as a priest, Luther had been struck by his own unworthiness to take the holy sacraments. He believed that because of the original sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden, people were basically sinful and could not, through their works, become worthy of taking such sacraments as Holy Communion and Holy Orders. Instead, according to Luther, people had to depend on the grace of God, extended to them despite their sinfulness. Luther also objected to practices of the church such as the sale of indulgences, or pardons for sins. He challenged the authority of the Pope and of the church in general, claiming that religion was a matter of individual conscience to be worked out between each person and God without a priest as intermediary. This belief led him to emphasize reading of the Holy Scriptures, which was made possible for ordinary men and women by the invention of printing and the translation of the Bible from Latin and Greek into everyday European languages. Luther s ideas spread throughout Europe, leading to a widespread, often bloody revolt against Catholic authority known as the Protestant Reformation. In England, King Henry VIII broke with Catholicism and formed the Church of England, or Anglican Church, a Protestant denomination with himself at its head, because the Catholic Church would not allow him to divorce. viii THE SCARLET LETTER

9 A central figure in the Protestant Reformation was John Calvin of Switzerland, who took Luther s ideas about original sin a step further, teaching that all events are preordained by God, that God chose at the beginning of time which people (the elect) would be saved, and which would be damned. This Calvinist doctrine, known as predestination, became the central belief of the Puritan Movement that was to flourish in England and in the English colonies. Puritanism in New England Some Protestants in England did not accept the Anglican Church but wished to purify it by simplifying services and by enforcing stricter moral codes. Facing persecution in England, some of these Puritans, as their opponents called them, fled to America, where they hoped to establish colonies based on religious principles. The Plymouth Colony, founded in 1620, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded in 1630, were Puritan settlements, both in New England. The New England colonists endured great difficulties and depended on the assistance of Native Americans to survive. The core group of the Plymouth colonists, often referred to as the Pilgrims, were Separatist Puritans, so called because they had officially separated from the Anglican Church due to its Popish, or Catholic, tendencies. After moving from England to Holland to escape religious persecution, the Pilgrims set sail for North America on the Mayflower in They landed on Cape Cod and established their colony by means of the Mayflower Compact in what is now the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. After a difficult winter, the colonists learned from native peoples how to plant crops that would grow in the harsh climate. Under the direction of governor William Bradford, the colony flourished. In 1691, Plymouth incorporated with a much larger settlement of Puritans, the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This group was made up of Congregationalist Puritans who did not separate entirely from the Anglican Church, believing it could be reformed from within. They found courage to face the hardships of their new lives in America by believing that their actions were divinely guided. Their governor, John Winthrop, would write in his work, A Model of Christian Charity, that they were in the business of building, as described in the New Testament, a city upon a hill in the new land. Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter is set in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 1640s. THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE SCARLET LETTER ix

10 Puritan Beliefs The Puritans in New England shared several basic religious and social beliefs. First, they believed strongly in the importance of the community as a whole. The idea that they were on a grand historical and religious mission gave them a common purpose. The societies that they created were theocracies, ruled by strict religious principles. Second, because they had a firm belief in original sin, they accepted the idea that people were basically wicked and could only be saved through grace. This belief in the wickedness of people led the Puritans to enact strict laws and punishments. Third, although the Puritans as a whole believed themselves to be chosen by God for a special mission, they did not believe that all the people among them had been chosen. They adopted John Calvin s theory of predestination, which held that God had chosen some people to be saved and some to be damned. They understood this to mean that they could not change their individual fates directly, by force of will. Since none could be sure of having been saved, however, they maintained a steady and humble watch over their lives for proof that they were among the elect, those chosen for salvation by God at the beginning of time. Finally, the Puritans shared a belief in hard work, thinking that material and social success were signs of God s providence and that such work, though it could not win salvation, was nonetheless a sign of salvation. This complex belief in strict moral propriety and hard work is today referred to as the Puritan ethic. Politics, Society, and Orthodoxy Despite the shared beliefs of the Puritans, their society was not entirely free of conflict, or dissent. Early Puritan leaders were largely intolerant of any opposition, religious or political. When Roger Williams voiced his objections in 1635 to intolerance of diversity and mistreatment of Native Americans, he was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He went on to found the colony of Rhode Island and to call for religious freedom. In 1637, when Anne Hutchinson bypassed the official church and began teaching her own theories in home Bible classes with other women and their husbands, she was accused of threatening the established religion and of being more a husband than a wife. She was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as well. Other dissenters did not fare so well. Puritan punishments could be extremely harsh and included public x THE SCARLET LETTER

11 ridicule, placement in stockades, imprisonment, flogging, drowning, hanging, and being crushed under stones. Pressures from progressive elements in New England led in 1662 to the Half-Way Covenant, a new law that relaxed old rules and allowed more people direct membership in the church. However, tensions remained. Some saw the relaxing of orthodoxy as a sign of weakness, and their concerns surfaced dramatically in the belief that Satan had infiltrated the town of Salem and nearby communities. The Salem Witch Trials, begun in 1692, resulted in the execution of twenty people and the imprisonment and torture of many more. Nathaniel Hawthorne was keenly aware of and embarrassed by his own ancestor s participation in these trials. Hawthorne was able to express his concern in his great novel, The Scarlet Letter, which deals with issues of sin, punishment, and redemption. THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE SCARLET LETTER xi

12 Main Characters Characters in The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne. Hester is an English woman who is sent to live in the American colonies by her husband, Roger Prynne, an aged scholar. Prynne plans to join her after he settles business matters in Amsterdam, where the couple has been living. When the novel begins, Hester has been living in Boston for two years without her husband, who has never arrived. Hester has given birth to a child by a father unknown to the community and has been found guilty of the sin of adultery. As punishment, she must always wear a scarlet A on her dress and stand for three hours on a public scaffold, exposed to the ridicule and rancor of the community. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Arthur Dimmesdale, an unmarried man, is the pastor of Hester s congregation and the father of Hester s baby, Pearl. Hester refuses to name him as the father of the child, but Dimmesdale s private guilt and anguish eat away at him throughout the novel. Pearl. Pearl is the daughter of Hester Prynne and the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. She is the living symbol of Hester s sin and grows up fascinated by her mother s scarlet A. Pearl has a strong, unpredictable personality, and Hester worries that Pearl will be taken from her. Roger Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth is the name Hester s husband assumes after he finally arrives in America. Native Americans have captured him, delaying his arrival in the colony. At the beginning of the novel, Hester recognizes her husband from her place on the public scaffold. Later, he asks her not to dishonor his name by revealing that he is her lawful husband. Chillingworth becomes obsessed with seeking revenge against Dimmesdale. xii THE SCARLET LETTER

13 Minor Characters Governor Richard Bellingham. This character, an actual historical figure who served as governor in Boston in 1641, 1654, and 1665, witnesses Hester s punishment on the public scaffold. Later in the novel, Hester must visit him to ask that Pearl not be removed from her home. Mistress Hibbins. This character, another actual historical figure, is the sister of Governor Bellingham and is supposedly in league with the devil. She tries to tempt Hester and Dimmesdale to sink further into sin. The real Mistress Hibbins was executed for witchcraft. John Wilson. This character advises Dimmesdale to try to find out from Hester who the father of her child is. When Hester refuses to reveal this information, Wilson delivers a sermon about adultery to the crowd watching Hester on the scaffold. Master Brackett. Master Brackett is the jailer who brings Chillingworth to Hester as she sits in prison. The Sexton. Dimmesdale stands on the public scaffold with Hester and Pearl one night, and the sexton, an employee of the church, finds Reverend Dimmesdale s glove there and returns it to him. The sexton asks Dimmesdale about the red letter A that appeared in the sky that night. The sexton believes that the A stands for angel. Dimmesdale denies having seen the sign in the sky. The Shipmaster. This character is the captain of the ship on which Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale hope to leave Boston. The shipmaster tells them that Roger Chillingworth also plans to be on the ship. CHARACTERS IN THE SCARLET LETTER xiii

14 The woman and her daughter pictured to the right are wearing long dresses and caps, typical Puritan garb such as Hester and Pearl might have worn. The basket carried by the woman might hold food she has gathered from the forest or her garden, a parcel from a shop, her sewing, or some food for a sick neighbor. xiv THE SCARLET LETTER

15 The man pictured to the left is wearing an outfit that would have been common to colonial Puritans knee breeches, coat, cape, and hat. ILLUSTRATIONS xv

16 WEST HILL BEACON PRISON WILLIAM HIBBON xvi THE SCARLET LETTER

17 MILL FIELD REVEREND WILSON N FORT HILL BOSTON CIRCA 1645 ILLUSTRATIONS xvii

18 1. footnote. This is a footnote. 2. footnote. This is another footnote. 3. footnote. This is another footnote. invariably (phonetic here) adj., meaning here ponderous (phonetic here) adj., meaning here pertain (phonetic here) v., meaning here THE CUSTOM HOUSE xix

19 THE CUSTOM-HOUSE Introductory to The Scarlet Letter It is a little remarkable, that though disinclined to talk overmuch of myself and my affairs at the fireside, and to my personal friends an autobiographical impulse should twice in my life have taken possession of me, in addressing the public. The first time was three or four years since, when I favored the reader inexcusably, and for no earthly reason, that either the indulgent reader or the intrusive author could imagine with a description of my way of life in the deep quietude of an Old Manse. And now because, beyond my deserts, I was happy enough to find a listener or two on the former occasion I again seize the public by the button, and talk of my three years experience in a Custom-House. The example of the famous P. P., Clerk of this Parish, 1 was never more faithfully followed. The truth seems to be, however, that, when he casts his leaves forth upon the wind, the author addresses, not the many who will fling aside his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understand him, better than most of his schoolmates and lifemates. Some authors, indeed, do far more than this, and indulge themselves in such confidential depths of revelation as could fittingly be addressed, only and exclusively, to the one heart and mind of perfect sympathy; as if the printed book, thrown at large on the wide world, were certain to find out the divided segment of the writer s own nature, and complete his circle of existence by bringing him into communion with it. It is scarcely decorous, however, to speak all, even where we speak impersonally. But as thoughts are frozen and utterance benumbed, unless the speaker stand in some true relation with his audience it may be pardonable to imagine that a friend, a kind and apprehensive, 2 though not the closest friend, is listening to our talk; and then, a native reserve being Who is speaking? What impulse has taken possession of this person? 1. P. P., Clerk of this Parish. Hawthorne is referring to a satirical biography he had read. 2. apprehensive. Quick to understand dis in clined (dis in kl nd ) adj., unwilling, reluctant THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 1

20 According to the narrator, what will the custom house sketch explain? thawed by this genial consciousness, we may prate of the circumstances that lie around us, and even of ourself, but still keep the inmost Me behind its veil. To this extent and within these limits an author, methinks, may be autobiographical, without violating either the reader s rights or his own. It will be seen, likewise, that this Custom-House sketch has a certain propriety, of a kind always recognized in literature, as explaining how a large portion of the following pages came into my possession, and as offering proofs of the authenticity of a narrative therein contained. This, in fact a desire to put myself in my true position as editor, or very little more, of the most prolix among the tales that make up my volume 3 this, and no other, is my true reason for assuming a personal relation with the public. In accomplishing the main purpose, it has appeared allowable, by a few extra touches, to give a faint representation of a mode of life not heretofore described, together with some of the characters that move in it, among whom the author happened to make one. In my native town of Salem, at the head of what, half a century ago, in the days of old King Derby, 4 was a bustling wharf but which is now burdened with decayed wooden warehouses, and exhibits few or no symptoms of commercial life; except, perhaps, a bark or brig, 5 half-way down its melancholy length, discharging hides; or, nearer at hand, a Nova Scotia schooner, pitching out her cargo of firewood at the head, I say, of this dilapidated wharf, which the tide often overflows, and along which, at the base and in the rear of the row of buildings, the track of many languid years is seen in a border of unthrifty grass here, with a view from its front windows adown this not very enlivening prospect, and thence across the harbor, stands a spacious edifice of brick. From the loftiest point of its roof, during precisely three and a half hours of each forenoon, floats or droops, in breeze or calm, the banner of the republic; but with the thirteen stripes turned vertically, instead of horizontally, and thus indicating that a civil, and not a military post of Uncle 3. my volume. Hawthorne originally planned to publish The Custom-House, The Scarlet Letter, and several other sketches and tales in one volume. 4. King Derby. Elias Hasket Derby ( ), a merchant and ship owner 5. bark or brig. Types of boats 2 THE SCARLET LETTER gen i al (jēn yəl) adj., friendly and sympathetic di lap i dat ed (də lap ə dāt id) adj., shabby, neglected, and broken down lan guid (laŋ ɡwid) adj., indifferent; dull

21 Sam s government, is here established. Its front is ornamented with a portico 6 of half a dozen wooden pillars, supporting a balcony, beneath which a flight of wide granite steps descends towards the street. Over the entrance hovers an enormous specimen of the American eagle, with outspread wings, a shield before her breast, and, if I recollect aright, a bunch of intermingled thunderbolts and barbed arrows in each claw. With the customary infirmity of temper that characterizes this unhappy fowl, she appears, by the fierceness of her beak and eye and the general truculency of her attitude, to threaten mischief to the inoffensive community; and especially to warn all citizens, careful of their safety, against intruding on the premises which she overshadows with her wings. Nevertheless, vixenly as she looks, many people are seeking, at this very moment, to shelter themselves under the wing of the federal eagle; imagining, I presume, that her bosom has all the softness and snugness of an eider-down pillow. But she has no great tenderness, even in her best of moods, and, sooner or later oftener soon than late is apt to fling off her nestlings with a scratch of her claw, a dab of her beak, or a rankling wound from her barbed arrows. The pavement round about the above-described edifice which we may as well name at once as the Custom-House of the port has grass enough growing in its chinks to show that it has not, of late days, been worn by any multitudinous resort of business. In some months of the year, however, there often chances a forenoon when affairs move onward with a livelier tread. Such occasions might remind the elderly citizen of that period, before the last war with England, 7 when Salem was a port by itself; not scorned, as she is now, by her own merchants and ship-owners, who permit her wharves to crumble to ruin, while their ventures go to swell, needlessly and imperceptibly, the mighty flood of commerce at New York or Boston. On some such morning, when three or four vessels happen to have arrived at once usually from Africa or South America or to be on the verge of their departure thitherward, there is a sound of frequent feet, passing briskly up and down the granite steps. Here, before his What does the narrator say about the nature of this eagle? How might the narrator s comments be related to Hawthorne s losing his job at the custom house? (See the biography on page iv.) 6. portico. Porch or covered walk 7. last war with England. Refers to the War of 1812 in fir mi ty (in f r mə tē) n., weakness truc u len cy (truk yo o lən cē) n., meanness, ferocity THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 3

22 What are the custom house officers like? Do the officers take their jobs seriously? How do you know this? own wife has greeted him, you may greet the sea-flushed ship-master, just in port, with his vessel s papers under his arm in a tarnished tin box. Here, too, comes his owner, cheerful or somber, gracious or in the sulks, accordingly as his scheme of the now accomplished voyage has been realized in merchandise that will readily be turned to gold, or has buried him under a bulk of incommodities, such as nobody will care to rid him of. Here, likewise the germ of the wrinkle-browed, grizzly-bearded, careworn merchant we have the smart young clerk, who gets the taste of traffic as a wolf-cub does of blood, and already sends adventures 8 in his master s ships, when he had better be sailing mimic boats upon a mill-pond. Another figure in the scene is the outwardbound sailor, in quest of a protection; or the recently arrived one, pale and feeble, seeking a passport to the hospital. Nor must we forget the captains of the rusty little schooners that bring firewood from the British provinces; a rough-looking set of tarpaulins, without the alertness of the Yankee aspect, but contributing an item of no slight importance to our decaying trade. Cluster all these individuals together, as they sometimes were, with other miscellaneous ones to diversify the group, and, for the time being, it made the Custom-House a stirring scene. More frequently, however, on ascending the steps, you would discern in the entry, if it were summer time, or in their appropriate rooms, if wintry or inclement weather a row of venerable figures, sitting in old-fashioned chairs, which were tipped on their hind legs back against the wall. Oftentimes they were asleep, but occasionally might be heard talking together, in voices between a speech and a snore, and with that lack of energy that distinguishes the occupants of alms-houses, 9 and all other human beings who depend for subsistence on charity, on monopolized labor, or anything else but their own independent exertions. These old gentlemen seated, like Matthew, at the receipt of custom, 10 but not very liable to be summoned thence, like him, for apostolic errands were Custom-House officers. 8. sends adventures. Young men who worked in shipping houses often invested some of their money in trading ventures. 9. alms-houses. Homes for poor, often elderly, people 10. Matthew... custom. Allusion to Matthew 9:9: And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith into him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. 4 THE SCARLET LETTER

23 Furthermore, on the left hand as you enter the front door, is a certain room or office, about fifteen feet square, and of a lofty height; with two of its arched windows commanding a view of the aforesaid dilapidated wharf, and the third looking across a narrow lane, and along a portion of Derby Street. All three give glimpses of the shops of grocers, block-makers, slop-sellers, 11 and ship-chandlers; around the doors of which are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts, 12 and such other wharf-rats as haunt the Wapping 13 of a seaport. The room itself is cobwebbed, and dingy with old paint; its floor is strewn with gray sand, in a fashion that has elsewhere fallen into long disuse; and it is easy to conclude, from the general slovenliness of the place, that this is a sanctuary into which womankind, with her tools of magic, the broom and mop, has very infrequent access. In the way of furniture, there is a stove with a voluminous funnel; an old pine desk, with a three-legged stool beside it; two or three wooden-bottom chairs, exceedingly decrepit and infirm; and not to forget the library on some shelves, a score or two of volumes of the Acts of Congress, and a bulky Digest of the Revenue Laws. A tin pipe ascends through the ceiling, and forms a medium of vocal communication with other parts of the edifice. And here, some six months ago pacing from corner to corner, or lounging on the long-legged stool, with his elbow on the desk, and his eyes wandering up and down the columns of the morning newspaper you might have recognized, honored reader, the same individual who welcomed you into his cheery little study, where the sunshine glimmered so pleasantly through the willow branches, on the western side of the Old Manse. But now, should you go thither to seek him, you would inquire in vain for the Locofoco 14 Surveyor. The besom 15 of reform has swept him out of office; and a worthier successor wears his dignity and pockets his emoluments. 16 This old town of Salem my native place, though I have dwelt much away from it, both in boyhood and maturer 11. slop-sellers. Clothing sellers 12. old salts. Old sailors 13. Wapping. Dockside area, named after the Wapping docking area of London 14. Loco-foco. Disparaging term once used for members of the Democratic party 15. besom. Broom 16. emoluments. Wages Who does the narrator say the reader might have found in the custom house six months before? Why doesn t the narrator work there any more? How does the narrator feel about his native place of Salem? vo lu mi nous (və lo o m ə nəs) adj., having a large capacity or interior area THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 5

24 What sentiment, or feeling, connects the narrator to the town of Salem? years possesses, or did possess, a hold on my affections, the force of which I have never realized during my seasons of actual residence here. Indeed, so far as its physical aspect is concerned, with its flat, unvaried surface, covered chiefly with wooden houses, few or none of which pretend to architectural beauty its irregularity, which is neither picturesque nor quaint, but only tame its long and lazy street, lounging wearisomely through the whole extent of the peninsula, with Gallows Hill and New Guinea 17 at one end, and a view of the alms-house at the other such being the features of my native town, it would be quite as reasonable to form a sentimental attachment to a disarranged checkerboard. And yet, though invariably happiest elsewhere, there is within me a feeling for old Salem, which, in lack of a better phrase, I must be content to call affection. The sentiment is probably assignable to the deep and aged roots which my family has struck into the soil. It is now nearly two centuries and a quarter since the original Briton, the earliest emigrant of my name, made his appearance in the wild and forest-bordered settlement, which has since become a city. And here his descendants have been born and died, and have mingled their earthly substance with the soil; until no small portion of it must necessarily be akin to the mortal frame wherewith, for a little while, I walk the streets. In part, therefore, the attachment which I speak of is the mere sensuous sympathy of dust for dust. Few of my countrymen can know what it is; nor, as frequent transplantation is perhaps better for the stock, need they consider it desirable to know. But the sentiment has likewise its moral quality. The figure of that first ancestor, invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur, was present to my boyish imagination, as far back as I can remember. It still haunts me, and induces a sort of home-feeling with the past, which I scarcely claim in reference to the present phase of the town. I seem to have a stronger claim to a residence here on account of this grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steeple-crowned progenitor 18 who came so early, with his Bible and his sword, and trode the unworn street with such a stately port, and made so large a figure, as a man of war and peace a stronger claim than for myself, whose name is seldom heard and my face hardly known. He was a soldier, legislator, judge; he was a ruler in the Church; he had all the Puritanic traits, both good and 17. Gallows Hill and New Guinea. Gallows Hill was the site of the hangings during the Salem witchcraft hysteria. New Guinea was the part of Salem where immigrants from southern Europe first settled. 18. progenitor. Ancestor 6 THE SCARLET LETTER

25 evil. He was likewise a bitter persecutor; as witness the Quakers, who have remembered him in their histories, and relate an incident of his hard severity towards a woman of their sect, which will last longer, it is to be feared, than any record of his better deeds, although these were many. His son, 19 too, inherited the persecuting spirit, and made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, 20 that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him. So deep a stain, indeed, that his dry old bones, in the Charter Street burial-ground, must still retain it, if they have not crumbled utterly to dust! I know not whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent, and ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties; or whether they are now groaning under the heavy consequences of them, in another state of being. At all events, I, the present writer, as their representative, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes, and pray that any curse incurred by them as I have heard, and as the dreary and unprosperous condition of the race, for many a long year back, would argue to exist may be now and henceforth removed. Doubtless, however, either of these stern and blackbrowed Puritans would have thought it quite a sufficient retribution for his sins, that, after so long a lapse of years, the old trunk of the family tree, with so much venerable moss upon it, should have borne, as its topmost bough, an idler like myself. No aim, that I have ever cherished, would they recognize as laudable; no success of mine if my life, beyond its domestic scope, had ever been brightened by success would they deem otherwise than worthless, if not positively disgraceful. What is he? murmurs one grey shadow of my forefathers to the other. A writer of story-books! What kind of business in life what mode of glorifying God, or being serviceable to mankind in his day and generation may that be? Why, the degenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler! Such are the compliments bandied between my great grandsires and myself, across the gulf of time! And yet, let them scorn me as they will, strong According to the narrator, what would his Puritan ancestors have thought of the narrator s devoting himself to writing? 19. His son. John Hathorne ( ), who persecuted the Quakers 20. martyrdom of the witches. Salem Witch Trials of 1692, in which 150 people were imprisoned and 20 people were executed con spic u ous (kən spik yo o əs) adj., noticeable THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 7

26 Does the narrator believe his family resided in Salem for so many years because they loved the town? Explain. traits of their nature have intertwined themselves with mine. Planted deep, in the town s earliest infancy and childhood, by these two earnest and energetic men, the race has ever since subsisted here; always, too, in respectability; never, so far as I have known, disgraced by a single unworthy member; but seldom or never, on the other hand, after the first two generations, performing any memorable deed, or so much as putting forward a claim to public notice. Gradually, they have sunk almost out of sight; as old houses, here and there about the streets, get covered half-way to the eaves by the accumulation of new soil. From father to son, for above a hundred years, they followed the sea; a grayheaded shipmaster, in each generation, retiring from the quarter-deck to the homestead, while a boy of fourteen took the hereditary place before the mast, confronting the salt spray and the gale, which had blustered against his sire and grandsire. The boy, also, in due time, passed from the forecastle to the cabin, spent a tempestuous manhood, and returned from his world-wanderings, to grow old, and die, and mingle his dust with the natal earth. This long connection of a family with one spot, as its place of birth and burial, creates a kindred between the human being and the locality, quite independent of any charm in the scenery or moral circumstances that surround him. It is not love, but instinct. The new inhabitant who came himself from a foreign land, or whose father or grandfather came has little claim to be called a Salemite; he has no conception of the oyster-like tenacity with which an old settler, over whom his third century is creeping, clings to the spot where his successive generations have been imbedded. It is no matter that the place is joyless for him; that he is weary of the old wooden houses, the mud and dust, the dead level of site and sentiment, the chill east wind, and the chillest of social atmospheres; all these, and whatever faults besides he may see or imagine, are nothing to the purpose. The spell survives, and just as powerfully as if the natal spot were an earthly paradise. So has it been in my case. I felt it almost as a destiny to make Salem my home; so that the 8 THE SCARLET LETTER ac cu mu la tion (ə kyo o m yo o lā shən) n., collection or pile that has increased over time tem pes tu ous (tem pes cho o əs) adj., violent, turbulent te nac i ty (tə nas ə tē) n., stubborn persistance

27 mold of features and cast of character which had all along been familiar here ever, as one representative of the race lay down in his grave, another assuming, as it were, his sentry-march along the Main Street might still in my little day be seen and recognized in the old town. Nevertheless, this very sentiment is an evidence that the connection, which has become an unhealthy one, should at last be severed. Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birth-places, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth. On emerging from the Old Manse, it was chiefly this strange, indolent, unjoyous attachment for my native town, that brought me to fill a place in Uncle Sam s brick edifice, when I might as well, or better, have gone somewhere else. My doom was on me. It was not the first time, nor the second, that I had gone away as it seemed, permanently but yet returned, like the bad half-penny; or as if Salem were for me the inevitable center of the universe. So, one fine morning, I ascended the flight of granite steps, with the President s commission 21 in my pocket, and was introduced to the corps of gentlemen who were to aid me in my weighty responsibility, as chief executive officer of the Custom-House. I doubt greatly or rather, I do not doubt at all whether any public functionary of the United States, either in the civil or military line, has ever had such a patriarchal body of veterans under his orders as myself. The whereabouts of the Oldest Inhabitant was at once settled, when I looked at them. upwards of twenty years before this epoch, the independent position of the Collector had kept the Salem Custom-House out of the whirlpool of political vicissitude, which makes the tenure of office generally so fragile. A soldier New England s most distinguished soldier he stood firmly on the pedestal of his gallant services; and, himself secure in the wise liberality of the successive administrations According to the narrator, under what circumstances will human nature fail to flourish? 21. President s commission. President James Polk appointed Hawthorne Surveyor. in do lent (in də lənt) adj., lazy; idle vi cis si tude (vi sis ə to o d ) n., change THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 9

28 Why did the narrator fire the two customs officers? Some civil service jobs, in Hawthorne s day and in our own, are political appointments. Does the narrator approve of this method of filling government positions? Why, or why not? through which he had held office, he had been the safety of his subordinates in many an hour of danger and heart-quake. General Miller was radically conservative; a man over whose kindly nature habit had no slight influence; attaching himself strongly to familiar faces, and with difficulty moved to change, even when change might have brought unquestionable improvement. Thus, on taking charge of my department, I found few but aged men. They were ancient seacaptains, for the most part, who, after being tost on every sea, and standing up sturdily against life s tempestuous blast, had finally drifted into this quiet nook; where, with little to disturb them, except the periodical terrors of a Presidential election, they one and all acquired a new lease of existence. Though by no means less liable than their fellowmen to age and infirmity, they had evidently some talisman or other that kept death at bay. Two or three of their number, as I was assured, being gouty and rheumatic, or perhaps bed-ridden, never dreamed of making their appearance at the Custom-House, during a large part of the year; but, after a torpid winter, would creep out into the warm sunshine of May or June, go lazily about what they termed duty, and, at their own leisure and convenience, betake themselves to bed again. I must plead guilty to the charge of abbreviating the official breath of more than one of these venerable servants of the republic. They were allowed, on my representation, to rest from their arduous labors, and soon afterwards as if their sole principle of life had been zeal for their country s service; as I verily believe it was withdrew to a better world. It is a pious consolation to me, that, through my interference, a sufficient space was allowed them for repentance of the evil and corrupt practices, into which, as a matter of course, every Custom-House officer must be supposed to fall. Neither the front nor the back entrance of the Custom- House opens on the road to Paradise. The greater part of my officers were Whigs. It was well for their venerable brotherhood, that the new Surveyor was not a politician, and, though a faithful Democrat in principle, neither received nor held his office with any reference to political services. Had it been otherwise had an active 10 THE SCARLET LETTER tor pid (tôr pid) adj., dormant, sluggish

29 politician been put into this influential post, to assume the easy task of making head against a Whig Collector, whose infirmities withheld him from the personal administration of his office hardly a man of the old corps would have drawn the breath of official life, within a month after the exterminating angel had come up the Custom-House steps. According to the received code in such matters, it would have been nothing short of duty, in a politician, to bring every one of those white heads under the ax of the guillotine. 22 It was plain enough to discern, that the old fellows dreaded some such discourtesy at my hands. It pained, and at the same time amused me, to behold the terrors that attended my advent, to see a furrowed cheek, weatherbeaten by half a century of storm, turn ashy pale at the glance of so harmless an individual as myself; to detect, as one or another addressed me, the tremor of a voice, which, in long-past days, had been wont to bellow through a speaking-trumpet, 23 hoarsely enough to frighten Boreas 24 himself to silence. They knew, these excellent old persons, that, by all established rule and, as regarded some of them, weighed by their own lack of efficiency for business they ought to have given place to younger men, more orthodox in politics, and altogether fitter than themselves to serve our common Uncle. I knew it too, but could never quite find in my heart to act upon the knowledge. Much and deservedly to my own discredit, therefore, and considerably to the detriment of my official conscience, they continued, during my incumbency, to creep about the wharves, and loiter up and down the Custom-House steps. They spent a good deal of time, also, asleep in their accustomed corners, with their chairs tilted back against the wall; awaking, however, once or twice in a forenoon, to bore one another with the several thousandth repetition of old sea-stories and moldy jokes, that had grown to be pass-words and countersigns among them. The discovery was soon made, I imagine, that the new Surveyor had no great harm in him. So, with lightsome hearts What is the received code among political appointees? What kept the narrator from acting according to the received code? 22. guillotine. Device used to behead persons convicted of capital offenses 23. speaking trumpet. Horn-shaped device used to magnify sound 24. Boreas. Greek god, a personification of the North Wind in cum ben cy (in kum bən sē) n., term of office THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 11