The Scarlet Letter

3 Pages 781 Words

The Scarlet Letter

Part two: Formal Literary Response
1.a. Identify and describe both the time and place of The Scarlet Letter.
The time and place of The Scarlet Letter is in, “…the good town of Boston,” Massachusetts, in the year 1850 (105). In the 1850’s people think differently of different things such as crime and life, a simpler time with simple thoughts and people.

1.b. Discuss how the setting contributes to the believability of the novel.
In The Scarlet Letter, the setting of Boston is surrounded by a, “… vast and dismal forest” (68). The story could of taken place in a different place that has bodies of water, a forest, and a town, that is near a peninsula, because the setting doesn’t play a major role in the story except when Hester and Pearl go into the forest, where Hester has a life-turning talk with Mr. Dimmesdale. The forest is like a dark and mysterious place where a dark creature, the “Black Man,” lives. The time, however, cannot be changed because the story deals with the beliefs of people from the 1850’s. For example people who committed adultery were killed for sinning, even the sinner’s children were killed, but now adultery isn’t punished by death, it usually results in divorce and childcare.

2.a What is Arthur’s objective? How does he go about achieving his objective? What obstacles get in his way? How does he overcome them?
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter Arthur Dimmesdale, and old minister, deals with the pain caused by his sin and dies in the end. Throughout the story Dimmesdale wants to get reed of the pain and misery caused by his sin. He gets reed of the pain by telling everyone about how he sinned with Hester, which takes away the burden on his heart. One major obstacle that gets in Dimmesdale’s way is Roger Chillingworth. Chillinworth tell Dimmesdale that he can help him, but Chillingworth makes the pain last longer. He overcomes his obstacles with...