English 241

American Literature to 1860

Spring 2003

For this discussion round, there are two start-off questions. Choose one and run with it. Please feel free, however, to take discussion in any direction you wish. If you wish to begin a thread, identify it in the subject header with ‘QUESTION’ and one of the course instructors will rush in shortly to enter the fray of debate.

This round will close tomorrow, March 26, at 5pm, when new questions will be posted in new conferences.

1. We have studied a series of Puritan texts in this course. Can you trace specific elements of Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter by comparing actual Puritan characters with the novel’s fictional characters (e.g. Anne Bradstreet/Hester Prynne, Edward Taylor/Arthur Dimmesdale, or Jonathan Edwards with the novel’s concept of a minister)? Indeed, how might Hawthorne himself be compared or contrasted with Jonathan Edwards?

2. Hester Prynne states, rather famously, “What we did had a consecration of its own.” Such a statement might be construed either as romantic individualism or as a Paine-esque declaration of personal freedom. And yet, while appreciating these possibilities, Hawthorne also writes a novel that appears to critique uninhibited personal liberty as much as he does a constrictive and hypocritical Puritan society. While we may view Hester Prynne as courageous, self-effacing and caring, Hawthorne does not write a novel that condones adultery. Because the law has been violated, censure finds expression alongside compassion. How do you think Hawthorne handles this balance between individualism and social law? Should he have written it differently?