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The African Queen(film)
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The African Queen
The-african-queen-1-.jpeg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
John Huston
Produced by
Sam Spiegel
John Woolf(uncredited)
Written by
C. S. Forester
Screenplay by
John Huston
James Agee
Peter Viertel
John Collier
Based on
The African Queen (novel)
Starring
Humphrey Bogart
Katharine Hepburn
Robert Morley
Music by
Allan Gray
Cinematography
Jack Cardiff
Editing by
Ralph Kemplen
Studio
Horizon Pictures
Romulus Films Ltd[1]
Distributed by
United Artists(US)
Independent Film Distributors (UK)
Release dates
December 23, 1951

Running time
105 minutes
Country
United States
United Kingdom
Language
English
Budget
$1 million[2]
Box office
$10,750,000[3]
The African Queenis a 1951 adventure filmadapted from the 1935 novel of the same nameby C. S. Forester.[4]The film was directed by John Hustonand produced by Sam Spiegel[5]and John Woolf. The screenplay was adapted by James Agee, John Huston, John Collierand Peter Viertel. It was photographed in Technicolorby Jack Cardiffand had a music score by Allan Gray. The film stars Humphrey Bogart(who won the Academy Award for Best Actor– his only Oscar), and Katharine Hepburnwith Robert Morley, Peter Bull, Walter Gotell, Richard Marnerand Theodore Bikel.[6]
The African Queenhas been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registryin 1994, with the Library of Congressdeeming it "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
The film currently holds a 100% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 37 reviews.[7]


Contents [hide]
1Plot
2Cast
3Production
4Premiere
5Awards and honours5.1Academy Awards
5.2Others
6Subsequent releases6.12009 digital restoration
7Adaptations to other media
8References8.1Notes
8.2Bibliography
9External links

Plot[edit]
Robert Morleyand Katharine Hepburnplay Samuel and Rose Sayer, brother and sister British Methodistmissionaries in the village of Kungdu in German East Africaat the beginning of World War Iin August/September 1914. Their mail and supplies are delivered by the rough-and-ready Canadianboat captain Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) of the African Queen, whose coarse behaviour they tolerate in a rather stiff manner.

The African Queen, Bogart.jpg


When Charlie warns them that war has broken out between Germanyand Britain, the Sayers choose to stay on, only to witness the Germans burning down the mission village and herding the villagers away. When Samuel protests, he is beaten by a German soldier. After the Germans leave, Samuel becomes delirious with fever and soon dies. Charlie returns shortly afterward. He helps Rose bury her brother, and they set off in the African Queen.
In discussing their situation, Charlie mentions to Rose that the Germans have a gunboat, the Queen Louisa(actually Königin Luisein German), which patrols a large lake downriver, effectively blocking any British counter-attacks. Rose comes up with a plan to convert the African Queeninto a torpedo boat, and sink the Queen Louisa. Charlie points out that navigating the riverwould be suicidal: to reach the lake they would have to pass a German fort and negotiate several dangerous rapids. But Rose is insistent and eventually persuades him to go along with the plan.
Charlie hoped after passing the first obstacle that Rose would be discouraged, but she is confident they can handle what is yet to come, and argues that Charlie promised to go all the way. During their journey down the river, Charlie, Rose and the African Queenencounter many obstacles, including the German fort and three sets of rapids. The first set of rapids is rather easy; they get through with minimal flooding in the boat. But Rose and Charlie have to duck down when they pass the fortress and the soldiers begin shooting at them, blowing two bullet holes in the top of the boiler and causing one of the steam pressure hoses to disconnect from the boiler, which in turn, causes the boat's engine to stop running. Luckily, Charlie manages to reattach the hose to the boiler just as they are about to enter the second set of rapids. The boat rolls and pitches crazily as it goes down the rapids, leading to more severe flooding in the boat and also collapsing the stern canopy.
While celebrating their success, the two find themselves in an embrace. Embarrassed, they break off, but eventually succumb and strike up a relationship. The couple decide to take a pit stop to gather more fuel and drain the boat. Back on the river, Charlie and Rose watch crocodiles frolic on the nearby river bank when the third set of rapids comes up. This time, there is a loud metallic clattering noise as the boat goes over the falls. Once again, the couple dock on the river bank to check for damage. When Charlie dives under the boat, he finds the propeller shaft bent sideways and a blade missing from the propeller. Luckily, with some expert skills and using suggestions from Rose, Charlie manages to straighten the shaft and weld a new blade on to the propeller, and they are off again.

The African Queen, Hepburn2.jpg


All appears lost when Charlie and Rose "lose the channel" and the boat becomes mired in the mud amid dense reeds near the mouth of the river. First, they try to tow the boat through the muck, only to have Charlie come out of the water covered with leeches. All their efforts to free the African Queenfail. With no supplies left and short of potable water, Rose and a feverish Charlie turn in, convinced they have no hope of survival. Before going to sleep Rose prays that she and Charlie be admitted into Heaven. As they sleep, exhausted and beaten, heavy rains raise the river's level and float the African Queenoff of the mud and into the lake which, it turns out, is just a short distance from their location. Once on the lake, they narrowly avoid being spotted by the Queen Louisa.
That night, they set about converting some oxygencylinders into torpedoes using gelatin explosivesand improvised detonators that use nails as the firing pins for rifle cartridges. They then attach the torpedoes through the bow of the African Queen, to be used as improvised Spar torpedoes. At the height of a storm, they push the African Queenout onto the lake, intending to set it on a collision course with the Queen Louisa. Unfortunately, the holes in the bow in which the torpedoes were pushed through are not sealed, allowing water to pour into the boat, causing it to sink lower and eventually the African Queentips over.
Charlie is captured and taken aboard the Queen Louisa, where he is questioned by the captain. Believing Rose to have drowned, he makes no attempt to defend himself against accusations of spying and is sentenced to death by hanging. However, Rose is captured too and Charlie hollers her name, then pretends not to know her. The captain questions her, and Rose confesses the whole plot proudly, deciding they have nothing to lose anyway. The captain sentences her too to be executed as a spy. Charlie asks the German captain to marry them before executing them. After a brief marriage ceremony, the Germans prepare to hang them, when there is a sudden explosion and the Queen Louisastarts to sink. The Queen Louisahas struck the overturned hull of the African Queenand detonated the torpedoes. Rose's plan has worked, if a little belatedly, and the newly married couple swim to safety in Kenya.
Cast[edit]
Humphrey Bogartas Charlie Allnut
Katharine Hepburnas Rose Sayer
Robert Morleyas Rev. Samuel Sayer
Peter Bullas Captain of Louisa
Theodore Bikelas the First Officer
Walter Gotellas the Second Officer
Peter Swanwickas the First Officer of Shona
Richard Marneras the Second Officer of Shona
Production[edit]




Hepburn and Bogart in a publicity still for the film.

File:The African Queen - trailer.ogv


Movie trailer
Production censors objected to several aspects of the original script, which included the two characters cohabiting without the formality of marriage. Some changes were made before the film was completed.[8]Another change followed the casting of Bogart; his character's lines in the original screenplay were rendered with a thick Cockneydialect but the script had to be completely rewritten because the actor was unable to reproduce it.
The film was partially financed by John and James Woolfof Romulus Films, a British company. The Woolf brothers provided £250,000[9]and were so pleased with the completed movie that they talked John Huston into directing their next picture, Moulin Rouge(1952).
Much of the film was shot on location in Uganda and the Congo in Africa. This was rather novel for the time, especially for a technicolor picture which utilized large unwieldy cameras. The cast and crew endured sickness, and spartan living conditions during their time on location. In one scene, Hepburn was playing an organ but had a bucket nearby because she was often sick between takes. Bogart later bragged that he was the only one to escape illness, which he credited to not drinking any water on location, but instead fortifying himself from the large supply of whiskey he had brought along with him.[citation needed]
About half of the film was shot in England. For instance, the scenes in which Bogart and Hepburn are seen in the water were all shot in studio tanks at Isleworth Studios, Middlesex. These scenes were considered too dangerous to shoot in Africa. All of the foreground plates for the process shots were also done in studio.[10]
The scenes in the reed-filled riverbank were filmed in Dalyan, Turkey.[11]
Most of the action takes place aboard a boat – the African Queenof the title – and scenes on board the boat were filmed using a large raft with a mockup of the boat on top. Sections of the boat set could be removed to make room for the large Technicolor camera. This proved hazardous on one occasion when the boat's boiler – a heavy copper replica – almost fell on Hepburn. It was not bolted down because it also had to be moved to accommodate the camera. The small steam-boat used in the film to depict the African Queenwas built in 1912, in England, for service in Africa. At one time it was owned by actor Fess Parker.[12]In December 2011, plans were announced to restore the boat.[13]Restoration was completed by the following April and the African Queen is now on displayas a tourist attractionat Key Largo, Florida.[14]
Because of the dangers involved with shooting the rapid scenes, a model was created at the studio tank in London.
The German gunboat in the film, the Königin Luise, was inspired by the former World War I vessel MV Liemba(known until 1924 as the Goetzen[15]), which was scuttled in 1916 during the Battle for Lake Tanganyika, but was subsequently refloated by the British and continues to operate as a passenger ferry to this day. The actual vessel used in the film to portray the Louisawas the steam tug Buganda, owned and operated on Lake Victoria by East African Railways & Harbours.
Premiere[edit]
The African Queenopened on December 23, 1951 in Los Angeles, in order to qualify for the 1951 Oscars, and on February 20, 1952 at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.
The film earned an estimated £256,267 at UK cinemas in 1952,[16]making it the 11th most popular movie of the year.[17]It earned an estimated $4 million at the US and Canadian box office.[18]
Awards and honours[edit]
Academy Awards[edit]

Won
Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Humphrey Bogart
Nominated
Best Actress in a Leading Role Katharine Hepburn
Best Adapted Screenplay James Agee
John Huston
Best Director John Huston
Others[edit]
American Film Instituterecognition
1998 – AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies– #17
2002 – AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions– #14
2006 – AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers– #48
2007 – AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)– #65
AFI has also honored both Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn as the greatest American screen legends.
Subsequent releases[edit]
The film has been released on Region 2 DVD in the United Kingdom, Germanyand Scandinavia.
The British DVD includes a theatrical trailerand an audio commentaryby cinematographer Cardiff in which he details many of the hardships and challenges involved in filming in Africa.
Prior to 2010, the film had been released in the United States on VHS video, laserdisc and as a region 1 DVD. Region 1 and Region All DVDs are available and distributed by The Castaways Pictures, and have English and Chinese subtitles available with no other features. It is not clear if these are authorized or not.
2009 digital restoration[edit]
In 2009, Paramount Pictures(the current owner of the US rights) completed restoration work for region 1 and a 4K digitally restored version was issued on DVD and Blu-ray March 23, 2010. The film was restored in its original mono soundtrack from original UK film elements under the sole supervision of Paramount, and had as an extra a documentary on the film's production, Embracing Chaos: The Making of The African Queen. According to Ron Smith, vice president of restoration for Paramount Pictures, the major factor that led to the holdup were difficulties locating the original negative.[19]Romulus Films and international rights holder ITV Global Entertainment were acknowledged in the restoration credits.
ITV released the restoration in Region 2 on June 14, 2010.
Adaptations to other media[edit]
The African Queenwas adapted as a one-hour radio play on the December 15, 1952 broadcast of Lux Radio Theaterwith Humphrey Bogart reprising his film role and joined by Greer Garson. This broadcast is included as a bonus CD in the Commemorative Box Set version of the Paramount DVD.
An elliptic commentary on the making of The African Queencan be found in the 1990 film White Hunter Black Heart, directed by Clint Eastwood.
References[edit]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^"Company Information". movies.nytimes.com. Retrieved October 3, 2010.
2.Jump up ^Rudy Behlmer, Behind the Scenes, Samuel French, 1990 p 239
3.Jump up ^Box Office Information for The African Queen. The Numbers. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
4.Jump up ^"The African Queen (1951)". Reel Classics. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
5.Jump up ^Spiegel was billed as "S.P. Eagle".
6.Jump up ^"'The African Queen' - Bogart, Hepburn and the Little Boat That Could". About.com. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
7.Jump up ^"The African Queen (1951)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 13, 2011.
8.Jump up ^Censored Films and Television at University of Virginia online
9.Jump up ^Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company The Changed the Film Industry, Uni of Wisconsin Press, 1987 p 46
10.Jump up ^Embracing Chaos: Making ‘The African Queen' a documentary film
11.Jump up ^http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043265/
12.Jump up ^http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Interviews/Parker/interview_fess_parker.htm
13.Jump up ^"African Queen boat to be restored". BBC News. December 9, 2011.
14.Jump up ^"The African Queen sets sail again". CBS News. April 13, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
15.Jump up ^http://edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2001/8010385/original/Bild.jpg
16.Jump up ^Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p495
17.Jump up ^"COMEDIAN TOPS FILM POLL.". The Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1949 - 1953)(Sydney, NSW: National Library of Australia). 28 December 1952. p. 4. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
18.Jump up ^'Top Box-Office Hits of 1952', Variety, January 7, 1953
19.Jump up ^Chaney, Jen (March 26, 2010). "'The African Queen' new on DVD after more than 50 years". The Washington Post.
Bibliography[edit]
Farwell, Byron. The Great War in Africa, 1914–1918. 2nd ed. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989.
Foden, Giles (2005). "Mimi and Toutou Go Forth: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika". Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-14-100984-5
Hagberg Wright, C.T."German Methods of Development in Africa." Journal of the Royal African Society1.1 (1901): 23–38. Historical. J-Stor. Golden Library, ENMU. 18 April. 2005 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0368-4016%28190110%291%3A1%3C23%3AGMODIA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L
Henderson, William Otto. The German Colonial Empire. Portland: International Specialized Book Services, Inc, 1993.
Hepburn, Katharine(1987). The Making of the African Queen, or: How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind(Knopf)
Werner, A, and R Dilthey. "German and British Colonisation in Africa." Journal of the Royal African Society4.14 (1905): 238–41. Historical. J-Stor. Golden Library, ENMU. 18 April. 2005.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to The African Queen.
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The African Queen (film)
The African Queenat the Internet Movie Database
The African Queenat the TCM Movie Database
The African Queen (film)at allmovie
The African Queenat the American Film Institute Catalog
The African Queen
The African Queenon Lux Radio Theater: December 15, 1952


[hide]
v·
t·
e

Films directed by John Huston


1940s
The Maltese Falcon(1941)·
In This Our Life(1942)·
Across the Pacific(1942)·
Report from the Aleutians(1943)·
The Battle of San Pietro(1945)·
Let There Be Light(1946)·
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre(1948)·
Key Largo(1948)·
We Were Strangers(1949)


1950s
The Asphalt Jungle(1950)·
The Red Badge of Courage(1951)·
The African Queen(1951)·
Moulin Rouge(1952)·
Beat the Devil(1953)·
Moby Dick(1956)·
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison(1957)·
The Barbarian and the Geisha(1958)·
The Roots of Heaven(1958)


1960s
The Unforgiven(1960)·
The Misfits(1961)·
Freud: The Secret Passion(1962)·
The List of Adrian Messenger(1963)·
The Night of the Iguana(1964)·
The Bible: In the Beginning(1966)·
Casino Royale(1967)·
Reflections in a Golden Eye(1967)·
Sinful Davey(1969)·
A Walk with Love and Death(1969)


1970s
The Kremlin Letter(1970)·
Fat City(1972)·
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean(1972)·
The Mackintosh Man(1973)·
The Man Who Would Be King(1975)·
Independence(1976)·
Wise Blood(1979)


1980s
Phobia(1980)·
Victory(1981)·
Annie(1982)·
Under the Volcano(1984)·
Prizzi's Honor(1985)·
The Dead(1987)





Categories: 1951 films
English-language films
American films
British films
1950s adventure films
Films based on novels
Films based on romance novels
Films directed by John Huston
Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award winning performance
Films set in 1914
American drama films
Films set in Africa
1950s romance films
Films set in Tanzania
Films shot in Technicolor
Films shot in the United Kingdom
Films shot in Uganda
Horizon Pictures films
Swahili-language films
United Artists films
United States National Film Registry films
World War I films set in Africa
World War I naval films
Films shot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo








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The African Queen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from African Queen)
Jump to: navigation, search

The African Queen may refer to:
The African Queen (novel), a 1935 novel by C.S. Forester
The African Queen (film), a 1951 film adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn
African Queen (boat), the vessel used in the film
"African Queen" (song), a song by 2face Idibia from Face 2 Face
"African Queen", a song by Belgian pop group Allez Allez
"African Queen", a version of Billy Ocean's song "Caribbean Queen"
African Queen, a cultivar of Osteospermum, a member of the sunflower family
Disambiguation icon This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
 


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This page was last modified on 27 September 2013 at 13:42.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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The African Queen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from African Queen)
Jump to: navigation, search

The African Queen may refer to:
The African Queen (novel), a 1935 novel by C.S. Forester
The African Queen (film), a 1951 film adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn
African Queen (boat), the vessel used in the film
"African Queen" (song), a song by 2face Idibia from Face 2 Face
"African Queen", a song by Belgian pop group Allez Allez
"African Queen", a version of Billy Ocean's song "Caribbean Queen"
African Queen, a cultivar of Osteospermum, a member of the sunflower family
Disambiguation icon This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
 


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This page was last modified on 27 September 2013 at 13:42.
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The Scarlet Letter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Not to be confused with The Scarlet Letters.
For other uses, see Scarlet Letter (disambiguation).

The Scarlet Letter
Title page for The Scarlet Letter.jpg
Title page, first edition, 1850

Author
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Genre
Romantic, Historical
Publisher
Ticknor, Reed & Fields
Publication date
1850
Pages
180
The Scarlet Letteris an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus.[1]Set in 17th-century PuritanBoston, Massachusettsduring the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentanceand dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.


Contents [hide]
1Plot
2Major themes2.1Sin
2.2Puritan legalism
3Publication history
4Critical response
5Allusions
6In popular culture
7See also
8References8.1Notes
8.2Bibliography
9External links

Plot[edit]
In June 1642, in the Puritan town of Boston, a crowd gathers to witness an official punishment. A young woman, Hester Prynne, has been found guilty of adultery and must wear a scarlet "A", ('A' is a symbol of adultery and affair) on her dress as a sign of shame. Furthermore, she must stand on the scaffold for three hours, exposed to public humiliation. As Hester approaches the scaffold, many of the women in the crowd are angered by her beauty and quiet dignity. When demanded and cajoled to name the father of her child, Hester refuses.
As Hester looks out over the crowd, she notices a small, misshapen man and recognizes him as her long-lost husband, who has been presumed lost at sea. When the husband sees Hester's shame, he asks a man in the crowd about her and is told the story of his wife's adultery. He angrily exclaims that the child's father, the partner in the adulterous act, should also be punished and vows to find the man. He chooses a new name – Roger Chillingworth – to aid him in his plan.
Reverend John Wilson and the minister of her church, Arthur Dimmesdale, question Hester, but she refuses to name her lover. After she returns to her prison cell, the jailer brings in Roger Chillingworth, a physician, to calm Hester and her child with his roots and herbs. Dismissing the jailer, Chillingworth first treats Pearl, Hester's baby, and then demands to know the name of the child's father. When Hester refuses, he insists that she never reveal that he is her husband. If she ever does so, he warns her, he will destroy the child's father. Hester agrees to Chillingworth's terms even though she suspects she will regret it.
Following her release from prison, Hester settles in a cottage at the edge of town and earns a meager living with her needlework. She lives a quiet, somber life with her daughter, Pearl. She is troubled by her daughter's unusual character. As an infant, Pearl is fascinated by the scarlet "A". As she grows older, Pearl becomes capricious and unruly. Her conduct starts rumors, and, not surprisingly, the church members suggest Pearl be taken away from Hester.
Hester, hearing the rumors that she may lose Pearl, goes to speak to Governor Bellingham. With him are Reverends Wilson and Dimmesdale. When Wilson questions Pearl about her catechism, she refuses to answer, even though she knows the correct response, thus jeopardizing her guardianship. Hester appeals to Reverend Dimmesdale in desperation, and the minister persuades the governor to let Pearl remain in Hester's care.
Because Reverend Dimmesdale's health has begun to fail, the townspeople are happy to have Chillingworth, a newly arrived physician, take up lodgings with their beloved minister. Being in such close contact with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth begins to suspect that the minister's illness is the result of some unconfessed guilt. He applies psychological pressure to the minister because he suspects Dimmesdale to be Pearl's father. One evening, pulling the sleeping Dimmesdale's vestment aside, Chillingworth sees a symbol that represents his shame on the sleeping minister's pale chest.
Tormented by his guilty conscience, Dimmesdale goes to the square where Hester was punished years earlier. Climbing the scaffold, he sees Hester and Pearl and calls to them to join him. He admits his guilt to them but cannot find the courage to do so publicly. Suddenly Dimmesdale sees a meteor forming what appears to be a gigantic A in the sky; simultaneously, Pearl points toward the shadowy figure of Roger Chillingworth. Hester, shocked by Dimmesdale's deterioration, decides to obtain a release from her vow of silence to her husband. In her discussion of this with Chillingworth, she tells him his obsession with revenge must be stopped in order to save his own soul.
Several days later, Hester meets Dimmesdale in the forest, where she removes the scarlet letter from her dress and identifies her husband and his desire for revenge. In this conversation, she convinces Dimmesdale to leave Boston in secret on a ship to Europe where they can start life anew. Renewed by this plan, the minister seems to gain new energy. Pearl, however, refuses to acknowledge either of them until Hester replaces her symbol of shame on her dress.
Returning to town, Dimmesdale loses heart in their plan: He has become a changed man and knows he is dying. Meanwhile, Hester is informed by the captain of the ship on which she arranged passage that Roger Chillingworth will also be a passenger.
On Election Day, Dimmesdale gives what is declared to be one of his most inspired sermons. But as the procession leaves the church, Dimmesdale stumbles and almost falls. Seeing Hester and Pearl in the crowd watching the parade, he climbs upon the scaffold and confesses his sin, dying in Hester's arms. Later, witnesses swear that they saw a stigma in the form of a scarlet "A" upon his chest. Chillingworth, losing his will for revenge, dies shortly thereafter and leaves Pearl a great deal of money. It is hinted that Pearl uses this money to travel to Europe, and possibly gets married.
Several years later, Hester returns to her cottage, resumes wearing the scarlet letter, and offers solace to women in similar positions. When she dies, she is buried near the grave of Dimmesdale, and they share a simple slate tombstone with a scarlet "A".
Major themes[edit]
Sin[edit]
The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Evebecause, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge – specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be immoral. For Hester, the Scarlet Letter is a physical manifestation of her sin and reminder of her painful solitude. She contemplates casting it off to obtain her freedom from an oppressive society and a checkered past as well as the absence of God. Because the society excludes her, she considers the possibility that many of the traditions held up by the Puritan culture are untrue and are not designed to bring her happiness.
As for Dimmesdale, the "cheating minister", his sin gives him "sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his chest vibrate[s] in unison with theirs." His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy.[2]The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and most fully authorized principles in Christianthought. His "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity but he ends in corruption. The subtlety is that the minister's belief is his own cheating, convincing himself at every stage of his spiritual pilgrimagethat he is saved.[3]
The rose bush, its beauty a striking contrast to all that surrounds it – as later the beautifully embroidered scarlet "A" will be held out in part as an invitation to find "some sweet moral blossom" in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that "the deep heart of nature" (perhaps God) may look more kind on the errant Hester and her child than her Puritan neighbors do. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.[4]
Chillingworth's misshapen body reflects (or symbolizes) the anger in his soul, which builds as the novel progresses, similar to the way Dimmesdale's illness reveals his inner turmoil. The outward man reflects the condition of the heart; an observation thought to be inspired by the deterioration of Edgar Allan Poe, whom Hawthorne "much admired".[4]
Although Pearl is a complex character, her primary function within the novel is as a symbol. Pearl herself is the embodiment of the scarlet letter, and Hester rightly clothes her in a beautiful dress of scarlet, embroidered with gold thread, just like the scarlet letter upon Hester's bosom.[2]
Puritan legalism[edit]
Another theme is the extreme legalism of the Puritans and how Hester chooses not to conform to their rules and beliefs. Hester was rejected by the villagers even though she spent her life doing what she could to help the sick and the poor. Because they rejected her, she spent her life mostly in solitude, and wouldn't go to church.
As a result, she retreats into her own mind and her own thinking. Her thoughts begin to stretch and go beyond what would be considered by the Puritans as safe or even Christian. She still sees her sin, but begins to look on it differently than the villagers ever have. She begins to believe that a person's earthly sins don't necessarily condemn them. She even goes so far as to tell Dimmesdale that their sin has been paid for by their daily penance and that their sin won't keep them from getting to heaven, however, the Puritans believed that such a sin surely condemns.
But Hester had been alienated from the Puritan society, both in her physical life and spiritual life. When Dimmesdale dies, she knows she has to move on because she can no longer conform to the Puritans' strictness. Her thinking is free from religious bounds and she has established her own different moral standards and beliefs.[2]
Publication history[edit]




Hester Prynne at the stocks- an engraved illustration from an 1878 edition.
It was long thought that Hawthorne originally planned The Scarlet Letterto be a shorter novelettewhich was part of a collection to be named Old Time Legendsand that his publisher, James Thomas Fields, convinced him to expand the work to a full-length novel.[5]This is not true: Fields persuaded Hawthorne to publish The Scarlet Letteralone (along with the earlier-completed "Custom House" essay) but he had nothing to do with the length of the story.[6]Hawthorne's wife Sophialater challenged Fields' claims a little inexactly: "he has made the absurd boast that hewas the sole cause of the Scarlet Letter being published!" She noted that her husband's friend Edwin Percy Whipple, a critic, approached Fields to consider its publication.[7]The manuscript was written at the Peter Edgerley House in Salem, Massachusetts, still standing as a private residence at 14 Mall Street. It was the last Salem home where the Hawthorne family lived.[8]
The Scarlet Letterwas published as a novel in the spring of 1850 by Ticknor & Fields, beginning Hawthorne's most lucrative period.[9]When he delivered the final pages to Fields in February 1850, Hawthorne said that "some portions of the book are powerfully written" but doubted it would be popular.[10]In fact, the book was an instant best-seller[11]though, over fourteen years, it brought its author only $1,500.[9]Its initial publication brought wide protest from natives of Salem, who did not approve of how Hawthorne had depicted them in his introduction "The Custom-House". A 2,500-copy second edition of The Scarlet Letterincluded a preface by Hawthorne dated March 30, 1850, that stated he had decided to reprint his introduction "without the change of a word... The only remarkable features of the sketch are its frank and genuine good-humor... As to enmity, or ill-feeling of any kind, personal or political, he utterly disclaims such motives".[12]
The Scarlet Letterwas also one of the first mass-produced books in America. Into the mid-nineteenth century, bookbinders of home-grown literature typically hand-made their books and sold them in small quantities. The first mechanized printing of The Scarlet Letter, 2,500 volumes, sold out within ten days,[9]and was widely read and discussed to an extent not much experienced in the young country up until that time. Copies of the first edition are often sought by collectors as rare books, and may fetch up to around $18,000 USD.
Critical response[edit]
On its publication, critic Evert Augustus Duyckinck, a friend of Hawthorne's, said he preferred the author's Washington Irving-like tales. Another friend, critic Edwin Percy Whipple, objected to the novel's "morbid intensity" with dense psychological details, writing that the book "is therefore apt to become, like Hawthorne, too painfully anatomical in his exhibition of them".[13]Most literary critics praised the book but religious leaders took issue with the novel's subject matter.[14]Orestes Brownsoncomplained that Hawthorne did not understand Christianity, confession, and remorse.[15]A review in The Church Review and Ecclesiastical Registerconcluded the author "perpetrates bad morals."[16]
On the other hand, 20th century writer D. H. Lawrencesaid that there could be not be a more perfect work of the American imagination than The Scarlet Letter.[17]Henry Jamesonce said of the novel, "It is beautiful, admirable, extraordinary; it has in the highest degree that merit which I have spoken of as the mark of Hawthorne's best things—an indefinable purity and lightness of conception...One can often return to it; it supports familiarity and has the inexhaustible charm and mystery of great works of art."[18][19]
The book's immediate and lasting success are due to the way it addresses spiritual and moral issues from a uniquely American standpoint.[citation needed]In 1850, adultery was an extremely risquésubject, but because Hawthorne had the support of the New England literary establishment, it passed easily into the realm of appropriate reading. It has been said[who?]that this work represents the height of Hawthorne's literary genius, dense with terse descriptions. It remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth, and continues to be read as a classic tale on a universal theme.[20]
Allusions[edit]
The following are historical and Biblical references that appear in The Scarlet Letter.
Anne Hutchinson, mentioned in Chapter 1, The Prison Door, was a religious dissenter (1591–1643). In the 1630s she was excommunicated by the Puritansand exiled from Bostonand moved to Rhode Island.[4]
Ann Hibbins, who historically was executed for witchcraft in Boston in 1656, is depicted in The Scarlet Letteras a witch who tries to tempt Prynne to the practice of witchcraft.[21][22]
Richard Bellingham, who historically was the governor of Massachusetts and deputy governor at the time of Hibbins's execution, was depicted in The Scarlet Letteras the brother of Ann Hibbins.
Martin Luther(1483–1545) was a leader of the Protestant Reformationin Germany.
Sir Thomas Overburyand Dr. Forman were the subjects of an adultery scandal in 1615 in England. Dr. Forman was charged with trying to poison his adulterous wife and her lover. Overbury was a friend of the lover and was perhaps poisoned.
John Winthrop(1588–1649), second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
King's Chapel Burying Ground, mentioned in the final paragraph, exists; the Elizabeth Paingravestone is traditionally considered an inspiration for the protagonists' grave.
The story of King Davidand Bathshebais depicted in the tapestry in Mr. Dimmesdale's room (chapter 9). (See II Samuel 11-12for the Biblical story.)
In popular culture[edit]
See also: Film adaptations of The Scarlet Letter and The Scarlet Letter in popular culture
The Scarlet Letterhas been adapted to numerous films, plays and operas and remains frequently referenced in modern popular culture. The plot of the novel The Brooklyn Folliesby Paul Auster revolves around the manuscript of The Scarlet Letter.
See also[edit]

Portal icon Novels portal
Boston in fiction
Colonial history of the United States
Illegitimacy in fiction
References[edit]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^"Sinner, Victim, Object, Winner | ANCHORS: JACKI LYDEN". National Public Radio (NPR). March 2, 2008, Sunday. SHOW: Weekend All Things Considered.(quote in article refers to it as his "masterwork", listen to the audio to hear it the original reference to it being his "magnum opus")
2.^ Jump up to: abc"The Scarlet Letter". Sparknotes. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
3.Jump up ^Davidson, E.H. 1963. Dimmesdale's Fall. The New England Quarterly36: 358–370
4.^ Jump up to: abcThe Scarlet Letterby Nathaniel Hawthorne - CliffNotes from Yahoo!Education[dead link]
5.Jump up ^Charvat, William. Literary Publishing in America: 1790–1850. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1993 (first published 1959): 56. ISBN 0-87023-801-9
6.Jump up ^Parker, Hershel. "The Germ Theory of THE SCARLET LETTER," Hawthorne Society Newsletter 11 (Spring 1985) 11-13.
7.Jump up ^Wineapple, Brenda. Hawthorne: A Life. Random House: New York, 2003: 209–210. ISBN 0-8129-7291-0.
8.Jump up ^Wright, John Hardy. Hawthorne's Haunts in New England. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2008: 47. ISBN 978-1-59629-425-7.
9.^ Jump up to: abcMcFarland, Philip. Hawthorne in Concord. New York: Grove Press, 2004: 136. ISBN 0-8021-1776-7
10.Jump up ^Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 299. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
11.Jump up ^Cheevers, Susan (2006). American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work. Detroit: Thorndike Press. Large print edition. p. 181. ISBN 0-7862-9521-X
12.Jump up ^Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 301. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
13.Jump up ^Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 301–302. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
14.Jump up ^Schreiner, Samuel A., Jr. The Concord Quartet: Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and the Friendship That Freed the American Mind. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006: 158. ISBN 978-0-471-64663-1
15.Jump up ^Crowley, J. Donald, and Orestes Brownson. Chapter 50: [Orestes Brownson], From A Review In Brownson's Quarterly Review." Nathaniel Hawthorne (0-415-15930-X) (1997): 175-179. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 11 Oct. 2013.
16.Jump up ^Wineapple, Brenda. Hawthorne: A Life. Random House: New York, 2003: 217. ISBN 0-8129-7291-0.
17.Jump up ^Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 284. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
18.Jump up ^Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 284. ISBN 0-87745-33, 20th century writer D. 2-2
19.Jump up ^James, Henry (1901). "it+has+in+the+highest+degree+that+merit" Hawthorne. Harper. pp. 108, 116. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
20.Jump up ^"The Classic Text: Traditions and Interpretations". Uwm.edu. 2001-10-09. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
21.Jump up ^Schwab, Gabriele. The mirror and the killer-queen: otherness in literary language.Indiana University Press. 1996. Pg. 120.
22.Jump up ^Hunter, Dianne, Seduction and theory: readings of gender, representation, and rhetoric.University of Illinois Press. 1989. Pgs. 186-187
Bibliography[edit]
Brodhead, Richard H. Hawthorne, Melville, and the Novel. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1973.
Brown, Gillian. "'Hawthorne, Inheritance, and Women's Property", Studies in the Novel23.1 (Spring 1991): 107-18.
Cañadas, Ivan. "A New Source for the Title and Some Themes in The Scarlet Letter". Nathaniel Hawthorne Review32.1 (Spring 2006): 43–51.
Korobkin, Laura Haft. "The Scarlet Letter of the Law: Hawthorne and Criminal Justice". Novel: a Forum on Fiction30.2 (Winter 1997): 193–217.
Gartner, Matthew. "The Scarlet Letterand the Book of Esther: Scriptural Letter and Narrative Life". Studies in American Fiction23.2 (Fall 1995): 131-51.
Newberry, Frederick. Tradition and Disinheritance inThe Scarlet Letter".ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance 23 (1977), 1–26; repr. in:The Scarlet Letter. W. W. Norton, 1988: pp. 231-48.
Reid, Alfred S. Sir Thomas Overbury's Vision (1616) and Other English Sources of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter. Gainesville, FL: Scholar's Facsimiles and Reprints, 1957.
Reid, Bethany. "Narrative of the Captivity and Redemption of Roger Prynne: Rereading The Scarlet Letter". Studies in the Novel33.3 (Fall 2001): 247-67.
Ryskamp, Charles. "The New England Sources of The Scarlet Letter". American Literature31 (1959): 257–72; repr. in: "The Scarlet Letter", 3rd edn. Norton, 1988: 191–204.
Savoy, Eric. "'Filial Duty': Reading the Patriarchal Body in 'The Custom House'". Studies in the Novel25.4 (Winter 1993): 397–427.
Sohn, Jeonghee. Rereading Hawthorne's Romance: The Problematics of Happy Endings. American Studies Monograph Series, 26. Seoul: American Studies Institute, Seoul National University, 2001; 2002.
Stewart, Randall (Ed.) The American Notebooks of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Based upon the original Manuscripts in the Piermont Morgan Library. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1932.
Waggoner, Hyatt H. Hawthorne: A Critical Study, 3rd edn. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.
External links[edit]
 Wikisourcehas original text related to this article:
The Scarlet Letter

 Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Scarlet Letter.
Hawthorne in Salem Website Page on Hester and Pearl in The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letterat Project Gutenberg
D. H. Lawrence - Studies in Classic American Literature - Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter
LibriVox Recording of The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter Review


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The Scarlet Letter
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Not to be confused with The Scarlet Letters.
For other uses, see Scarlet Letter (disambiguation).

The Scarlet Letter
Title page for The Scarlet Letter.jpg
Title page, first edition, 1850

Author
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Genre
Romantic, Historical
Publisher
Ticknor, Reed & Fields
Publication date
1850
Pages
180
The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus.[1] Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Major themes 2.1 Sin
2.2 Puritan legalism
3 Publication history
4 Critical response
5 Allusions
6 In popular culture
7 See also
8 References 8.1 Notes
8.2 Bibliography
9 External links

Plot[edit]
In June 1642, in the Puritan town of Boston, a crowd gathers to witness an official punishment. A young woman, Hester Prynne, has been found guilty of adultery and must wear a scarlet "A", ('A' is a symbol of adultery and affair) on her dress as a sign of shame. Furthermore, she must stand on the scaffold for three hours, exposed to public humiliation. As Hester approaches the scaffold, many of the women in the crowd are angered by her beauty and quiet dignity. When demanded and cajoled to name the father of her child, Hester refuses.
As Hester looks out over the crowd, she notices a small, misshapen man and recognizes him as her long-lost husband, who has been presumed lost at sea. When the husband sees Hester's shame, he asks a man in the crowd about her and is told the story of his wife's adultery. He angrily exclaims that the child's father, the partner in the adulterous act, should also be punished and vows to find the man. He chooses a new name – Roger Chillingworth – to aid him in his plan.
Reverend John Wilson and the minister of her church, Arthur Dimmesdale, question Hester, but she refuses to name her lover. After she returns to her prison cell, the jailer brings in Roger Chillingworth, a physician, to calm Hester and her child with his roots and herbs. Dismissing the jailer, Chillingworth first treats Pearl, Hester's baby, and then demands to know the name of the child's father. When Hester refuses, he insists that she never reveal that he is her husband. If she ever does so, he warns her, he will destroy the child's father. Hester agrees to Chillingworth's terms even though she suspects she will regret it.
Following her release from prison, Hester settles in a cottage at the edge of town and earns a meager living with her needlework. She lives a quiet, somber life with her daughter, Pearl. She is troubled by her daughter's unusual character. As an infant, Pearl is fascinated by the scarlet "A". As she grows older, Pearl becomes capricious and unruly. Her conduct starts rumors, and, not surprisingly, the church members suggest Pearl be taken away from Hester.
Hester, hearing the rumors that she may lose Pearl, goes to speak to Governor Bellingham. With him are Reverends Wilson and Dimmesdale. When Wilson questions Pearl about her catechism, she refuses to answer, even though she knows the correct response, thus jeopardizing her guardianship. Hester appeals to Reverend Dimmesdale in desperation, and the minister persuades the governor to let Pearl remain in Hester's care.
Because Reverend Dimmesdale's health has begun to fail, the townspeople are happy to have Chillingworth, a newly arrived physician, take up lodgings with their beloved minister. Being in such close contact with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth begins to suspect that the minister's illness is the result of some unconfessed guilt. He applies psychological pressure to the minister because he suspects Dimmesdale to be Pearl's father. One evening, pulling the sleeping Dimmesdale's vestment aside, Chillingworth sees a symbol that represents his shame on the sleeping minister's pale chest.
Tormented by his guilty conscience, Dimmesdale goes to the square where Hester was punished years earlier. Climbing the scaffold, he sees Hester and Pearl and calls to them to join him. He admits his guilt to them but cannot find the courage to do so publicly. Suddenly Dimmesdale sees a meteor forming what appears to be a gigantic A in the sky; simultaneously, Pearl points toward the shadowy figure of Roger Chillingworth. Hester, shocked by Dimmesdale's deterioration, decides to obtain a release from her vow of silence to her husband. In her discussion of this with Chillingworth, she tells him his obsession with revenge must be stopped in order to save his own soul.
Several days later, Hester meets Dimmesdale in the forest, where she removes the scarlet letter from her dress and identifies her husband and his desire for revenge. In this conversation, she convinces Dimmesdale to leave Boston in secret on a ship to Europe where they can start life anew. Renewed by this plan, the minister seems to gain new energy. Pearl, however, refuses to acknowledge either of them until Hester replaces her symbol of shame on her dress.
Returning to town, Dimmesdale loses heart in their plan: He has become a changed man and knows he is dying. Meanwhile, Hester is informed by the captain of the ship on which she arranged passage that Roger Chillingworth will also be a passenger.
On Election Day, Dimmesdale gives what is declared to be one of his most inspired sermons. But as the procession leaves the church, Dimmesdale stumbles and almost falls. Seeing Hester and Pearl in the crowd watching the parade, he climbs upon the scaffold and confesses his sin, dying in Hester's arms. Later, witnesses swear that they saw a stigma in the form of a scarlet "A" upon his chest. Chillingworth, losing his will for revenge, dies shortly thereafter and leaves Pearl a great deal of money. It is hinted that Pearl uses this money to travel to Europe, and possibly gets married.
Several years later, Hester returns to her cottage, resumes wearing the scarlet letter, and offers solace to women in similar positions. When she dies, she is buried near the grave of Dimmesdale, and they share a simple slate tombstone with a scarlet "A".
Major themes[edit]
Sin[edit]
The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge – specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be immoral. For Hester, the Scarlet Letter is a physical manifestation of her sin and reminder of her painful solitude. She contemplates casting it off to obtain her freedom from an oppressive society and a checkered past as well as the absence of God. Because the society excludes her, she considers the possibility that many of the traditions held up by the Puritan culture are untrue and are not designed to bring her happiness.
As for Dimmesdale, the "cheating minister", his sin gives him "sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his chest vibrate[s] in unison with theirs." His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy.[2] The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and most fully authorized principles in Christian thought. His "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity but he ends in corruption. The subtlety is that the minister's belief is his own cheating, convincing himself at every stage of his spiritual pilgrimage that he is saved.[3]
The rose bush, its beauty a striking contrast to all that surrounds it – as later the beautifully embroidered scarlet "A" will be held out in part as an invitation to find "some sweet moral blossom" in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that "the deep heart of nature" (perhaps God) may look more kind on the errant Hester and her child than her Puritan neighbors do. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.[4]
Chillingworth's misshapen body reflects (or symbolizes) the anger in his soul, which builds as the novel progresses, similar to the way Dimmesdale's illness reveals his inner turmoil. The outward man reflects the condition of the heart; an observation thought to be inspired by the deterioration of Edgar Allan Poe, whom Hawthorne "much admired".[4]
Although Pearl is a complex character, her primary function within the novel is as a symbol. Pearl herself is the embodiment of the scarlet letter, and Hester rightly clothes her in a beautiful dress of scarlet, embroidered with gold thread, just like the scarlet letter upon Hester's bosom.[2]
Puritan legalism[edit]
Another theme is the extreme legalism of the Puritans and how Hester chooses not to conform to their rules and beliefs. Hester was rejected by the villagers even though she spent her life doing what she could to help the sick and the poor. Because they rejected her, she spent her life mostly in solitude, and wouldn't go to church.
As a result, she retreats into her own mind and her own thinking. Her thoughts begin to stretch and go beyond what would be considered by the Puritans as safe or even Christian. She still sees her sin, but begins to look on it differently than the villagers ever have. She begins to believe that a person's earthly sins don't necessarily condemn them. She even goes so far as to tell Dimmesdale that their sin has been paid for by their daily penance and that their sin won't keep them from getting to heaven, however, the Puritans believed that such a sin surely condemns.
But Hester had been alienated from the Puritan society, both in her physical life and spiritual life. When Dimmesdale dies, she knows she has to move on because she can no longer conform to the Puritans' strictness. Her thinking is free from religious bounds and she has established her own different moral standards and beliefs.[2]
Publication history[edit]



 Hester Prynne at the stocks - an engraved illustration from an 1878 edition.
It was long thought that Hawthorne originally planned The Scarlet Letter to be a shorter novelette which was part of a collection to be named Old Time Legends and that his publisher, James Thomas Fields, convinced him to expand the work to a full-length novel.[5] This is not true: Fields persuaded Hawthorne to publish The Scarlet Letter alone (along with the earlier-completed "Custom House" essay) but he had nothing to do with the length of the story.[6] Hawthorne's wife Sophia later challenged Fields' claims a little inexactly: "he has made the absurd boast that he was the sole cause of the Scarlet Letter being published!" She noted that her husband's friend Edwin Percy Whipple, a critic, approached Fields to consider its publication.[7] The manuscript was written at the Peter Edgerley House in Salem, Massachusetts, still standing as a private residence at 14 Mall Street. It was the last Salem home where the Hawthorne family lived.[8]
The Scarlet Letter was published as a novel in the spring of 1850 by Ticknor & Fields, beginning Hawthorne's most lucrative period.[9] When he delivered the final pages to Fields in February 1850, Hawthorne said that "some portions of the book are powerfully written" but doubted it would be popular.[10] In fact, the book was an instant best-seller[11] though, over fourteen years, it brought its author only $1,500.[9] Its initial publication brought wide protest from natives of Salem, who did not approve of how Hawthorne had depicted them in his introduction "The Custom-House". A 2,500-copy second edition of The Scarlet Letter included a preface by Hawthorne dated March 30, 1850, that stated he had decided to reprint his introduction "without the change of a word... The only remarkable features of the sketch are its frank and genuine good-humor... As to enmity, or ill-feeling of any kind, personal or political, he utterly disclaims such motives".[12]
The Scarlet Letter was also one of the first mass-produced books in America. Into the mid-nineteenth century, bookbinders of home-grown literature typically hand-made their books and sold them in small quantities. The first mechanized printing of The Scarlet Letter, 2,500 volumes, sold out within ten days,[9] and was widely read and discussed to an extent not much experienced in the young country up until that time. Copies of the first edition are often sought by collectors as rare books, and may fetch up to around $18,000 USD.
Critical response[edit]
On its publication, critic Evert Augustus Duyckinck, a friend of Hawthorne's, said he preferred the author's Washington Irving-like tales. Another friend, critic Edwin Percy Whipple, objected to the novel's "morbid intensity" with dense psychological details, writing that the book "is therefore apt to become, like Hawthorne, too painfully anatomical in his exhibition of them".[13] Most literary critics praised the book but religious leaders took issue with the novel's subject matter.[14] Orestes Brownson complained that Hawthorne did not understand Christianity, confession, and remorse.[15] A review in The Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register concluded the author "perpetrates bad morals."[16]
On the other hand, 20th century writer D. H. Lawrence said that there could be not be a more perfect work of the American imagination than The Scarlet Letter.[17] Henry James once said of the novel, "It is beautiful, admirable, extraordinary; it has in the highest degree that merit which I have spoken of as the mark of Hawthorne's best things—an indefinable purity and lightness of conception...One can often return to it; it supports familiarity and has the inexhaustible charm and mystery of great works of art."[18] [19]
The book's immediate and lasting success are due to the way it addresses spiritual and moral issues from a uniquely American standpoint.[citation needed] In 1850, adultery was an extremely risqué subject, but because Hawthorne had the support of the New England literary establishment, it passed easily into the realm of appropriate reading. It has been said[who?] that this work represents the height of Hawthorne's literary genius, dense with terse descriptions. It remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth, and continues to be read as a classic tale on a universal theme.[20]
Allusions[edit]
The following are historical and Biblical references that appear in The Scarlet Letter.
Anne Hutchinson, mentioned in Chapter 1, The Prison Door, was a religious dissenter (1591–1643). In the 1630s she was excommunicated by the Puritans and exiled from Boston and moved to Rhode Island.[4]
Ann Hibbins, who historically was executed for witchcraft in Boston in 1656, is depicted in The Scarlet Letter as a witch who tries to tempt Prynne to the practice of witchcraft.[21][22]
Richard Bellingham, who historically was the governor of Massachusetts and deputy governor at the time of Hibbins's execution, was depicted in The Scarlet Letter as the brother of Ann Hibbins.
Martin Luther (1483–1545) was a leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.
Sir Thomas Overbury and Dr. Forman were the subjects of an adultery scandal in 1615 in England. Dr. Forman was charged with trying to poison his adulterous wife and her lover. Overbury was a friend of the lover and was perhaps poisoned.
John Winthrop (1588–1649), second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
King's Chapel Burying Ground, mentioned in the final paragraph, exists; the Elizabeth Pain gravestone is traditionally considered an inspiration for the protagonists' grave.
The story of King David and Bathsheba is depicted in the tapestry in Mr. Dimmesdale's room (chapter 9). (See II Samuel 11-12 for the Biblical story.)
In popular culture[edit]
See also: Film adaptations of The Scarlet Letter and The Scarlet Letter in popular culture
The Scarlet Letter has been adapted to numerous films, plays and operas and remains frequently referenced in modern popular culture. The plot of the novel The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster revolves around the manuscript of The Scarlet Letter.
See also[edit]

Portal icon Novels portal
Boston in fiction
Colonial history of the United States
Illegitimacy in fiction
References[edit]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Sinner, Victim, Object, Winner | ANCHORS: JACKI LYDEN". National Public Radio (NPR). March 2, 2008, Sunday. SHOW: Weekend All Things Considered.  (quote in article refers to it as his "masterwork", listen to the audio to hear it the original reference to it being his "magnum opus")
2.^ Jump up to: a b c "The Scarlet Letter". Sparknotes. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
3.Jump up ^ Davidson, E.H. 1963. Dimmesdale's Fall. The New England Quarterly 36: 358–370
4.^ Jump up to: a b c The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - CliffNotes from Yahoo!Education[dead link]
5.Jump up ^ Charvat, William. Literary Publishing in America: 1790–1850. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1993 (first published 1959): 56. ISBN 0-87023-801-9
6.Jump up ^ Parker, Hershel. "The Germ Theory of THE SCARLET LETTER," Hawthorne Society Newsletter 11 (Spring 1985) 11-13.
7.Jump up ^ Wineapple, Brenda. Hawthorne: A Life. Random House: New York, 2003: 209–210. ISBN 0-8129-7291-0.
8.Jump up ^ Wright, John Hardy. Hawthorne's Haunts in New England. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2008: 47. ISBN 978-1-59629-425-7.
9.^ Jump up to: a b c McFarland, Philip. Hawthorne in Concord. New York: Grove Press, 2004: 136. ISBN 0-8021-1776-7
10.Jump up ^ Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 299. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
11.Jump up ^ Cheevers, Susan (2006). American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work. Detroit: Thorndike Press. Large print edition. p. 181. ISBN 0-7862-9521-X
12.Jump up ^ Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 301. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
13.Jump up ^ Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 301–302. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
14.Jump up ^ Schreiner, Samuel A., Jr. The Concord Quartet: Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and the Friendship That Freed the American Mind. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006: 158. ISBN 978-0-471-64663-1
15.Jump up ^ Crowley, J. Donald, and Orestes Brownson. Chapter 50: [Orestes Brownson], From A Review In Brownson's Quarterly Review." Nathaniel Hawthorne (0-415-15930-X) (1997): 175-179. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 11 Oct. 2013.
16.Jump up ^ Wineapple, Brenda. Hawthorne: A Life. Random House: New York, 2003: 217. ISBN 0-8129-7291-0.
17.Jump up ^ Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 284. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
18.Jump up ^ Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 284. ISBN 0-87745-33, 20th century writer D. 2-2
19.Jump up ^ James, Henry (1901). "it+has+in+the+highest+degree+that+merit" Hawthorne. Harper. pp. 108, 116. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
20.Jump up ^ "The Classic Text: Traditions and Interpretations". Uwm.edu. 2001-10-09. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
21.Jump up ^ Schwab, Gabriele. The mirror and the killer-queen: otherness in literary language. Indiana University Press. 1996. Pg. 120.
22.Jump up ^ Hunter, Dianne, Seduction and theory: readings of gender, representation, and rhetoric. University of Illinois Press. 1989. Pgs. 186-187
Bibliography[edit]
Brodhead, Richard H. Hawthorne, Melville, and the Novel. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1973.
Brown, Gillian. "'Hawthorne, Inheritance, and Women's Property", Studies in the Novel 23.1 (Spring 1991): 107-18.
Cañadas, Ivan. "A New Source for the Title and Some Themes in The Scarlet Letter". Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 32.1 (Spring 2006): 43–51.
Korobkin, Laura Haft. "The Scarlet Letter of the Law: Hawthorne and Criminal Justice". Novel: a Forum on Fiction 30.2 (Winter 1997): 193–217.
Gartner, Matthew. "The Scarlet Letter and the Book of Esther: Scriptural Letter and Narrative Life". Studies in American Fiction 23.2 (Fall 1995): 131-51.
Newberry, Frederick. Tradition and Disinheritance in The Scarlet Letter". ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance 23 (1977), 1–26; repr. in: The Scarlet Letter. W. W. Norton, 1988: pp. 231-48.
Reid, Alfred S. Sir Thomas Overbury's Vision (1616) and Other English Sources of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter. Gainesville, FL: Scholar's Facsimiles and Reprints, 1957.
Reid, Bethany. "Narrative of the Captivity and Redemption of Roger Prynne: Rereading The Scarlet Letter". Studies in the Novel 33.3 (Fall 2001): 247-67.
Ryskamp, Charles. "The New England Sources of The Scarlet Letter". American Literature 31 (1959): 257–72; repr. in: "The Scarlet Letter", 3rd edn. Norton, 1988: 191–204.
Savoy, Eric. "'Filial Duty': Reading the Patriarchal Body in 'The Custom House'". Studies in the Novel 25.4 (Winter 1993): 397–427.
Sohn, Jeonghee. Rereading Hawthorne's Romance: The Problematics of Happy Endings. American Studies Monograph Series, 26. Seoul: American Studies Institute, Seoul National University, 2001; 2002.
Stewart, Randall (Ed.) The American Notebooks of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Based upon the original Manuscripts in the Piermont Morgan Library. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1932.
Waggoner, Hyatt H. Hawthorne: A Critical Study, 3rd edn. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.
External links[edit]
 Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The Scarlet Letter

 Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Scarlet Letter.
Hawthorne in Salem Website Page on Hester and Pearl in The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter at Project Gutenberg
D. H. Lawrence - Studies in Classic American Literature - Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter
LibriVox Recording of The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter Review


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The Scarlet Letterin popular culture
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The following is a list of references to The Scarlet Letterin popular culture.


Contents [hide]
1Film
2Literature
3Music
4Opera
5Plays
6Television
7Other
8References

Film[edit]
1908 film version directed by Sidney Olcottstarring Gene Gauntier, Jack Conway, and Ruth Roland
1911 film versionco-directed by George Loane Tucker, adapted by Herbert Brenon, and starring Lucille Young, King Baggot, Robert Z. Leonard, J. Farrell MacDonald, and Anita Hendrie
1913 film versionstarring Linda Arvidsonand Murdock MacQuarrie
1917 film version directed by Carl Harbaugh, and starring Stuart Holmeswith Kittens Reichert, presented by William Fox
1917 film version starring Werner Krauss
1922 film versionadapted by Frank Miller, and starring Sybil Thorndike
1926 film versiondirected by Victor Sjostrom, adapted by Frances Marion, and starring Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Henry B. Walthall, Karl Dane, Joyce Coad, James A. Marcus, Margaret Mann, Polly Moran, Dorothy Vernon, Chief Yowlachie, and Iron Eyes Cody
1934 film versiondirected by Robert G. Vignolaand starring Colleen Moore, Henry B. Walthall, Betty Blythe, William Farnum, Alan Hale, Sr., Hardie Albright, and Shirley Jean Rickert
1973 film versionby Wim Wenders
The Douglas Day Stewartscript of the 1995 film versiontakes liberties with the original story
The Scarlet Letter(2004) takes its title from the novel
In Dan in Real Life(2004), the novel is being read by Dan's daughter, Jane
Easy A(2010) is loosely based on the story
Literature[edit]
Roger's Version(1986) by John Updike, set in a city resembling Bostonin 1984, is loosely based on the characters and situations of The Scarlett Letter.
In Speakby Laurie Halse Anderson(1999), main character Melinda Sordinois reading the novel in her English class and compares herself to Hester Prynne
2005: The Brooklyn Folliesby Paul Auster(2005) involves a plot to forge an original manuscript of the novel
When She Wokeby Hillary Jordan(2011) is a dystopian retelling where instead of the red letter A, the main character is dyed red for the crime of killing her unborn child, the product of an affair. Puritan culture is replaced by modern Christian fundamentalism.
In the Pretty Little Liarsnovels by Sara Shepard, Aria reads the novel in her English class and compares it to her father's affair.
In The Silver Linings Playbook (novel)by Matthew Quick, Pat reads the book, taking a special liking to it since Hester Prynne "Believed in Silver Linings"
Music[edit]
1957: In "The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl for Me" from The Music Man, Harold Hill sings "I hope and I pray for Hester to win just one more 'A'"
1987: A Scarlet Letteralbum by Curtiss Atakes it title from the novel
1996: Metallicasong "The Thorn Within"
2001: Toolsong "The Grudge"
2001: Jag Panzersong "The Scarlet Letter"
2003: The Distillerssong "Die on a Rope"
2004: Halifax (band)song "Scarlet Letter Part 2"
2005: Casting Crownssong "Does Anybody Hear Her?"
2006: The Clipsesong "Pussy" (from Hell Hath No Fury)
2006: As Blood Runs Blacksong "Hester Prynne"
2008: Mudvaynesong "Scarlet Letters" (from The New Game)
2007: Feist's song "Past In Present"
2007: Mad Caddiessong "Don't Go"
2007: Deathcoreband "Hester Prynne" takes its name from the novel
2008: Taylor Swiftsong "Love Story"
2010: Abdominalsong "The Scarlet Letter SparkTune"
2013: New Years Daysong "I'm No Good"
Opera[edit]
1896: The Scarlet Letterby Walter Damroschand George Parsons Lathrop[1]
1934: Hester Prynneby Avery Claflin[1]
1938: The Scarlet Letterby Vittorio Giannini, starring Dusolina Gianninipremiered at the Vienna State Opera
1959: The Scarlet Letterby Robin Milford
2001: The Scarlet Letterco-written by Simon Graypremiered at the Fringe Festival
2008: The Scarlet Letterby Lori Laitmanand David Mason[2]
Plays[edit]
1995: The Scarlet Letterby Phyllis Nagyadapts elements and themes from the novel
1999: In The Bloodby Suzan-Lori Parksadapts elements and themes from the novel
2000: Fucking Aby Suzan-Lori Parksalso is inspired by the novel
2010: The Scarlet Letterby Naomi Iizukapremiered at the Intiman Playhouse
2011: The Scarlet Letterby Carol Gilliganand her son Jonathan, produced at Prime Stage Theatre
Television[edit]
1979: The Scarlet LetterPBSminiseries
1989: Referenced in Perfect Stangersepisode "Wedding Belle Blues" (Season 4, Episode 22)
1990: Referenced in Twin PeaksThe character of Audrey Horneuses the name Hester Prynne when pretending to be a prostitute while being interviewed by the owner of a brothel. The owner however responds "I read The Scarlet Letter in high school too,honey"
1993: Referenced in Roseanneepisode "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home" (Season 5, Episode 16)
1997: In The Simpsonsepisode "Treehouse of Horror VIII", Ms. Krabappel is shown with a red "A" on her chest
2000: Popularepisode "Caged" adapts elements from the novel (Season 1, Episode 14)
2004: Quoted in One Tree Hillepisode "Don't Take Me For Granted"
2006: Referenced in Gilmore Girlsepisode "You've Been Gilmored" (Season 6, Episode 14)
2010: Episode 2 of season 2 of The Mentalist, the title of the episode is Scarlet Letter, it talks about an adultery
Other[edit]
Out Campaign, Richard Dawkins's public awareness initiative for freethought and atheism, also uses a scarlet "A" logo.
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: ab"Opera versions of Hawthorne's works, scores, librettos, and vocal recordings" ibiblio.org5 August 2011
2.Jump up ^"Lori Laitman's Opera The Scarlet Letter World Premiere November 2008" chicagoclassicalmusic.org5 August 2010


[hide]
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e

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter


Characters
Hester Prynne·
Roger Chillingworth·
Arthur Dimmesdale


Film
The Scarlet Letter(1911)·
The Scarlet Letter(1913)·
The Scarlet Letter(1922)·
The Scarlet Letter(1926)·
The Scarlet Letter(1934)·
The Scarlet Letter(1973)·
The Scarlet Letter(1995)


Other media
The Scarlet Letter(1896 opera)·
The Scarlet Letter(1979 TV miniseries)


Adaptations
The Holder of the World(1993 book)·
In the Blood(1999 play)·
Fucking A(2000 play)·
Easy A(2010 film)


Related
The Brooklyn Follies·
in popular culture·
Pink permits·
The Minister's Wooing·
Roger's Version





Categories: The Scarlet Letter
Novels in popular culture


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