The Custom Houst
This is what the narrator discovers in the Custom House that connects him to the story of Hester Prynne.
What is the scarlet letter?
What is the rosebush?
Hester carries this in her arms when she emerges from prison.
What is her baby (Pearl)?
The founders of Boston built these two structures first, showing their priorities regarding human nature.
What are a cemetery and a prison?
Hawthorne begins the novel with setting rather than character to show this about Puritian society.
What is that institutions define human experience?
According to the narrator, his Custom House colleagues suffer from this condition, which represents spiritual decay.
What is lack of growth/conformity?
The prison door represents this concept, while the rosebush symbolizes its opposite.
Hester's scarlet letter is decorated with this expensive material, showing her defiant creativity.
What is gold thread?
In Puritan society, these two institutions were almost identical, according to the narrator.
What are religion influences and legal systems?
What theme is shown when the narrator discovers the scarlet letter, connecting the past to the present?
The connection between past guilt and present moral awareness. Or the link between past and present guilt.
The narrator contrasts himself with his coworkers by possessing these two qualities that they lack.
What are imagination and individuality?
Hawthorne calls the prison this type of "flower" that represents civilization's darker impulses.
What is "the black flower of civilized society"?
Instead of showing expected shame, Hester displays this combination of emotions when facing the crowd.
What are resilence and defiance?
The women in the crowd who criticize Hester reveal this characteristic about Puritan society.
What is that even the oppressed enforce moral control on others?
What is resisting conformity and exploring the cost of individuality?
What is the purpose of blending autobiography and fiction in “The Custom House”?
To blur truth and fiction, forcing readers to question moral and historical authority.
The weather-stains and rust on the prison door symbolize this enduring aspect of human experience.
Hester's elaborate embroidery on her punishment letter demonstrates this aspect of her character.
What is her individuality and defiance?
The Puritans treated minor and major offenses with this similar approach to punishment.
What is public shaming?
What is framing the story thematically by connecting guilt, identity, and history?
Hawthorne describes his co-workers in the Custom House in this way.
What are lazy and spiritually lifeless men showing moral decay?
The scaffold scene serves this symbolic purpose regarding society's relationship with morality.
What is revealing society's obsession with spectacle and moral display?
The public nature of Hester's punishment forces her to develop this quality outside of societal norms.
What is strength and self-definition?
This overall critique of Puritanism that emerges through Hester's treatment reveals this hidden truth about their society.
What is the hypocrisy and cruelty beneath religious devotion?
Chapters 1-2 establish this moral framework that reveals how societies operate, such as Puritan society.
What is showing how societies disguise cruelty as morality?