Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic ‘The Scarlet Letter’ is set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony between the years 1642 to 1649. The novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. This text contains a number of religious and historic allusions, significantly exploring the themes of legalism, sin, and guilt. I have taught this text many times in the last twenty years and have used this specific resource (revised in 2021) to: lead my teaching in class, as a distance learning resource in SKYPE lessons, as a homework assignment and even as a tool of revision – all have worked well for the students.
This dynamically presented PowerPoint lesson (26 slides, approximately 2 hours teaching time) provides a step-by-step guide to writing an academic essay in response to the question:
‘Can we consider Hawthorne’s ‘The Scarlet Letter’ to be a feminist novel?
(i) Had Hester not been a woman, would she have received the same punishment?
(ii) When Hester undertakes to protect other women from gender-based persecution, can we interpret her actions as pointing to a larger political statement in the text as a whole?’
This is a complete resource with no further work required from the teacher. Enjoy!
