Today we reviewed for the Final Assessment on The Scarlet Letter tomorrow by gathering in groups to explore different theme statements about the novel. Here are a few of them:
The central theme of The Scarlet Letter is
1. The orthodox Puritan view that sin is permanently damaging and its inevitable destructiveness is inescapable.
2. the concept of the Fortunate Fall, which acknowledges the reality of sin but considers it the source of wisdom and spiritual enlightenment.
3. the Romantic idea that society is guilty; that Hester and Dimmesdale did not sin but responded to a natural urge and society has sinned against nature in persecuting them.
4. that the sin of adultery is unimportant; what is really important is the sin of concealment, the sign that the lovers have not been true to who they are. Theirs is a sin of the soul, a failure of self-trust. This approach would, like the Romantic interpretation, reject the social mores of the Puritan world and accept natural passion, but would still see the lovers as sinful.
5. the pyschological interpretation that sin is of no significance in itself; what is more important is the effects of sin on the human pysche; sin is only a reality in terms of what the character thinks is sinful and there is no absolute moral law but only the morality of individual responses to particular circumstances.
6. the feminist view that the evil is the product of a patriarachal church and social system in which women are victimized by their economic dependence and subservient roles. Hester is a strong character whose individuality develops through her sexual independence, but she is defeated by a patriarchal system because she submits to Dimmesdale's commitment to the laws of patriarchy....Hester remains bound to Dimmesdale's world because of her love for him, but she recognizes the injustice of the female's role in it.
7. that isolation causes each character to change or become an exaggerated version of himself or herself.
8. that intolerance and lack of forgiveness create more problems than they intend to solve.
Students used handouts to find key quotations from the novel to support their assigned statement. (2nd period). They wrote them on butcher paper and posted them on the wall.
Students in 6th period will extend their examination of that theme by a) finding more quotations/symbols/irony that support the theme and b) adding illustrations of symbols or key scenes to the theme statements.
In the final review of the theme statement presentations, I would like students to do a "museum walk" around the class, adding a) questions and commentary b) a star next to presentations they think are persuasive and c) a star in a circle for the one they would write about if they could.
