Nathaniel Hawthorne

A stark and allegorical tale of adultery, guilt, and social repression in Puritan New England, The Scarlet Letter is a foundational work of American literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne's exploration of the dichotomy between public and private self, internal passion and external convention, gives us the unforgettable Hester Prynne, who discovers strength in the face of ostracism and emerges as a heroine ahead of her time.

The tale of a cursed house with a "mysterious and terrible past" and the generations linked to it, Hawthorne's chronicle of the Maule and Pyncheon families over two centuries reveals, in Mary Oliver's world, "lives caught in the common fire of history."

The author has been long of opinion that many of the classical myths were capable of being rendered into very capital reading for children. In the little volume here offered to the public, he has worked up half a dozen with this end in view. A great freedom of treatment was necessary to his plan; but it will be observed by every one who attempts to render these legends malleable in his intellectual furnace that they are marvellously independent of all temporary modes and circumstances. They remain essentially the same, after changes that would affect the identity of almost anything else. He does not, therefore, plead guilty to a sacrilege, in having sometimes shaped anew, the forms that have been hallowed by an antiquity of two or three thousand years. No epoch of time can claim a copyright in these immortal fables. They seem never to have been made; and certainly, so long as man exists, they can never perish; but, by their indestructibillity itself, they are legitimate subjects for every age to clothe with its own garniture of manners and sentiment, and to imbue with its own morality. In the present version they have lost much of their classical aspect (or, at all events, the author has not been careful to preserve it), and have, perhaps, assumed a Gothic or romantic guise.--From the Preface

This Novel Unit Student Packet is designed to be used with the not-included The Scarlet Letter Novel Units Teacher's Guide; the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne must be obtained separately.

A few pre-reading activities are included to gauge a student's familiarity with the context of the novel. Once the student has began reading the novel, vocabulary activities, graphic organizers, review and comprehension questions, quizzes, a final test, puzzles, project and essay ideas, and a line-listed answer key are included. Exercises help students focus on literary and character analysis, as well as critical thinking and comprehension skills. Student questions reference the edition quoted in the front cover. [Signet Classic paperback edition published by Penguin Books]. 32 reproducible for classroom use pages, softcover. Answers included. Grades 9-12.

This Novel Units teacher's guide is designed to accompany the (not-included) novel The Scarlet Letter, as well as the sold-separately The Scarlet Letter Novel Units Student Packet.

Including a number of teacher's helps, exercises, discussion questions, assessment tools, graphic organizers, writing and art ideas, critical thinking challenges, extension activities, glossary and more, this book is a convenient guide to facilitating discussion. Background information includes a summary, information about the author, and ideas for initiating activity; the discussion questions follow the chapters in the book. Page numbers are included, which reference the edition quoted in the front cover. [Signet Classic paperback edition published by Penguin Books]. Please note that the student packet includes the answers to the student book, not this teacher's edition. 32 pages, paperback. Grades 9-12.