American Literature / Unit 8 AML 0717 short lesson, about 20 seconds
*The Scarlet Letter*: Story and Structure
Captions available
The idea
In Puritan Boston, Hester Prynne bears a child while her husband is absent, refuses to name the father, and is sentenced to wear a scarlet A. The novel opens with a long introduction about a custom house and then turns on three scaffold scenes that divide it.
In practice
A letter, a scaffold, and a silence kept.
Where people slip
The custom-house preface frames the whole romance.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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