Fanshawe In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter

In the span of three years, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote seven novels. None of these works, resulted in a large financial reward for the prolific author. This profusion of novels, however, was followed by seven years of utter silence on Hawthorne’s part (Bates). The Scarlet Letter (1850), his most popular novel to date, was written in this three year haste and is considered to be his masterwork. Hawthorne himself said, “some portions of the book are powerfully written,” (Wineapple) yet he did not seem to believe that the book would be very popular. However, this was following the utter failure of his first novel, Fanshawe, which Hawthorne refused to acknowledge the existence of after he attempted to destroy all of the copies made. It goes without

The narrator eventually loses his job and decides to write a fictitious account of the facts he discovered in the documents. When the novel actually begins he sets the story in a puritan settlement in 17th century Boston and readers are first introduced to the main character, Hester Prynne. She is seen exiting the prison with her infant daughter, Pearl and donning a scarlet ‘A’ on her breast. It is then discovered that Hester’s husband did not follow her to Boston and that she has committed the crime of adultery, the child being proof enough. Hester refuses to identify the baby’s father. The novel focuses around Hester and Pearl as well as Reverend Dimmesdale who is later discovered to be Pearl’s father and Hester’s lover. It emphasizes the punishment that both Hester and Dimmesdale have to face for their crimes and the different ways they handle it. Hester’s punishment is widely public and she wears it on her clothes every day and is practically exiled from society because of her misdoings, whereas Dimmesdale’s punishment is internalized. He becomes very ill because of his guilt, which is only made worse by the appearance of Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband. The novel deals greatly with the ideas of sin, symbols, and society. In the end of the novel, Chillingworth publicly confesses his sin to save his soul and falls dead at the feet of Hester. She and Pearl leave Boston for a long time before Hester returns to live in her old home and receives letters from Pearl talking about her new happy family. She dies a short time later and is buried with Dimmesdale under a tombstone that has a scarlet ‘A’ on